GT7 HAGERTY COLLECTION 1992 Nissan R92CP
3How a Broken Turbo Gave this Nissan 1000+ Horsepower and Nearly Set a Speed Record
The driver, Mark Blundell, tells the story of the R90CK's fortuitous malfunction at Le Mans in 1990.
Engine problems are the root of nightmares in most racing tales, but if you have the right kind of motor malfunction, unbelievable things can happen.
One of my favorite bad-good stories from the sport involves Mark Blundell, his Nissan R90CK, and a scary-but-legendary run for pole position at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1990.
The factory-backed Nissan prototypes were already wicked-fast, and thanks to the hearty 3.5-liter twin-turbo V8 produced by the Japanese manufacturer, horsepower figures in the 700-800 range made the Nissans, along with official entries from Porsche, Jaguar, Toyota and Mazda, some of the fastest race cars on the planet.
The great gift bestowed upon Blundell, who went on to make his Formula 1 debut with the Brabham team in 1991, came during a seismic blast around the treacherous 8.5-mile Le Mans circuit. Cracking the 200 mph barrier with ease on the famed Mulsanne Straight and its glorious, unbroken 3.7-mile stretch of public road was no longer a guarantee after the race organizers inserted two chicanes for the 1990 event.
Chopped into three segments at just over one-mile apiece, the coolest drag strip on the planet was sliced into irrelevance.
With rumors of chicanes already on the horizon in the late Eighties, one enterprising French team entered the race in 1988 for the sole purpose of setting the all-time (official) top speed on the Mulsanne before the 3.7-mile strip was lost. Captured by a slippery, high-boost prototype streamliner, the record peak of 253 mph was earned before the Peugeot turbo engine in the back of the prototype chassis surrendered.
Entering the 1990 race with the new Mulsanne chicanes installed, the concept of massive top speeds was quickly forgotten—a thing of the past. Well, at least until Blundell strapped into his No. 24 Nissan, engaged first gear, and pulled onto the circuit.
It was here, as the Briton describes in full audio detail below, where malfunctioning turbo wastegates ensured the R90CK shot past the 1000 hp mark—to a maximum figure that is still unknown—and snapped his head back with every upshift.
The Nissan's raging twin-turbo V8, oblivious to the constraints of time and space, launched Blundell down the new stop-start Mulsanne sections at an incredible 238 mph. Imagine what the number would have been without the chicanes. Faced with the same Mulsanne chicanes, the best top speed from the 2016 event went to Audi and its hybrid R18 turbodiesel: 213.4 mph.
While the new Mulsanne layout prevented Blundell from breaking the 253 mph top speed record, that glowing engine, with its refusal to dispense the excess turbo boost, allowed the No. 24 Nissan to establish a staggering qualifying record for the chicane era at Le Mans with a pole time of 3m27.020s. That part's a no-brainer.
What wasn't normal, and continues to stand as a once-in-a-lifetime achievement at the French endurance classic, was the gap to the second-place qualifier.
Brun Motorsport's Porsche 962 was a full six seconds slower—6.040 seconds, to be exact—than the Nissan with its nuclear meltdown brewing in the engine bay. By comparison, the gap between the pole-winning Porsche 919 Hybrid at last year's 24 Hours of Le Mans and the second-place qualifier was a tame 0.470s.
As part of a multi-car team, the other Nissans were an indicator of what Blundell should have expected in qualifying. Minus the steroidal turbos, the sister No. 23 Nissan qualified third at a 3m33.170s—6.15s behind the savage No. 24. Blundell's performance, in Indianapolis 500 terms, would be like one Team Penske pilot taking pole at 275 mph while the next-best Penske driver was stuck at 225.
This one, brilliant engine malfunction gave Blundell his first experience of warp speed, and as he shares in a short podcast on the crazy ordeal, the gap to second place could have been bigger…
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