The Nissan R 390 GT1 that was created by design engineers Tony Southgate, Ian Callum and Yutaka Hagiwara was quite similar looking to the Jaguar made XJR 15. The reason being that TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) was also quite closely involved Jaguar XJR 15 design and used the same tooling. This model was developed primarily to race at the Le Mans in 1997.

With a 3.5 litre 90° V8 twin-turbocharged rear mid-engine this car proved her mettle at the 66th edition of Le Mans on 6-7 June, 1998 when this car that was sponsored by the Nissan Motorsport Team with Japanese drivers Aguri Suzuki, Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Masahiko Kageyama came 3rd in the race after completion of 347 laps.