1/20 Nissan R381-II Coupe

[Rich Chernosky]

Did the bodywork and painted this awhile back.  Ti8me to finish it. This is Nissan's R381 coupe which was a test version of their highly successful R381 group 7 machine which won the Japan GP in 1968.  Not much information on the web although several companies make models of this car in various scales. This one is 1/20 and is made by Eidai and imported into the USA by AHM.  Color is Tamiya TS7 racing white.  Several working features include the steering, opening doors and rear deck and the kit was motorized. The original R380 had and inline 6 motor by Prince and it was later swapped out for a 5.5 litre Chevy V8 in the R382. Later versions (R383) used Nissans own V-12. More comments on the model in the picture captions. Comments welcome.

I chose to go with the kit engine even though it is totally wrong. Too much work to find a suitable 1/20 Chevy V8 and Hewland transmission. I has a bit of interesting detail but the model will be display with the cover closed.

Thise wonderful working gullwing doors. The hinge had to be re-worked and much filling and sanding to get them to fit. They work quite well though and stay shut. 

Side veiw. Much fitting was done to get the body to this point. Extra tabs glued on, pins fitted. That latch a the rear works and hold the cover down tight. 

Rear veiw shows the hydraulically operated split wing which was a feature of the R381 can am. It was never raced in the Can-am as working wings were banned. 

 

The original car had dive plane type wings at the front but wern't included in the kit. I would have omitted them anyway as I didn't like the looks. Front suspension had to be lowered by almost 3mm.  Ther battery box slid up into the chassis from the bottom and held the front suspension and wheels. Not very well engineered BTW.

My whole tribe of Nissan R380's. In the back Tamiya's version of the 381 open top car in 1/18, The R380 6 cyl car in 1/16 by Eidai/Grip, yellow group 7 v12 version (R383)  by Otaki in 1/28 scale and the same in 1/64 diecast by Tomica.

 

[Jim B]

Interesting car.  Nice build,

[Dave B]

That's a great build of something different Rich.

Dave B

[Gramps46]

Very interesting and high quality.  

[Rich Chernosky]

On 7/29/2024 at 7:54 PM, Jim B said:

Interesting car.  Nice build,

Thanks Jim

 

On 7/29/2024 at 8:07 PM, Dave B said:

That's a great build of something different Rich.

Dave B

Thanks Dave...I have 3 more builds from this company all in 1/20.  I really like these odd ball kits and go out of my way to find them.

 

On 7/30/2024 at 10:20 AM, Gramps46 said:

Very interesting and high quality.  

Thank you Gary....a lot of my time was spent getting the body to fit perfect. 

 

[PappyD340]

Looks great Rich!

[Nacho Z]

Although I love these styles of cars, what I would call Endurance Racing style cars, I really don’t know much about them or their history.  They are a relatively new subject to me.  Maybe at some point I’ll learn more about them, but for now I love seeing posts about something I’ve never seen before.  This is a perfect example!  I know that I say it a lot, but thanks for sharing this and thanks for the cool little history lesson!

[Rich Chernosky]

On 8/1/2024 at 5:34 AM, PappyD340 said:

Looks great Rich!

Thank Larry

 

On 8/1/2024 at 12:44 PM, Nacho Z said:

Although I love these styles of cars, what I would call Endurance Racing style cars, I really don’t know much about them or their history.  They are a relatively new subject to me.  Maybe at some point I’ll learn more about them, but for now I love seeing posts about something I’ve never seen before.  This is a perfect example!  I know that I say it a lot, but thanks for sharing this and thanks for the cool little history lesson!

John...I spent some time trying to research this particular car and didn't find too much other than it was a test bed for Nissan and never really raced.  Information on some of the racing at the time in Japan seems to be scarce. If someone on this forum has more info I would like to see it also. I have more of this stuff in the stash so be prepared to see more. 

 

[1959scudetto]

Interesting cars to look at, Rich: the main object here is looking very tail-heavy - no wonder that is has not been raced at all: the (Tamiya) Nissan R 380 looks much more purposeful (kind of "Japanese Chaparral"),

the R380 6 cyl. looks like a 906 clone, whereas the R383 Grp.7 racer shares resemblance with Ferrari 312 P, the 713 P CanAm or partially the McLaren M8A (at least from the front up to the roll-bar) - nice collection!

[Rich Chernosky]

On 8/5/2024 at 3:44 PM, 1959scudetto said:

Interesting cars to look at, Rich: the main object here is looking very tail-heavy - no wonder that is has not been raced at all: the (Tamiya) Nissan R 380 looks much more purposeful (kind of "Japanese Chaparral"),

the R380 6 cyl. looks like a 906 clone, whereas the R383 Grp.7 racer shares resemblance with Ferrari 312 P, the 713 P CanAm or partially the McLaren M8A (at least from the front up to the roll-bar) - nice collection!

Helmut....some very interesting observations.  Thank you for your input. I  have other un-built Japanese kits of Can-Am  and Endurance cars raced in the All Japan  series at the same time as the Can-am.  It would seem they borrowed very heavily on the current cars, both Can-Am and Endurance. One car in particular, the Toyota-7 started life as a re-bodied Mclaren chassis with a v-8 Toyota engine. They later made their own chassis. These cars were very popular in Japan in the 60's and the model companies  followed suit by issuing kits of these. Many found their way to the states.  I have found most of mine on Ebay over the years with some coming straight from Japan. Had to pay dearly for a couple. Still wish there was more info on these facinating cars.

[Rattlecan Dan]

Nice job. Very unique car.

[slusher]

Greal job!