Erik Comas

The Story

After my Formula 1 career ended in 1994 at Suzuka with a 7th-place finish in the rain driving my Larrousse Ford, I was approached by a Toyota satellite team (Cerumo) that wanted to enter a Supra in the newly established JGTC (Japan Grand Touring Championship) in the top-tier GT500 category the following year.

The tragic loss of Ayrton Senna in front of me at Tamburello on that cursed May 1st 1994, had convinced me that taking such risks in an F1 car that had no chance of reaching the podium was simply not worth it. In insight, I was already driving a historical F1 car without realizing it—a manual gearbox when the others had moved on to semi-automatic gearboxes, ABS, traction control, and even active suspension until the previous season. It was almost as if today’s Formula 1 grid were completed with six GP2 cars just to make up the numbers to 26.

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The Land of the Rising Sun and this new challenge were a resurrection after four difficult seasons in F1 and 63 Grand Prix starts. I had already dabbled in GT racing in 1987, winning the French Superproduction Championship in my very first year with the Renault 5 Turbo Philips—my first professional contract as a racing driver for Renault Sport. Now, I was back in a turbocharged four-cylinder, the same engine from Carlos Sainz’s Toyota Celica WRC, installed in this magnificent Japanese coupe. The following year, in 1996, I claimed my first victory with the legendary Castrol Toyota Supra at the Hi-Land circuit in Sendai.

On the strength of this success, Nissan approached me with two goals : to drive for Nismo in the GT-R and to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with an all-new GT1 entirely built in carbon fiber in collaboration with TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing)—only the second GT1 car in the world after the McLaren F1.

Its code name : R390 GT-1, in reference to the Nissan R380 from the 1960s, which fiercely rivaled the Porsche Carrera 6. More than just swapping my Supra for a Skyline GT-R, it was this stunning R390 that won my heart. The R390 GT-1 was the reason I signed with Nissan, beginning a collaboration that would last nine seasons.

Twenty-five road cars were required to obtain FIA GT1 homologation for the global championship, with a fixed maximum price imposed on manufacturers by the FIA—one million dollars per unit. From my very first discussions, I proposed to Nissan that instead of being paid for the 1997 and 1998 seasons, I would receive one of the 25 cars yet to be produced. The deal was nearly finalized, but unlike Mercedes, Porsche, and McLaren, Nissan ultimately decided, like Toyota, to focus solely on the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where only one road car was required for homologation by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest. As a result, I was paid to drive a Skyline GT-R33 in Japan and the R390 GT-1 at Le Mans—though I always kept the door open to one day buying my Le Mans R390…

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This new collaboration in 1997 got off to a flying start, with victories at Suzuka and in the championship finale at Motegi’s brand-new Honda Speedway while driving the R34 Zexel. At Le Mans, we placed one of the three R390s in provisional pole during pre-qualifying. However, the ACO mandated that Nissan return for the race five weeks later with the same 100-liter luggage compartments as the road version.

This led to a two-second per lap performance drop and mechanical overheating issues. I found myself in the only surviving R390, finishing a distant 12th place.

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The big news for 1998 was the arrival of a major American sponsor for Nissan in JGTC : the lubricant brand Pennzoil, represented in Japan by the ITOCHU Group. Another great development was the long-tail version of the R390 for Le Mans—more refined, more reliable, more stable, and faster. Only the two carbon-bodied Porsche 991 GT1 98s (while customer GT1 cars from 1997 were steel-based 911s) finished ahead of the R390 GT1 on the podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We had three Nissans contending for that third spot—the #30, #31, and #32. Through the twists of race strategy, it was an all-Japanese driver lineup that, for the first and only time in Le Mans history, reached the podium. We placed three cars in the top six, relegating McLaren, Mercedes, and Toyota behind us with a 100% reliability rate. Over 1997 and 1998, I had logged nearly 20,000 kilometers of testing in the R390 GT1 on various European circuits without a single technical failure. Racing these supercars—what we would call them today—was an incredible sensation and a great privilege, much like today’s Hypercar category, except that those latest cars are not road-legal. But we’ll get back to that.

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The grand unveiling of the Pennzoil Skyline GT-R33 in Tokyo set the tone—the striking livery was a perfect match for this massive GT, and the nod to a NASCAR paint scheme was evident. The public loved it instantly, though I could never have imagined the impact it would have years later. 1998 with the R33 Pennzoil and 1999 with the R34 Pennzoil were the two most successful years of my long career in Japan, spanning from 1995 to 2006. Winning back-to-back titles made me the first French driver to become champion of Japan, driving a Japanese car with an American sponsor. The races were fiercely contested due to the weight handicap system after each victory (+50 kg!). Despite this, two victories meant carrying an extra 100 kg, which severely impacted the brakes, tires, transmission, and even the drivers.

The championship brought incredible exposure to the yellow Skyline, with merchandising and Tamiya scale models amplifying its legacy.

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But nothing compared to the PlayStation effect. The PS2 era brought my R390 GT1 and Pennzoil GT-R to global recognition. We were still in the arcade racing game era, yet millions of players were cutting their teeth on these two cars—arguably the most iconic of my career. A quarter-century later, the Pennzoil GT-R and R390 still captivate these now 40-something fans.

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My 1997 dream of driving an R390 GT-1 on the road was reawakened in 2018 when I expressed my wish to Nissan to activate my purchase option for my 1998 Le Mans car, convinced I could register it using the period English homologation papers produced by TWR and Nissan. After an exhaustive two-year restoration, my car was successfully road-registered, making it the only 1998 Le Mans GT1 to receive this honor. It was restored in Italy by Chiavenuto Classic Racing in white and red, a tribute to the Land of the Rising Sun and the R380. It first appeared publicly at the 2022 Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance. In 2023, I imagined showcasing it again at Como, but this time at Fuoriconcorso with a unique livery—half white (representing my present as the street version owner) and half my past (Le Mans 98).

It was later returned to its 24 Hours of Le Mans colors for the film "Nissan R390 GT-1 Le Mans Erik COMAS" before turning white again to compete in the Cartier Luxury & Style Concours at Goodwood FOS, where it won first prize against fierce competition—Porsche 911 GT1, Mercedes CLK GTR, McLaren F1, Maserati MC12… the ultimate honor.

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In 2024, it was the star of the "Supercars from the 90s" exhibition at the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands, alongside the Toyota GT-One—the first time both road-legal legends were united.

I had already entrusted 1Vision with the task of restoring its 1998 Le Mans livery for 2025 when I met a renowned artist, Benoit Fraylon, the founder of Racing & Emotion and a neighbor of mine in the Persian Gulf.

A fan of my racing career, he shared with me a project he had developed in his spare time, with the sole intention of igniting social media interest—something he excels at—featuring a stunning Pennzoil livery. At that moment, I realized that Benoit had created a masterpiece, perfectly capturing the essence of my Japanese career with Nismo: my magnificent R390 GT-1, which had led me to sign with Nissan, now adorned in the colors of my Pennzoil GT-R and my two consecutive JGTC titles in 1998 and 1999.

At that instant, it became clear that the Pennzoil-colored GT1 made perfect sense—there was no room for hesitation. Soon, it would be yellow and black, proudly bearing the number 1, celebrating the 1998 JGTC championship. I immediately called Joe, who was about to complete the car in its Clarion livery, to inform him of this dramatic change. He too fell under its spell—the R390 had finally found a livery that truly showcased its breathtaking lines, the very ones that inspired Horacio Pagani for his first car, the Zonda—another legend.

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May 8 in Monaco, during the Top Marques weekend, the official unveiling took place.