1990 Nissan R90CK

Offered by Artcurial | Le Mans, France | June 30, 2023

Photo – Artcurial

Nissan’s Group C program gave us some pretty spectacular prototype race cars. Especially those in their red, white, and blue livery. The R90C was their car for the 1990 World Sportscar Championship season, and there were a few subvariants.

This is an R90CK, which featured a low nose and two massive inlets up near the base of the cockpit. It’s powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V8 that could produce up to 1,000 horsepower in qualifying trim. This chassis is the last of 13 R90C cars built and is one of six of the R90CK variety. The race history for this chassis, #07, includes various races in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship in addition to the:

1992 24 Hours of Daytona – 8th (with Volkert Weidler, Mauro Martini, and Jeff Krosnoff)

1993 1,0000km Suzuka – 2nd (with Martini and Heinz-Harald Frentzen)

For that last one, the car had been upgraded to R93 specification, but afterward Group C was pretty much done. The car was put away for about a decade before being purchased by someone looking to race it in historic events. It now has an estimate of $550,000-$875,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $587,060.

1990 Nissan R90CK

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Le Mans, France | June 9, 2023

This is a pretty big deal car. Nissan’s Group C program got off the ground in 1983. In 1990, they launched a new series of cars starting with the R90C, which was based off of the previous R89C. The R90CK variant featured aerodynamic tweaks and revised styling. It was used during the 1990 World Sportscar Championship season and at the 24 Hours of Daytona in ’91 and ’92.

Six R90CK chassis were built, and this one carries number R90C/1. It’s powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter all-aluminum DOHC V8. In qualifying trim, output could hit 1,000 horsepower. Race trim usually dialed it back to under 800. But still. This car took pole at Le Mans in 1990, and its competition history includes:

1990 24 Hours of Le Mans – 41st, DNF (with Mark Blundell, Julian Bailey, and Gianfranco Brancatelli)

It was retained by Nissan until 2000, spending some time on display at the Le Mans museum before private ownership came calling. The car is usable and has been present at various historic events over the last decade or so. Le Mans pole-winning cars don’t come around everday, nor do Group C legends. Click here to read more about this one.

Update: Sold $1,175,058.