THE R390 THAT BECAME HIS

The R390 GT1 sits slightly apart from the McLaren F1, Mercedes CLK LM and Porsche 911 GT1. Nissan concentrated on Le Mans rather than a full FIA GT campaign, so the car never became a constant international presence.

In 1998, it achieved exactly what Nissan needed. Three cars finished in the top six and one reached the podium, with the No.32 crew becoming the first all-Japanese driver line-up to stand on the overall Le Mans podium. Then the R390 largely slipped from view.

It remained respected, but for many enthusiasts its strongest afterlife came through the PlayStation rather than the circuit.

“Some even thought it was only a video game car.”

That unusual position is part of what makes the R390 compelling. It was real enough to make history and obscure enough to feel half fictional. Comas has lived through both sides of that story, first as a factory driver and later as the custodian of something far more personal.

The idea of taking the R390 onto the road began when Comas saw what was happening with other former GT1 machines.

“When I saw Lanzante road legalising some McLaren F1 GTRs, I understood it might be possible for my Le Mans car too.”

The idea suited the strange logic of GT1. These were competition cars that still had to maintain a formal relationship with road-going reality, even when that relationship had become increasingly stretched.

Comas describes his own project as a simple reversal of the original formula.

“The GT1 spirit was derived from a road homologated car. In my case, we simply swapped the situation.”

The goal was not to turn the R390 into something completely different. It was to make the existing car usable on the road while keeping the changes limited and reversible.

Mechanically, much of the race car remains intact. The engine and gearbox are the originals from the race programme, serviced but essentially unchanged. The ACO seals remain visible on the turbochargers and the bodywork has been retained from new.

The carbon discs were replaced with iron ones, while the Le Mans brake callipers remain. The windscreen is now heated, anti-UV and made from glass. A horn was added, along with power steering, cabin cooling, rear camera assistance and extra fans for traffic.

The suspension uses a dedicated road and track set-up with different dampers and springs. The rear anti-roll bar has been removed and the ride height has been raised from roughly six centimetres at Le Mans to eleven on the road.

The original xenon lights, their control unit and loom are still there.

The result is not simply a race car carrying registration plates. Comas says it is remarkably easy to drive on the road, thanks largely to the power steering and revised suspension. He remembers driving it from Courmayeur to Imola and describes the journey simply as a joy.

A former Le Mans car crossing northern Italy in ordinary traffic is no longer a theoretical curiosity. It has become usable.

The R390 matters to Comas for reasons that go beyond engineering. He describes 1998 and 1999 as the peak of his GT career. These were the Pennzoil years, the seasons that defined his decade in Japan and made him especially visible to younger fans.

Both the R390 and the Skyline GT-R entered popular culture through Gran Turismo at the moment when racing games were creating a new kind of automotive memory. Comas became part of that crossover, a real driver from a real paddock whose cars were being learned and admired through a controller.

He is also proud of being the only driver to complete Nissan’s full Le Mans programme from 1997 to 1999, a run that included victory at the Fuji 1000km in November 1999.

That is why the R390 now carries such emotional weight. It is no longer only his Le Mans car. It has become a summary of an entire period.

The first stage of the project was straightforward: restore the car carefully, make it road legal and keep the changes reversible. Since its return to public view at Villa d’Este in 2022, the R390 has attracted a much wider audience.

The more controversial part came later.

Comas never loved the original 1998 Le Mans livery. He explains that it was influenced by the Japanese national team jersey because the race took place one month before the France 98 World Cup.

“I was absolutely not convinced. It was not sexy at all.”

With distance, he came to feel that the original graphics hid too much of the car.

“The shape was not visible.”

In January 2025, artist Benoit Fraylon sent Comas a PDF showing the R390 in Pennzoil colours. The idea connected two parts of the same career: the R390 that brought Comas into Nissan’s Le Mans programme and the black-and-yellow Skyline GT-R that delivered two JGTC titles.

Comas understood immediately that the decision carried weight.

“I could not sleep for two nights.”

The important point for him is that the treatment remains reversible.

“Nothing irreversible has been done. The car could easily return 100 percent to how it crossed the Le Mans chequered flag.”

The Pennzoil colours were not chosen simply because they looked good. They belonged to another important chapter of his Nissan story.

“100 percent,” he says when asked whether a livery can change how a car is remembered. “But it must have a meaning.”

When Comas first drove the R390, it was a racing tool. He estimates roughly 30,000 kilometres across the wider R390 project between testing and Le Mans. Every kilometre was about extracting performance.

Today, his relationship with the car is different.

The R390 now carries the memory of the peak of his Japanese career, Nissan’s Le Mans programme, the Pennzoil years and the unusual pleasure of being able to drive one of the great GT1 machines on the road.

“I am still in love. The design is just wowing.”