Conceived in Great Britain, the R390 was Nissan's weapon to challenge the other big manufacturers in the GT1 endurance class and to seek a victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car was equipped with a 3496cc twin-turbo V8 and promised to be competitive. The year of the debut was 1997 where, however, the Japanese house did not achieve good results. Nissan tried again in 1998 with a modified aerodynamic version of the R390 with a long tail, which clinched a third place behind the too fast Porsche 911 GT1-98s.