Nissan GT-R LM NISMO Front-Wheel Drive LMP1 Car Revealed

Nissan has unveiled their new GT-R LM NISMO to compete in the 2015 World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

To call it “radical” would be an understatement: the car is a front-wheel-drive, front-engine prototype, powered by a 600hp twin-turbo V6. The gearbox is also connected to flywheels capable of sending up to 1,000hp to the rear wheels in “three second bursts” – although those rear wheels will be nearly half as wide as those in the front. Needless to say, there has never been anything quite like this on a race track before.

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According to recent comments by Nissan Global Motorsports Director Darren Cox, the GT-R LM NISMO will be “completely tied to gaming”, and is all but confirmed for eventual inclusion in Gran Turismo.

Although the car’s full driver line-up has yet to be announced (2009 Le Mans winner Marc Gené is the first to be confirmed), GT Academy champions boast years of international endurance racing experience for Nissan – including class podiums at Le Mans – and will be considered as the company evaluates who to put behind the wheel.

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As reported by Road & Track, GT Academy champion Jann Mardenborough is currently in the running, and has helped to test the car during its development. He was also the driver behind the wheel at the Circuit of the Americas, where Nissan filmed their “With Dad” Super Bowl commercial.

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Jann scored a cameo during the commercial itself, as he is shown on a television hoisting a trophy on a podium during one of the later scenes. Congratulations to Jann for his TV debut during one of the most-watched sporting events in the world!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd1qCi5nSKw

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Comments (77)

  1. Saevios

    FWD cars generally have good handling in tight corners (city areas), and under-steer when it comes to medium corners. I presume that the front’s underside is generating a tremendous amount of downforce to counter-attack the weaknesses of a every day FWD car. I found the article on Top gear to be very intriguing. Essentially this could work, but I would hate it if everyone followed this design for the future. I don’t like the look, but I do like the ambitious project :)

    http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/nissan-le-mans-racer-lmp1-gt-r-explained-2015-02-09

  2. Takata

    This feels like the Deltawing’s opposite. The Deltawing had the rear tyres doing almost all of the work, while this one will seemingly have the front tyres doing most of the work. I’m guessing the ability to send power to the rear tyres some of the time will be critical in negating the expected weaknesses of front wheel drive.
    Maybe loading the engine in the front counter-balances the usual weight-shifting towards the rear under acceleration, allowing you to use all 4 tyres a bit better?
    I’d be interested to hear the technical justifcation for front-wheel drive in a LMP race car, when everything else uses rear wheel drive.

  3. DYLAN777-is-not

    Good job Nissan! They’re doing the best at tring new things. The Delta Wing now this!? This sounds imazing! (Impossible +amazing=imazing)

  4. SavageEvil

    Nothing says I’m full of myself more than comments from folks saying Nissan are making a mistake using FWD. Wow just wow. Considering they didn’t just pull this car out of their bums, pretty sure they know a lot more about dynamics of this car than nearly every one of us. Nissan has been showing off a lot of technological triumphs, the GTR is one such triumph it’s huge and heavy yet has been refined to the point where it can seriously deliver performance of something that would cost you well over it’s price range to even match it.

    This car is something I am most intrigued about as it’s FWD and it’s rear wheels are narrower than the front. How does that work out with a car that can get up to 1000 hp to the rear in 3 second bursts, this is some pretty bonkers news. Lets see how it does and see if Nissan was on the right track with this albeit weird but ultimately calculated decision.

    1. Amac500

      Drinking Kool-Aid I see. You act as if factory efforts are immune to failure. Doesn’t matter if they make a good street car, that’s not a free pass. People criticized Aston Martin for going open top on the AMR-One and what happened? It flunked out and the cars were parted out after 1 year. Mercedes have always been great engineers, and what happened in ’99? Not only has nobody done a FWD Le Mans contender for the obsticle of understeer, but most of the manufacturers at Le Mans are relying on engineering developed for street cars to at least be a spring board for the technology of the race car. This has been the way it is with the diesel engine for example. Nissan has no experience with making front wheel drive perforamce cars so they have no engineering info to fall back.

      Also I don’t think anyone is surprised that the front wheels are wider than the rear. It’s completely normal that the wheels generating the drive are wider in order to get the most out of putting the power on the road. I think when we hear it’s FWD that was kind of the assumed choice, certainly the most logical one.

    2. Amac500

      Not to mention that having a FWD car won’t be particularly kind on tire ware, and when Audi can quadruple stint it’s tires that’s something that Nissan should be thinking about.

    3. fordskydog

      To Amac500… unless you are talking about drag tires, there is a wide misconception about wide tires. They are best used to balance cornering. On a car that needs to turn, you put the wide tires on the end with more weight bias. Wider tires allow you to generate more lateral force with less slip angle. Enthusiasts who most know what they are doing and how to do me with less are autocrossers. If you look at a fwd autocross car with something like 60/40 weight balance, they run wider tires on front. The wider tire goes on the end with more weight. Using racing tires and massive down force only amplifies that situation.

      Staggered tires on fr cars from oems are pure marketing.

      Wider tires are stiffer in carcass twist, meaning it takes fore force to twist, and there fore more force is imparted to the road, for a given slip angle. If you want the car to turn about its center when the weight is ahead of center, you need more lateral force at the front tires.

      Nissan’s use of wider front tires here has more to do with cornering than forward drive.

