The long road to the dominance of the Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo

Which car dethroned the Porsche 962? It was this Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo.

The year was 1989 and, for the first time since 1983, something other than the Stuttgart brand won the IMSA GTP constructor’s championship. Just the year prior, Geoff Brabham won the IMSA drivers’ championship in a ZX-Turbo after winning eight straight races.

While many remember the dominance of the ZX-Turbo, few recall the long road to its success.

In 1984, Nissan greenlighted the project to develop a GTP car with Electramotive Engineering. It debuted the car, then with a Lola chassis, in 1985. The ZX-Turbo struggled.

The Nissan effort–headed by former Triumph boss Kas Kastner–continued to refine the GTP car. Chris Willes, then fresh out of college with an engineering degree, joined the team in 1986. Chris’ father knew Wes Moss as he had worked for Wes at Holman-Moody. In fact, Wes’ history goes back to when Holman-Moody built the Ford GT40 that won at Le Mans.

[Remembering Triumph, Nissan Racing Boss Kas Kastner]

“My first day on the job, Wes said, ‘Normally, I’d show you around the shop, but we need to go into the design office and get you started on this project,’” Chris recalls.

There he met Joe Anahory. Anahory, who made a name for himself in drag and sprint car racing, was an aluminum block specialist. The ZX-Turbo based its engine on the VG30ET V6 used in the Nissan 300ZX Turbo. The stock one was cast iron, but the racing one that Electramotive developed was cast aluminum.

“They were putting so much boost through that engine, the block would crack, lost oil pressure, and blow the motor up,” Chris recalls. “Back then, they were making about 1000 horsepower, with no restrictor or anything, and like 600 lb.-ft. of torque. We were using a gearbox by Weismann for Formula 1, but they were maybe 300 lb.-ft. of torque. So, we were blowing up the gearbox all the time. One time, we broke the [gearbox] case completely in half.”

Electramotive Engineering employees, 1985. Photography Courtesy Ashley Page/Nissan

There were other issues, too.

In 1986, Yoshi Suzuka had just designed a brand-new body for the Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo, which greatly improved the stability of the car.

“Don Devendorf was driving it in ’85,” Chris explains. “He was quoted as saying that the car would jump lanes on him when he would hit the brakes. He said the thing was diabolical to drive.”

Suzuka’s improvements fixed that, but with more downforce came more load on the Bridgestone tires. Chris said that resulted in a bad wreck for Elliott Forbes-Robinson at Riverside International Raceway, where he broke his collarbone. The team wound up switching from Bridgestone to Goodyear, where Goodyear built a tire that could withstand the increased loads.

“Every part on the car was a problem at that point,” Chris notes. “We were just stressing everything way too much.”

The less-than-stellar track record added a layer of uncertainty. “Through the ’86 and ’87 seasons, I didn’t know if I was going to have a job next year,” says Chris. “None of us knew. It was a year-to-year program. The team was a small team. We had Nissan backing us, but it wasn’t huge.”

The Electramotive Engineering team didn’t give up. They knew they had something special going on. Just look at the people involved.

Chris says Don “was basically a rocket scientist,” who had worked at Hughes Aircraft Company as an electronics engineer. Wes was a mechanical engineer, with experience at Holman-Moody on the Ford GT40. Trevor Harris, the chief designer for the ZX-Turbo, also designed championship-winning Can-Am cars and started his career as a test technician for guided missile electronics in Boeing’s R&D department. Aerodynamicist Yoshi Suzuka’s work for Nissan dates back to the days of BRE.

“It was a group of very smart people who got together and developed this car into something we’re all proud of,” Chris explains. “We knew we had the speed. We knew we had to just stop the thing from breaking.”

From left to right: Engineers Yoshi Suzuka, Trevor Harris, Don Devendorf and Wes Moss at the wind tunnel. Photograph Courtesy Yoshi Suzuka/Nissan

Besides smarts, the team also had grit. “It was amazing how those races went,” Chris remembers. “During a lot of those [race] weekends, during the practice sessions and going up to qualifying, we’d have problems with the car that would put us out of the race, but the crew would work endlessly. They would pretty much take the whole car apart, put it back together with fresh parts to give us a better chance on Sunday. There were nights they were there until 2 a.m. working on the car. It always paid off.”

The Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo won its first race in 1987 at the Grand Prix of Miami with drivers Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Geoff Brabham. Then, in 1988, the team’s talent and hard work showed. The Electramotive team won eight races in a row, nine total, with Geoff winning the drivers’ championship. Nissan did not win the constructors’ championship, as it elected to sit out the 24 Hours of Daytona, but did win it the following year.

The Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo racing at Road Atlanta in 1989, where it would place first. Photograph Courtesy Dennis Ashlock/Nissan

Nissan would purchase Electramotive at the end of 1989. The NPT-90 would replace the ZX-Turbo in 1990. Nissan abandoned the GTP class after the 1992 season. Chris left the organization.

He didn’t know quite what would be next, but people started calling him. Chris then went on to design race vehicles for Trans-Am, Le Mans, off-road truck racing, World Challenge and Pikes Peak. He’d win more championships and big races along the way.

However, the start of his career also began with the GTP ZX-Turbo. It was with that incredible team he cut his teeth en route to success.

“I couldn’t have done the career I had without working with Electramotive,” says Chris. “Everything they’ve taught me is what I’ve used throughout the years. Just the materials have changed, but the basics of designing a car, they were on it. What I learned from them was huge for my career.”

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