In 1984, Nissan Motors appointed Electramotive Engineering as its official North American racing development arm, seeking to raise the brand's profile in the United States following the phase-out of the Datsun name. Nissan planned to use the IMSA GT Championship as a showcase for its engineering capabilities, as it had previously done at the 24 Hours of Le Mans beginning in 1983. Electramotive would maintain, modify, and race the cars, with Nissan supplying turbocharged VG30ET V6 engines, which Electramotive extensively modified for competition use.
For the chassis, Nissan and Electramotive turned to Lola Cars International, whose expertise in building customer prototype racing cars was well established. Lola constructed the T810 to Electramotive's precise requirements, tailoring the design to suit the shorter sprint races and tighter circuit layouts typical of the IMSA GT Championship, which differed considerably from the long-distance endurance events for which many contemporary prototypes were designed.
The first two T810 chassis, numbered HU01 and HU02, were completed by Lola in early 1985. A third chassis, HU03, was constructed by Lola at a later date and was initially sold to the Le Mans Company in Japan for use in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship. Some of the T810 tubs shared structural elements with an earlier Lola design, the T710, which was better known in its American guise as the Chevrolet Corvette GTP.
The T810 was powered by Nissan's turbocharged VG30ET V6 engine, a unit derived from the production 300ZX. In competition form the engine was heavily reworked to cope with racing stresses, producing power outputs considerably beyond the standard unit.
The first T810 made its competition debut during the 1985 IMSA GT season at Laguna Seca, driven by Electramotive founder Don Devendorf and co-driver Tony Adamowicz. The car finished eleventh in its debut, seven laps down from the race winner. Following a heavy accident during practice at Charlotte, the chassis was repaired before returning to competition later in the season. A ninth-place result at Sears Point was the team's best showing in 1985, as mechanical problems prevented the car from finishing several remaining rounds.
The third T810 chassis, sent to Japan for the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship, made its debut late in the 1985 season but suffered mechanical failures. In 1986 the car again competed at the 1000 km of Fuji, finishing sixth, thirteen laps behind the winning Porsche 962, before the team retired the Lola and moved to Porsche machinery.
Through the 1985 and 1986 IMSA seasons, Electramotive progressively modified the T810 chassis to adapt it to the demands of the championship and to extract more performance from the Nissan powertrain. The modifications eventually became so extensive that the cars diverged substantially from the original Lola design. Electramotive renamed the cars GTP ZX-Turbos to reflect this evolution and subsequently began constructing their own chassis tubs rather than sourcing them from Lola. Five Electramotive-built tubs were completed in 1988, superseding the original Lola-built structures.
The GTP ZX-Turbo program, which grew out of the T810 foundation, went on to win the IMSA GT constructors championship in 1989 and 1990 and claimed back-to-back 12 Hours of Sebring victories in the same years, making it one of the most successful prototype programs in IMSA history.