Yesterday, NISMO posted a timelapse video to their YouTube channel showing how the GT-R LM NISMO is assembled, but the video also showed the livery that the car will be wearing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in a couple of weeks.

For those of you that have followed endurance racing throughout the years, you’ll definitely remember the livery that Nissan ran on the R90CK in the Group C era with Mark Blundell behind the wheel. Exactly 25 years ago, Blundell piloted the Nissan R90CK to the top qualifying spot with a lap time of 3:27.020 on the Le Mans Circuit. With the No. 21 GT-R LM NISMO, Nissan is bringing back the livery specifically for this race. The No. 21 GT-R LM NISMO is the third car Nissan will be fielding in the 24-hour race, and it will be piloted by current Super GT champion Tsugio Matsuda, as well as Lucas Ordóñez and Mark Shulzhitskiy, two winners of the GT Academy program.

The No. 24 Nissan R90CK will also be joining its GT-R LM NISMO cousins at Le Mans for a special parade lap to celebrate the anniversary of the pole lap that Blundell ran. The car will also be in the hands of Blundell during the parade. “That lap of Le Mans is certainly a very fond memory for me,” said Blundell. “It was one of those moments where time stood still and everything went perfectly. You remember those moments, as they don’t happen all that often. It’s great to see Nissan celebrating that time with the retro livery on the #21 Nissan GT-R LM NISMO. I can’t wait to see it on track at Le Mans.”

“Our racing heritage is hugely important to us,” said Darren Cox, Global Head of Brand, Marketing & Sales, NISMO. “Our 1998 car hangs on the wall at NISMO HQ in Yokohama as a reminder of our Le Mans podium, and the blue liveries of the Group C and IMSA era of the 80s and 90s are a firm favorite with the fans. So much so that when we first started talking about the possibility of a third car livery specifically for our LM P1 debut at Le Mans this year, this was the one that fans across our social media channels called for. It’s a great way to celebrate our past achievements at such a key moment in our current motor racing history.”

The three GT-R LM NISMOs will take their first laps at Circuit de La Sarthe this sunday for the official test day. The test day will also mark the first time that the GT-R LM NISMOs will run against all of the other entrants. However, Nissan has three Le Mans rookies this year, so they will need to complete a mandatory 10-lap run of the circuit, then hand the cars back to the engineers so they can tune them into the circuit. To let the engineers focus on tuning the GT-R LM NISMOs, the rookies will then jump into a Ginetta-Nissan LM P3 car that will be taking part in the test.Once the rookies are done with their laps, the car will be handed to 2013 GT Academy USA winner Nick McMillen as part of his development. A second LMP3 car will also be on track with Olympic gold medalist, Sir Chris Hoy.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is going to be an awesome race this year, and we can’t wait to spend our whole weekend watching all of the action unfold. Stay tuned for more updates as they roll in!