  5. Maddens Raiders

    Let’s go Jann!!!!! From couch racer to Super Bowl cameos in an LMP. That’s what I call progress man. What other driving simulator can say that!? Not a fan of FF setups but I wish Nissan the best this year.

  6. Griffith500

    3 seconds of 1000 bhp is 5 seconds of 600 bhp. When coming out of corners, they won’t be using all 600 bhp available at the front wheels all the way out all of the time.

    That could mean it’ll have a rear bias at corner exits most of the time, as long as there’s a big brake beforehand. Complexes like the Porsche curves might be challenging, though.

    I don’t see that front drive in a straight line at high speed is such a big deal, especially with downforce.

    1. Amac500

      Yeah I think that one might just be you, lol, I think it looks completely different from anything I’ve seen since the Panoz GT1.

  7. Amac500

    I think they are shooting themselves in the foot by making it front wheel drive. The layout is interesting and the front engine could work, especially for Le Mans, but the FWD is a hindrance, there is a good reason why people don’t do it. I think Nissan is counting on it having a lot of mechanical grip to compinsate for the lower downforce body. So there might be a theory there, but idk, sometimes Nissan tries so hard to be different that they hold themselves back.

  8. stupidstormy36

    This will be the first LMP to have the engine in the front since the Panoz, at least to my knowledge. That’s exciting for me. Unfortunately, the front wheel drive part is a turn off for me. Wonder if the 3 second burst power to the rear wheels will make this car more interesting like the Hybrid systems on the R18 (not the one in GT6), or the TS030, or maybe even the Skyactive Mazda LMP. I’ll still give it a chance once it’s in GT6 or GT7.

    1. MrWaflz55

      @teamczrracing Even with the rear wheels going part of the time, the 600/1000 split is going to mess up the cornering

  9. wudy201

    Eh it looks cool but not a LMP fan I personally just don’t enjoy driving them. I like the ff idea and the speed burst sounds cool but I’d much rather take a new vision gt car. that’s something that interests me especially since these last few really got me stoked.

  10. ginsunh

    Can we get it in a DLC? No, wait . . . I’d rather have more imaginary Vision vaporware cars that don’t exist.

    (ducks and runs)

    1. TeamCZRRacing

      They give the automakers a chance to experiment with new technologies in a fairly realistic virtual environment without having to spend millions of dollars on R&D, so I don’t understand what’s useless about that. Heck, if anything, VGTs could be seen as a small, very early preview of what’s to come.

  11. research

    Jann Mardenborough has made it to the level of Super Bowl commercial.

    Think about that..

    Damn, rooting for Jann is fun!

  12. Crowood

    Let’s hope this car is more reliable then the “deltawing”. I can’t remember any race where the deltawing made it to the finish line, without blowing the engine or some other major problems.

  13. racezilla

    On the one side, understeer and tire wear, on the other a hybrid 4WD – FWD drivetrain. Definitely Nissan will benefit from this unconventional approach from a visibility standpoint.

    1. liv4hardstyle

      Lol, sighh new england-forever tainted. Why would a decent team cheat? (speculation) at least let Jacksonville or Tampa bay (my poor team!) tamper with the balls, they need it.

  14. dddsprayshop

    So they moved the cockpit from front to back and the engine from back to front.
    I almost see a SLS in it, with a longer cockpit and FF.

    It is not designed for “america’s next top model on the catwalk”, it is designed for speed.
    Like the Chapparral 2J, Unusual car, then qualified 2 sec faster then the fastest racecar
    and was outlawed after it got approved at first.Looked simple and wierd, but was very effective designed.

  15. TRLWNC7396

    You know, for me, ALL of the current LMP cars look a little wierd. Based on that, this one, quite honestly, looks almost normal.

    I hope it does well. Good luck to all!

  16. Coquico

    Unbelievable. All, the design, the FF… Its nice to see something different. Hope this not to be a bluff in performace. Wish to see Lucas in the car!

  17. Jayson619

    Disappointed with the design….I was hoping it’d look like the AUDI and the one Lucas ride in his maiden Le Mans.

  18. JohnyPiston

    FF?? Sorry I am not sold though it is always nice that someone is trying something different. I take it that those 1000 BHP bursts are supposed to help it rotate? It would be hard, I imagine, for a driver to cope with an FF through the Porsche curves and the inevitable torque steer for 24H without those bursts. I wonder when the bursts happen …on corner exits? At a certain RPM? On-demand? Fascinating …imagine if that technology finds its way to normal street FF cars. That fact that the rear tyres are thinner is sure to introduce counter-steering fun …

    1. AAR_CobraJet

      The only “bursts” that car is going to see will be coming from the front tires. All the braking, accelerating, turning, and weight transfer during a 24 hour period is going to kill those tires. It will be a garage queen with the deltawing before the sun goes down.

  19. Blood*Specter

    Pretty sure it won’t sound like that in the game. And yeah, the Delta Wing’s front tires are so close together, they might as well have made only one……….lol.

    Wonder what the new LMP would sound like in Project Cars? Most likely PD will block Pcars from having any Nissans.

  20. Johnny1996

    This car is like the Chaparral 2J: Never-before-seen technology in a racecar. Hopefully this LMP will last longer than the 2J though.

  21. TeamCZRRacing

    I just love the design of the car. There’s no extra fluff; you can tell it’s just there to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and it’s all outta gum…

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