![]() As part of a deal between the two, Nissan would give VRH35L 3.5L turbocharged V8 motors (left over from the R390 GT1) to Courage for use on their own prototype, while Nissan would in return gain expertise from Courage for use on the R391. Nissan also formed a partnership with longtime customer of its second hand sportscars, Courage Compétition. Nigel Stroud would head up the car's design alongside Doug Skinner as the chief designer. Nissan turned to the UK based firm G-Force Technologies to design and build the R391. Nissan, believing that a purpose built prototype would be superior to an evolved GT car, decided to go the route of an open cockpit. Thus Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Panoz, BMW, and Audi turned to the prototypes class, either using open cockpit prototypes or closed cockpit cars which were actually evolutions of their former GT cars. With major rule changes in the GT in 1999, major manufacturers were no longer able to build homologation specials which resembled prototypes more than true GT cars. It was a replacement for the R390 GT1, which was no longer legal in its production-based class. The Nissan R391 was a prototype racing car built by Nissan and their motorsports counterpart Nismo for competition at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans. By the start of the 2005 season, the G-Force name was retired. During the winter of 2004, all remaining G-Force operations in England were moved to Braselton, GA and the England operations of G-Force were shut down. Former Lola designer Simon Marshall would be brought on to design its new IRL chassis for 2003 which was branded the Panoz G-Force. Ken Anderson would leave to form Falcon Cars with Michael Kranefuss to build a competing chassis for the 2004 IRL season. G-Force was purchased by Élan Motorsport Technologies in 2002 and all manufacturing was moved to Elan's facilities in Braselton, GA. G-Force race cars won 4 Indianapolis 500s and 2 IRL Championships. The company built successful cars in the Indy Racing League and 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ganassi would leave the company early on and the company was renamed G Force Precision Engineering. G-Force Technologies (formerly Chip Ganassi Racing Ltd.) was an American racing car manufacturer originally formed by Americans Chip Ganassi and Ken Anderson in 1991.
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