Car Historian

Market Watch Part 5: Nissan P35

This is a Group C car that probably many people don't know or forgot about because it never raced. The P35 was supposed to be the last iteration of the Group C race car from Nissan, built as per the 1989 regulations stating Group C1 cars could only use a naturally-aspirated 3.5L engine. It's a 1992 model, by the way. By that time this engine rule was enforced and any other configurations were not permitted. It never raced because of both the fall of Group C racing and financial troubles hitting the parent company Nissan so having an expensive racing programme was the last of their priorities. That's when NPTI was closed as well.

Bonhams|Cars offers the opportunity to buy it next week at their Revival sale after it has been restored by .stott.motorsport. i had the pleasure to see the car last month during a site visit and was told about how the car was discovered and the restoration process, details which are missing from the auction listing. Chassis 02 (this one) was founf at Heathrow Airport in 2011 missing the bodywork ends and the V12 engine while the rest of the car was in good shape. Phil Stott has the story covered on their website.

The most important aspect for this car's sale is its eligibility in historic racing. Currently it fits a Menard Technologies 4.2L V12 designed for the Panoz Superleague Formula race cars and despite Masters Historic Racing and Peter Auto allowing the P35 to their respective Group C events (as a model), its class (Yannick Dalmas in MHR, Class C3a in PA) stipulates that the cars must be Group C, IMSA or Japanese prototypes built between 1991 and 1993. Peter Auto says that any car that cannot demonstrate its eligibility to its class (C3a in our case) may either be put in the Special Invitation (C3b) class or denied entry. MHR is of the same opinion, so the car would be eligible for an invitational entry at most until a period-correct engine is found or reverse-engineered.

I can't comment on the estimate as there have not been public sales of similar GTPs in recent years, the very few NPT-90s and GTP-ZX Turbos that were sold have gone through private dealers (continues in comments)

A SWEET SURPRISE

The EXP Speed 8 was a race car that I wouldn't have expected to see, and what a better timing than shortly after debunking the myth that it's "jUsT a BriTiSh R8" when the only common thing with that is the engine and the team who worked on them. RTN stated that the Bentley is an opportunity to do things right at the second attempt.

Anyways, this is either chassis 002/2 or 002/4, both raced by Martin Brundle, Stéphane Ortelli and Guy Smith at Le Mans in 2001. The former was the test car while the latter DNFd. I will update the description if I find put which one is it.

EDIT: it's chassis 002/4.

2007 Bugatti Project Lydia

This was the nickname given to a single-seater Veyron focused around track usability. You can see that it is similar to the LMPs of the late 2000s, but still reminding of the Veyron in the same way the 911 GT1 reminds of the 911 (this means by not too much).

The cars would have had 1200HP and cost €2.5 million, but it never came to fruition because the staff thought it would be redundant. It was nothing more than some sketches.

FACT: Ettore Bugatti's wife was called Lydia, hence the nickname.

📷: Unknown, there may be of the designer who took this task but I don't know who was it

THE RETURN TO GLORY

BMW retired from the DTM after the 1994 season when the E36-based race cars were not very competitive against the mighty Mercedes C-Class V6 and the Alfa Romeo 155 V6 Ti. Year later, in 2006, Opel would retire as well (the Italians never returned after 1996) leaving only Mercedes and Audi to battle it out, thus making the championship no very purposeful, and things would stay that way until the 2010 season finale at Hockenheim when BMW announced their returned for the 2012 season, once that would bring with it new rules as well.

The E92 M3 DTM debuted in 2012 and in its first season won both Drivers' (Bruno Spengler) and Constructors' championships with Mercedes' Gary Paffett narrowly losing it. Another Constructors' title would be awarded to the Bavarian manufacturer the following year before the new M4 DTM would take over.

Bruno's title-winning car came to FOS this summer. Looking at some of the period pictures now that C-Class looked kind of antiquated next to the M3.

THE TURQUOISE ROCKET

Toyota has had many different Group C race cars throughout the years from 1985 until 1994 and the 86C shown here was among the first ones at Le Mans. DOME and TOM'S both built 86Cs for Toyota using their own chassis so you can consider them different models. What I am not entirely sure of is how many TOM'S 86Cs existed but they may be three as in the Fuji 500 Miles and Fuji 1000km (the latter a WSPC round but not the former) 3 cars were entered all with different drivers although one or two being upgraded 85Cs.

What I can say more for sure is that this exact car raced at Le Mans in 1986 but engine issues made it retire. Other appearances of a number 36 86C driven by a combination of Geoff Lees, Satoru Nakajima and Masanori Sekiya were at:

- 500km Suzuka (4th)
- 1000km Fuji (DNF)
- Fuji 500 miles (DNF)
- 1000km Suzuka (DNF)
- Fuji 1000km (another one, either 9th or T-car)
- Fuji 500km (DNF)

There is no confirmation this chassis had these results though and I don't have the fat books with me to check other sources unfortunately.

