Happy birthday to '80s and '90s charger Julian Bailey. The thirsty, big-budget Nissan R89C he campaigned in the World Sportscar Championship and Le Mans in 1989 had potential, but was felled by its flaws. Doug Nye dissects Japan's powerful Group C contender to find out why it was no match for the Sauber-Mercedes and Porsches
At the end of a year in which Honda of Japan have shone so brightly in Formula 1, let's spool back some 30 years to the Group C World Sportscar Championship contender fielded then by rival major Japanese manufacturer, Nissan.
The name Nissan is derived from Nihon Sangyo, meaning somewhat disappointingly just 'Japan industry'. Before World War 2 the Nissan Group absorbed DAT, making motor cars under the Datsun brand. The wider Group's wartime activities in support of the Japanese military left it with a tainted image, and so its cars were marketed under the Datsun brand name until a rather more forward-thinking management decreed resurrection of the Nissan title across global export markets from 1981...
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