+21 The superlatives gather in The Hague
Supercars, GT1s, prototypes. You can – and should – go see the supercars of the 90s that have currently gathered in the Louwman Museum in The Hague, in Holland.
It’s that first image that strikes you, as you enter the main hall of the Louwman Museum, situated just outside the city centre in The Hague. Right in front of you, you see the Toyota GT-One and the Nissan R390 GT1. When does that ever happen?
Reading the rulebook
Both the Toyota and the Nissan are part of the nineties GT1 craze. What started out as racing series for the most extreme GT cars – think Ferrari F40, McLaren F1 – quickly got out of hand when the manufacturers realized there was a loophole in the regulations. Somewhere in the development of Appendix J of the FIA rule book, the number of cars that was necessary for homologation in the GT1 category was defined rather vaguely. At one point it looked like one production car was enough, at another point, it seemed that the intention of producing one was deemed sufficient. It led to some bonkers cars that were destined for the road, but really only served a racing purpose.
Erik Comas
The Nissan R390 GT1 is a car you probably know very well. Only one road car exists, safely tucked away with Nissan in Japan. But as you may remember from issue 8, former racer Erik Comas – who was part of Nissan’s works team at Le Mans in the nineties – has homologated one of the former race cars to road spec, complete with its own ‘Le Mans’ registration.
Erik was at hand at the Louwman Museum and confirmed the homologation process is now officially complete, meaning he now owns the only other R390 GT1 that can go out on the public road. His car came sixth at Le Mans in 1999 and is the last of the nine produced cars. Comas carried out a full restoration of the car.
Next to that is the Toyota GT-One. This car resides with Toyota and is the road car needed for homologation to go racing. Toyota would come close to winning Le Mans with the GT-One in 1999, but couldn’t beat the BMW V12 LMR prototype. The GT-One here features a roadcar interior and 3.6-litre twin-turbo V8 engine giving 550 hp.
Porsche and Mercedes
Standing with it are two of the other infamous GT1s; the 1998 Porsche 911 GT1 and the 1997 Mercedes CLK GTR. The Mercedes dominated the 1997 FIA GT world championship and the Porsche won Le Mans in 1998. By then, it was clear that these cars really were just homologation specials. Mercedes did honour their commitment and built 28 road cars, but these were only delivered two years later. And of this generation of the Porsche 911 GT1, there was only the one road car that has remained with Porsche ever since. The car in the expo is the actual prototype that was used for testing, in bare carbon. Gorgeous.
BMW’s abandoned M8
Furthermore, there is the Holy Grail of the 90s supercars: the McLaren F1. In white, even rarer. And of course, the Ferrari F50. Itself born out of an abandoned GT1 project, and thus a way for Ferrari to recuperate some of the costs. In close proximity, a car that never was. From the cellars of BMW Group Classic, you get to see the BMW M8 that never happened. The 6-litre V12 looked promising enough, and with weight-saving measures (no rear seats), it would have been a serious tool. Alas, only the one prototype was ever made.
Supercars of the nineties is a special exhibition, running until September 1st. More info here.
