16 October 2017

Monday, October 16, 2017

Nissan Motor Sport was originally setup to look after the Nissan Australian Rally program in Australia with the Datsun Stanza success story to start and was literally owned by Nissan and managed by none other than Howard Marsden all the way through until the end of the Group C era. It was at this time that Gibson Motor Sport was formed to be the competition arm of Nissan which would also coincide with the beginnings of the new Group A formula in Australia - 1985 had arrived and Fred Gibson and the team had some work to do.

Unfortunately the handover was not as smooth as it could have been and ultimately there were not any Nissan's running in Group A in 1985. Homoligation for the DR30 Skyline had been stalled which had meant the team were preparing a car without any rules to guide them. This proved to be a major problem and the very first Group A DR30 Skyline was scrapped and crushed. This brings up the interesting point about why there are only 3 Group A DR30 Skylines  to have raced but their build numbers are 2, 3 and 4.

A couple of the Bluebirds made their way to Sports Sedan competition in 1985 and who could forget the one make series of Nissan ET Turbo's that Nissan provided through 1985 in order to keep the brand awareness high.

The first Group A DR30 Skyline (build number 2) would not hit the track until 1986 and this would also be the same year the Group A Nissan Gazelle would make its debut.

What the Bluebird program did for Gibson Motor Sport was provide a solid baseline from which to build on through the formative years of Group A. Much of the technology designed into the Bluebird was retained and used in the DR30 and Gazelle program.

You may be surprised to know all three models (Group C Bluebird, Group A DR30 Skyline, Group A Gazelle ) all use the same Front Suspension, Gearboxes, Fuel Systems, Engine Pulleys, Cooling System Components, and Brakes as well as some other suspension components amongst other things.

Obviously this provided great reliability from the outset for the Group A program and from the knowledge retained within the team and consistency of the in house engine builders a lot of success was achieved very quickly. 

At this juncture it is important to remove another rumour which seems to have become more common than ever before lately. The engines for all of the Nissan Motor Sport and Gibson Motor Sport race cars were built and developed in house. The only names which have any credit through the Bluebird, DR30 and Gazelle era are Derek Rawson, Barry Bray and Bo Seton ( yes Glenn Seton's father ). Any shop claiming to be the shop that built that built the Bathurst 1984 Pole engine or any other Nissan Motor Sport engine is simply representing itself dishonestly.

With all that being said I'm sure some pictures will be well received again - probably not too many people have seen these. Please enjoy.

Pic1: Stanza Rally Team at Braeside Factory
Pic 2: Derek Rawson with Jamie Drummond - LZ20 Twin Cam
Pic 3: Stripping the 1st Bluebird for Race Fabrication to begin
Pic 4: Early Z18ET Race Motor (Under 3 Litre Class Config)
Pic 5: Final Z18ET Race Engine (Group C Outright Config)
Pic 6: Derek Rawson at Dandenong engine room
Pic 7: Healey Road Dandenong - ready to go
Pic 8: LZ20 Twin Cam setup for race and for rally
Pic 9: Derek Rawson and Bo Seton on the FJ20
Pic 10: Bo Seton on the FJ20
Pic 11: Inside the back of the original race team transporter,

Repost from https://www.facebook.com/Nissanbluebirdgroupc/

Nissan Motor Sport Team Story











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