Tag: Nismo

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Nissan WEC

Nissan postpones race debut of GT-R LM Nismo

2015 Nissan GT-R LM Nismo

Nissan has withdrawn its radical new GT-R LM Nismo from the opening two races of the WEC season in order to focus on its Le Mans challenge.

Speaking to Autosport Darren Cox, Nissan motorsport boss, said: “Our main aim for this year was always Le Mans and we have decided to re-focus on that race.

“It’s no secret that with such a different car that we have faced a number of challenges, so right now we would rather be testing in April and May rather than racing.”

That means Nissan’s front-wheel drive focused LMP1 racecar will be absent from the 6 Hours of Silverstone and the 6 Hours of Spa and won’t make its track debut until the 24 Hours of Le Mans in mid-June.

The GT-R LM Nismo ran into problems with its engine mounts during its last test session, held at Sebring. There are also suggestions the car has failed its crash test. The required modifications would not leave enough time for the homologation process to take place before the Silverstone race.

Nissan will also miss the official season prologue at Paul Ricard (27–28 March).

World Endurance Championship CEO Gérard Neveu said: “Nissan is not the first manufacturer to miss the start of the season and they won’t be the last: Toyota previously did the same and they are now our world champions.

“To build an LMP1 hybrid programme is very challenging; it takes some time and we fully trust Nissan to be on the LMP1 grid of the WEC from Le Mans.”

[Source: Autosport & WEC]

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Nissan WEC

2015 Nissan GT-R LM Nismo revealed

2015 Nissan GT-R LM Nismo Nissan has just revealed information and photos for its 2015 LMP1 challenger, the GT-R LM Nismo. And if you think it looks a bit wacky just wait until you cop a load of the car’s specifications. The GT-R LM Nismo is a front-engined, front-wheel drive racer. Yes, really, it’s a front-wheel drive; a bum dragger! It has 14″ rubber on the front axle and 9″ on the rears. It is, quite literally, totally arse about compared with what we’re used to seeing in top line motorsport. Remaining relatively true to its GT-R badge the petrol engine is a twin-turbo 3.0 litre V6. Ben Bowlby, Nissan LMP1 Team Principal and Technical Director, is the man responsible for this madness, or perhaps outright brilliance, only time will tell. He explains himself by saying: “The Nissan GT-R LM NISMO is in automotive-speak a front-engined, front-wheel-drive car. The internal combustion engine drives the front wheels and the energy recovery system harvests energy from the front wheels. We’ve used the relatively low-powered internal combustion engine to drive the front wheels and then we add power from the ERS to augment acceleration. “The regulations have allowed us the freedom to create a significantly different looking car. Nissan are bold challengers who are prepared to innovate in order to get a high performance outcome so we’ve turned the whole concept of the conventional LMP1 car of 2014 on its head. The result is that our car looks different as the cockpit has been moved significantly rearwards to accommodate the engine at the front of the car.” Former F1 driver an winner of the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans Marc Gene has been named as the driver who will lead the charge in the GT-R LM Nismo. He’ll be taking part in the full 2015 WEC calendar and has realistic hopes for the year ahead and is hopeful of a good showing at Le Mans. “This season we should just focus on learning about and improving the car every time we head out onto the track,” Gene explained. “Making it to the finish would already be an achievement on it’s own. I hope we can show that the car is competitive, especially at Le Mans. “I like the aggressive look of the car, which is a consequence of a well-thought and different design, not seen before at Le Mans. From the very first laps I felt very comfortable. I could feel the very powerful engine and high efficiency of the aerodynamics.” This is one wacky racer that will be fun to watch in 2015!

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Bathurst 12 Hour Nissan Video

Onboard the Nissan GTR Nismo GT3 at Bathurst

Rick Kelly, Nissan GTR Nismo GT3

The #32 Nissan GTR Nismo GT3 has just set the fastest time in Practice 3 at the Bathurst 12 Hour. At the wheel for this afternoon’s flying lap was Bathurst rookie Alex Buncombe who set a time of 2:06.5958. That’s a bit off this morning’s pace when David Russell set a GT3 practice record with his 2:05.9397 lap during Practice 2 in the #23 Lamborghini Gallardo.

