Family Photos: Nissan NPT-90

When I was just a little kid, my Dad took me to the Cleveland National Air Show to share with me his love of old warbirds. I don’t recall much, but whatever it was must have stuck because to this day, I still love going to air shows with my Dad. Two things I do remember were getting camo face paint, and seeing the Nissan NPT-90 race car.

The Nissan NPT-90, introduced in 1990, was the replacement for the highly successful GTP ZX-Turbo that had won the IMSA GT Championship the year before - indeed, it still wears “GTP ZX-TURBO” proudly across its windscreen. Powered by a heavily modified version of the same VG30 seen in the 300ZX road cars, the NPT-90 was a formidable machine - by the time this picture was taken, it had already captured wins at Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen, Road America, and even Sebring during its short career. Sadly, with IMSA’s cancellation of the GTP series for the 1994 season, that racing career would remain very short indeed. None of this mattered to me as a kid, though - I just knew that it was one of the coolest cars I had ever seen.