2015 LeMans
 

While there's never much talk or coverage around here about international racing, I've been following preparations for Nissan's full-out return to world endurance racing with the NISMO GT-R LM. This radical car has been touted as an innovative and radical challenge to the more conventional prototypes from Audi, Porsche and Toyota.

http://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/my350z.c...fc705777ae.jpg

Nissan Europe has funded a massive three car entry to the race, but despite a lot of testing (mostly in the U.S. ironically) the car lacks pace. After three qualifying sessions, the NISMO GT-R LMs were almost 20 seconds off the top qualifying times! The cars qualified 12th, 13th and 14th in LMP1 and will be forced to start from the rear of the field after failing to make the 110% rule (must qualify within 110% of the fastest car's time) in effect at LeMans.

Now LeMans is the supreme test of endurance, and there's a chance one of the three Nissan entries will finish higher than their lowly starting positions. But with that big a disparity in lap times, there's also a chance the Nissan entries will be embarrassed in the race. Nissan is putting a brave face before the start of the race on Saturday, but I wonder what is going on internally? After all, Nissan is used to running up front (innovation or not) and has been close to winning LeMans in the past. A multi-million dollar race effort is expected to produce results, and I doubt this is what Nissan had in mind. What does everybody else think?

Here's the latest press release on the Friday (6/12/15) before the start of the race:

Nissan’s Le Mans racer continues to improve - Nissan Online Newsroom

The car is front wheel drive. You are asking the front tires to power the car, stop the car, and turn the car. While the rear tires go along for the ride. You're asking the fronts to do too much. Think they are going to go through front tires in the race. Might change the rears once. If it was a good concept, you would see more of the front drivers. I remember some time back, someone tried it once, and changed back to rear wheel drive mid-season. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the lower class cars beat them.

I thought their plan was to change the front tires three times and rear tires once to make up the time.

Whatever the plan was, it's gone awry. At the halfway point of LeMans, the #23 Nissan is 45th, the #22 is 47th and the #21 Nissan has retired from the race.

The race for the 2015 LeMans title is over and Porsche finally triumphed over Audi after chasing them for years. Nissan was never in the fight and there's no other way to sugarcoat it. While I'm glad Nissan made the return to LeMans and the top level of sportscar (prototype) racing, the end results will bear some heavy scrutiny within Nissan and NISMO. The cost of racing is HIGH and usually only justified if you are winning (or almost winning) in the pro ranks. No bonus points for being the most innovative unless you are at the top. I hope this effort will be refined and continued, but at this point, there are no plans to even run any of the cars the rest of this year. As for the future, it's hard to even speculate...

All this buildup for NISMO for weeks and their hybrid system had all kinds of issues even before the start of the race

I feel like I was "bait and switched" by buying into the tech in the GT-R and them looking like amateurs :mad:

Csc failure? :ugh: lol

On the track, with engine oil over heat going into limp mode, brake fade/ice mode, and steering wheel lock in the pits. :shakes head:

dogdamn, when it rains it pours! :eekdance:

we all noticed also dat the driver took all right turns kinda slow...

damn nascrap driver!:rolleyes:

Nissan's approach to international motorsport has been largely a publicity stunt lately. They don't give two ***** about results. They put their name on the Deltawing for the publicity. They built this car for the publicity. No one in their right mind expected either car to ever contend for anything but the back of the grid. But they certainly got a lot of press coverage!

:iagree:

Nissan tried something different and they have been trying different things, GT Academy is different. I hope the LMP1 works, but then again, they are getting noticed.

Maybe they should enter a GTR in the GTE-PRO/GTE-AM, that is going to be interesting next year

MC said that next year the car will have all wheel drive and the hybrid set-up. This year was a trial of some kind.

Nissan never said they expected to win its all maketing strategy though not in a very impressive way but it got everybody's attention even Porsche.
I think that was the whole point of this project.

I liked the write up "Nissan is trolling Lemans"😄 :iagree:

A publicly trial.

I think is a very very expensive marketing hahahaa!!! but at least Nissan Nismo have the balls to make something different and I hope to see them next year with something more competitive:driving:

It was my understanding that the front drive was only electric motors, and the rears were powered by the motor?

But then again... i've been wrong before.

They should now attempt the front wheel drive concept again, but using the flying wing chassis, but run the thing backwards with the big end of the wing sticking out front. Let's get some damn good coverage for Nissan!

I can respect the fact that they are competing in LMP1-even if it was a total disaster.

I somewhat disagree that LMP1 is all about winning, it's a part of LMP1, but I don't think anyone competes in LMP1"because they know they are going to win".

The car Nissan produced for LMP1 was a joke. Let's hope they learned something, and then fix the oil cooler on the Z. :P

I can deal with the oil cooler - but the fuel pump - come on, really?

The Nissan LMP-1 GT-R was always intended to be a FWD car (with an aero package to match) using an energy recovery system to power the rear tires off the corners. It was a bold statement for trying something different in racing, but ultimately unsuccessful. Is that enough to justify a multi-million dollar investment? Only time will tell.

Given additional R&D, this car could close the speed differential to Audi, Porsche and Toyota, but there are no guarantees. I'll be watching with interest to see if Nissan makes the commitment to continue the LMP-1 effort into the future.