a legend returns - Nissan Lebanon

The Zama manufacturing plant in Japan, which once built compact cars like the
Sunny and was closed in the early 1990s, now has a new life.
It is home to a Nissan ‘Super Dealer’ where potential customers can drive all the
Nissan models – and is home to an unique collection of Datsun and Nissan cars.
These date from the Datsun Phaetons of the 1930s and include cars like the Skyline
Sports Coupe of 1962.
Nissan’s racing heritage is well represented with rally cars like the African Safari Rally
cars, Le Mans racing cars and Japan GT racers.
In 1982, with the 30th Safari Rally, a Violet achieved a historical first by winning four
championships in a row and a first for driver Shekhar Mehta and co-driver Mike Doughty.
It also includes one of the rarest of all Nissan models, the road going version of the
1998 R390 GT1 Le Mans car. Of the machines entered in the GT class of the Le Mans
24-hour race, at least one must be based on a vehicle that can be driven on public roads
so this car was created in order to obtain homologation for the R390 GT1 as a ‘GT’ car.
It was never marketed but was rumoured to be worth 100 million yen (€710,000) if it had
been put up for sale.
4 Centre stage: The unique road-going version of the R390 GT1 Le Mans car with a line-up of
1930s cars on the left and other race cars on the right
Courtesy: N-COM
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A Unique