Lancia Stratos Turbo Group 5⁣
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As if dominating the rally scene wasn't enough for the Stratos.⁣
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We all know that the Lancia Stratos came out of nowhere shocking the Italian audience with its wedge shape in 1973, purposely designed for rallying, then took 18 WRC victories and did a hat-trick on WRC championships, and Fiat, its parent company of all things, stepped in to stop its winning streak.⁣
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During those winning years, Lancia had plans for a Group 5 prototype. The regulations there were very basic and not too restrictive, where only the body width and some panels had to remain intact and the car had to be homologated first for classes 1-4, the rest being let do everyone's tastes. ⁣
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The Dino V6 engine wouldn't do too much against other Group 5 competitors like the Porsche 935 and BMW 3.5 CSL, so they did the most logical thing. They slapped a K*K turbo onto that thing.⁣
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The turbo technology was pretty basic back then, but after winning at the 1974 Giro d'Italia and finishing the following year's race (the other NA Stratos didn't), the decision of powering up the car even more to prepare it for Group 5 was made. It was game on!⁣
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After a lot of tuning, parts swapping, weight redistribution and others, the Group 5 Stratos shared no similarities with the rally car. It was powered up to 560HP, but the wheelbase was never extended, so straight line stability was an issue.⁣
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Round 1: Mugello. The car overheats during quali and it turned into an outright fire.⁣
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A couple of rounds later, at Zeltweg, the car overheats again, but this time it burned to a crisp.⁣
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Basically its Group 5 running was terrible, but it dominated the road rally stage. It was replaced by the Beta Montecarlo in 1977 in Group 5, and the last remaining Turbo HF is owned by Christian Hrabalec, the designer of the Fenomenon Stratos.⁣
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📷: Unknown

2011 Peugeot 908 HYbrid4⁣
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Wasn't the 908 running on coal?⁣
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Well, yes it was, and it won at Le Mans in 2009, at Sebring in 2010 and 2011 and Road Atlanta (Petit Le Mans) in 2009 and 2010.⁣
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But before that there were plans of replacing the 908 HDi FAP (2007) with a hybrid-diesel (what a combination, right?) version called the 908 HY. That one was announced at the 2008 Silverstone round of Le Mans Series and was hoped to compete in the following year.⁣
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Peugeot had some weird years in motorsport. They won at Le Mans in 1993, then they pulled the plug to focus on sourcing engines for F1 teams. That didn't work. They grabbed 3 Constructors' titles in WRC before Sebastien Loeb and Citroen would wipe the floor with everyone else and they finally went back to racing in 2007 with the diesel-powered 908 HDi FAP. That car was a very good competitor for the Audi R10 TDI, but didn't beat it.⁣
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It finally beat Audi in 2009, but for that they had to move the interest away from the HY, so we still had to wait to see it racing.⁣
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At the end it was unveiled at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, and it used the normal 908 chassis updated to the 2011 ACO regulations.⁣
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Audi also came with the R18 e-Tron Quattro and Toyota of all things returned to Le Mans with the TS030 Hybrid, after pulling out in 1999. Porsche wasn't there by that time.⁣
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The car now used a 3.7L twin-turbo V8 instead on the 5.5L twin-turbo V12, leading to a power loss of 150 HP, but better handling. It used a KERS system to receive a temporary 80 HP boost from the energy stored in the batteries during braking or deccelerating. This system was the one used in F1 before the DRS.⁣
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The car received good feedback and was ready to compete in the 2012 season, but it never happened as Peugeot suffered massive losses in the car market, so they had to pull out from motorsport as the brand was on the verge of bankruptcy. ⁣
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Bad news aside, can we appreciate for a second how absolutely gorgeous is the 2008 spec tested at Silverstone? (admin has a kink for Peugeots)⁣
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📷: Peugeot

MANSELL'S LAST RACE CAR

Le Mans 2010. The British F1 champion planned to race at the French enduro in 1982 in order to raise more money but Colin Chapman (he was a Lotus driver back then) paid him £10000 to not do so in order to avoid unnecessary risk. 28 years would pass until he got the second chance to compete, and this timw there were no impediments to it.

His sons Leo and Greg joined him but he suffered a puncture half an hour into the race and was sent into the barriers, ending his debut.

But fear not as the Zytek 09S he raced back then is winning in 2026! Keith Frieser took the chequered flag first in both races of MEL's Endurance Icons during BRDC Classic at Silverstone, going agains the likes of the Bwntley Speed 8, Audi R8 and the Cadillac Northstar LMP plus other lesser sports prototypes.

I saw this car last year and didn't know its backstory until later, now I luckily knew what I was looking at so I knew to try and shoot it more.