From that morning session here is an onboard video with V8 Supercar ace Rick Kelly driving the GTR. He lapped in the low 2:07s and said it was his second fastest-lap ever around the 6.2km Mount Panorama circuit.

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Nissan

2014 Nissan GT-R Nismo revealed

Nissan GT-R Nismo

Maybe Nissan didn’t fool around with the engine in the MY14 GT-R because they knew they’d have this extreme Nismo version to attract headlines. In fact we’re sure that’s what happened.

And this GT-R Nismo is fast, too! How fast? Alcantara steering wheel and bright red rev counter fast, that’s how fast! Black wheels and white paint, plus a massive rear wing also tell you this is going to be one quick weapon. Those visual cues don’t lie, you know. They don’t.

Actually, what doesn’t lie are numbers. Raw numbers tell the truth. And how about this for some truth: thanks to a pair of competition-spec GT3 turbos the road-going GT-R Nismo pumps out 441kW (591hp) and in the hands of racing driver Michael Krumm it lapped the Nürburgring in 7:08.679 (see video below).

We told you numbers don’t lie. Nissan has got themselves a couple of seriously impressive key performance stats there.

Also involved in the development of the GT-R Nismo was former F1 driver Sebastien Buemi. Clearly, Nissan wasn’t messing about when it decided to make production version of its GT3 racecar.

Dunlop has come on board with specially developed tyres, Bilstein has handled suspension duties while Nismo’s aerodynamic package ensures this car has the serious downforce it requires.

The GT-R Nismo goes on sale in Japan in February 2014, with Europe and the US coming on line later next year. We’re not sure if Australians will be able to get their hands on the Nismo, but we’ll do what we can to find out. Pricing details will be announced closer to launch.

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Nissan

How fast can the Nissan GT-R Nismo go?

2014 Nissan GT-R Nismo prototype

While Matt Prior from Autocar presents a good case for the demise of lap times as a subjective measure in contributing towards a decision to purchase one car over another, Dale Lomas from Bridge to Gantry reports that Nissan is going all out with its latest Nismo GT-R:

The Nürburgring is always being used for something, but the prices to hire the track are so expensive that it’s very unusual to hear only one car going past every 7 or 8 minutes. It’s even more unusual for that one car to enjoy a compliment of safety marshalls and timing beacons in the industry/sport-auto positions (T13 start and end). But that’s what the Nismo GTR has this morning.

The GT-R has always been something of a giant killer at the Nürburgring and when the car was first released pretty much anything with a Porsche badge on it was firmly in Nissan’s sights. Porsche wasn’t always happy about that. At one stage Porsche even claimed Nissan cheated on its way to headline grabbing lap times.

Fast forward a few years and it’s quite something to see Nissan has booked the entire Nordschleife in what appears to be a determined chase for a super fast lap time. We’re not for one moment suggesting this Nismo GT-R will go faster the 918’s 6:57 lap time, but, well, you just never know with these things. As it stands Nissan claims its best time at the Ring with a GT-R is 7:18.

Let’s wait and see what happens next!

[Source: Bridge to Gantry]

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Motorsports Nissan

Godzilla on track for GT1 championship

Nissan GT-R - FIA GT1

Nissan will be hoping this is the view the new FIA GT1 field sees in 2010 after announcing four new GT-Rs will be taking part in the upcoming season. Nismo have signed agreements with UK-based Sumo Power GT and Swiss Racing Team, based in, well Switzerland. Each team will run a two car operation with Nismo offering tech support.

Other details are pretty scant at the moment, so you’ll just have to make do with these pics that make the GT-R’s backside even bigger—but so much naughtier!

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