Following Nissan's return to sportscar racing in 1995, motorsports division Nismo had been slowly climbing its way up the competition ladder to finally reach the top Le Mans prototype class.

Starting with Skyline GT-R LMs in 1995, Nismo turned to developing the advanced R390 GT1 in 1997, which was effectively as close to a prototype as possible while still remaining street legal.

Nissan, believing that a purpose built prototype would be superior to an evolved GT car, decided to go the route of an open cockpit.

Nissan would also buy a Courage C52 chassis to run under their own team in order to have reliability in case the R391s suffered from mechanical gremlins, with the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans being their first race with the C52.

During the race, the remaining R391 was able to climb its way up the field, running as high as 4th overall before an electrical problem[1] in the engine caused the car to be retired after it had completed only 110 laps.

Later in 1999 the R391 would race again, this time at the invitational Fuji 1000km event which was backed by the Le Mans ruling body, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO).