Continuing on the Nissan Skyline's 60th anniversary celebration, let's take a look at one of the rarest Godzillas of all time and this Godzilla is a corker when it participated Le Mans in 1995 with satisfactory results. Meet the legendary R33 NISMO GT-R LM.
Specifically, the Road Going Version of the said car, the one you can get from Forza Horizon 3's Duracell Car Pack. Anyway, I got a chance to try out with the rarest road-legal Godzilla of all time and while this one is basically a living legend in the eyes of racing game fanatics, this rare beast is impossible to ignore due to its legendary status in the world of motorsports.
So, how did they do it? Nissan became a major player in the competitive world of endurance racing with their R87E, R88C, and R89CK, which set a pole position at the 1990 Le Mans 24 Hours. However, regulation changes prompted Nissan, pretty much like every carmaker in the world, to end its Group C racing campaigns and instead, making production-based GT cars starting with the R32 Skyline GT-R, which dominated Group A racing for 29 races, hence earned the nickname Godzilla. With the success of the Group A R32, they've developed their worthy successor to this vehicle, the R33 NISMO GT-R LM. First of all, it was stripped out to almost nothing as well as converting it from four-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive, resulting to 1150kg of weight. Apart from that, the RB26DETT engine was tuned to Group N regulations, producing over 400HP of power output.
Before taking the R33 LM to Le Mans, they have to homologated it for road use and for this "Road Going Version", however, the said engine dropped a hundred horses of power output while putting road-legal stuff to make this race-worthy Godzilla suitable for road use. Anyway, back to Le Mans, only two race cars have participated in 1995. Whereas the #23 car, the pink one, retired with gearbox failure after 157 laps, the #22 finished in 10th place overall, fifth in class. Although average, it shows what Nissan is capable of in the world of endurance racing.
Being inside the R33 GT-R NISMO LM is a great honor to get behind the wheel of this mythical demon from the Skyline timeline, if you are looking for another great way to celebrate 60 years of Nissan Skyline, but by getting to know about the rarest Godzilla of all, first impression wasn't always grateful because while this is basically an R33 Skyline GT-R underneath, it doesn't feel like the GT-R at all because it's a rear-wheel drive car but despite being rear-wheel drive racer, it still has that Skyline magic to it and then there's the noise, which is very ear-deafening during fourth gear max speed runs. So deafening, it feels like your head's going to blow off any minute, and that's downright scary.
The NISMO R33 GT-R LM can be downright mind-blowing for a road-legal version but because this is the rarest GT-R of all, it's downright legendary and I think I have a brilliant idea to do with it,,,
It took me a lot of time to find the perfect replica of the #22 design as seen from the 1995 Le Mans endurance race where it place 10th overall and 5th in class and here it is. Gotta give credit to the one who made this exact replica but anyway, I did some improvements to make sure it is as race-ready as the real thing and believe me, this GT-R's not afraid to be pushed too hard.
To test this, I sent this one to a little invitation from the best of 90's Japanese sportscars and looks like this one's up to a challenge against one of the most iconic street racers from Japan since the late 20th century. Ready?
Man, that was a good game and driving the R33 NISMO GT-R LM is a real blast for me and did you see the part where the inevitable photo finish occurred at the end of the second round? It's impossible but it happened anyway.
So, with that taken care of, the celebration of 60 years of Nissan Skyline continues...
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