After returning to sports car racing in 1995, Nismo (Nissan motorsport) had some measure of success with their Skyline GT-R LM which had competed in the GT1 class.

Turning to Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), Nismo began developing a prototype of the R390 GT1, named to follow in the tradition started in the 1960s with Nissan's R380.

The previous Skyline GT-R LM had used the trusted RB26DETT Inline-six engine, but the design was old for a racing car, employing an iron block which added weight and had a high center of gravity.

Due to this, the R390 GT1 bears a resemblance to the Jaguar XJR-15, which was also developed by TWR and based on the XJR-9, and in fact used a cockpit - including the tub, greenhouse and roof line - from the very same tooling as the XJR-15, with some custom tooling blocks added to the XJR15 chassis mold, although for the R390, the rear and front ends, and suspension were completely different and were designed to meet GT1 specifications, the R390's chassis was lower and wider, but slightly shorter in length than the Jaguar, making the R390 larger overall.

[3] Following the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans, rules for the GT classes were changed, mostly to end the number of manufacturers attempting to use loopholes.

Instead of LMGT1, an LMGTP prototype class for closed cockpit cars was introduced for the 1999 Le Mans 24h that allowed more race specific construction without any road-going considerations.

With Mercedes and Toyota going to improve their already faster GTs, Nissan was forced to either modify the R390 to a prototype GT, or abandon it like Porsche did with the GT1.

Initially built in 1997 with a red paint scheme and given the UK registration number "P835 GUD", the car was displayed at the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

It was rebuilt in 1998 with a new front end and side vents, longer tail and a ducktail spoiler instead of a wing, and repainted blue.

These modifications were also incorporated on the race cars albeit with the addition of a fixed rear wing instead of a ducktail spoiler.

The modification was done by Andrea Chiavenuto, who led a two year long restoration and street conversion project on the car.