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RIP RACERS: THE GODZILLA THAT IS GONE

THIS RIP Racers story takes us back to 1990 and features a car that began its life as a road car chassis and sadly lasted less than a year – the very first Nissan GT-R race car built by Gibson Motorsport.

Nissan’s GT-R may have had a controversial introduction into the Australian Touring Car Championship but there was no denying its capability as a race car that beat the best in the Group A era.

The very first car enjoyed a strong start to its racing life having debuted at Mallala in the hands of Mark Skaife during the back end of the 1990 ATCC.

Unfortunately the car never saw the 1991 season after Skaife crashed spectacularly in practice for the 1990 Adelaide Grand Prix support races, the car ending up a complete write-off after launching onto two wheels, hitting the wall and skidding down the track on its roof!

Watch the video of the crash that destroyed this car below …

Once the car was recovered the Fred Gibson-led team crushed and disposed of it, making this the only Nissan Motorsport race car from the Group A/C era that no longer exists.

“I made sure that it was cut up and crushed, the same with the Commodore that Skaifey crashed at Eastern Creek in 1995,” Gibson recalled to V8 Sleuth.

Upon the car’s completion in late 1990 Gibson elected to give Skaife the new machine while team-mate and championship leader Jim Richards stayed with the tried and tested GTS-R Skyline.

The hub failure during the race wasn’t the only problem to strike the new GT-R at Mallala… Pic: an1images.com / Graeme Neander

The car proved instantly quick with Skaife leading the race at Mallala early before hub failure put the car out for the day.

Richards took it over for the final two ATCC rounds at Barbagallo and Oran Park, where he won the race at the latter and won his third ATCC crown.

Gibson Motorsport then took the car to Bathurst for the Tooheys 1000 where it was used during practice as the test car (#1T). However, it’s widely known that problems with the entered #1 car (the second GT-R race car built) meant that Skaife and Richards jumped aboard the re-stickered (from #1T to #1) car for the race.

One of its last appearances as 1T during Saturday practice at Bathurst. Pic: an1images.com / Dale Rodgers

Richards stormed to the lead in the early stages while Skaife recorded a new lap record before driveline problems put the duo 15 laps behind the leader and 18thin the final standings.

The 1990 Bathurst 1000 turned out to be the car’s last race before heading to Adelaide where it met its unfortunate end.

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