[Fullrevs]

Nissan withdraws from the opening round of the WEC to focus more on the Le-Mans 24 hours:

Nissan has pulled out of the opening two rounds of the World Endurance Championship to concentrate on its Le Mans 24 Hours campaign.

The Japanese manufacturer made the decision to withdraw its radical front-wheel-drive GT-R LM NISMO from WEC races at Silverstone and Spa after a troubled start to its development programme, which included cutting short a test at Sebring at the start of this month.

Nissan global motorsport boss Darren Cox told AUTOSPORT: "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."

Cox said that the WEC and the FIA were "very supportive" of Nissan's decision.

A statement from WEC boss Gerard Neveu read: "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 a 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."

Cox was unable to confirm rumours that the GT-R LM had failed its crash test, which means the car would not have been able to be homologated within the required 30 days of its first scheduled race appearance at Silverstone.

It is understood that there was a minor issue with its front roll structure that is being rectified in time for a re-test next week.

The Nissan LMP1 has yet to test since its last outing at Sebring, when a problem related to the engine mounting of the twin-turbo V6 curtailed the run after two days.

Cox said development would resume in the US next week.

Nissan will also now miss the official WEC test at Paul Ricard on March 27/28, at which it was scheduled to be present with one car.

The Japanese manufacturer will have a presence at the WEC opener at Silverstone on April 12 with a show car and members of its P1 driving squad.

Source: Autosport.com

[Fullrevs]

Nissan's Le Mans Challenger all ready for the epic race after 4 day test in the USA.

Ex Formula 1 driver Max Chilton has joined the team and should drive in the historical race.

Full Report

Source: Motorsport.com

[GT-R]

Originally Posted by Fullrevs

Likewise GTO. Just reading the specs of this car has got me intrigued in the racing series. Would be fantastic if they could make a dent in the domination by Audi.

No wonder companies like Porsche, Nissan, Toyota arent looking at F1 again. The WEC really is going to be on par with F1 if the strategic group dont come with something soon. Sign the documents on the 1000BHP F1 engines already.

Bernie is going to find it very tough to sell an engine spec change to the F1 teams this early in the engine dev cycle, there will be a full blown revolt :P

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by GTO

I don't usually follow this racing series, but will check on how Nissan performed.

Free Practice session has started for the Le Mans 24h and so far it's not good news for the Nissan. The fastest Nissan is about 30s off the pace compared to the leading Audi. At this pace, the Nissan will be lapped once every hour by the Audi.

[jfxavier]

Nissan’s GT-R LM NISMO prototypes were 11th, 12th, and 13th in the first free practice and 11th, 13th, and 14th after Q1.

The three Porsches monopolised the top three places on the practice session and on the provisional grid after this evening’s Q1.
Neither the Audis nor Toyotas seemed a match for them.

Qualifying action resumes with the second session at 7pm on Thursday.

[jfxavier]

Nissans are unable to mount any serious challenges to the main teams.
Harry Tincknell put the #22 GT-R LM NISMO into 12th place and 20.108s off pole.
The #23 car of Jann Mardenborough was relegated to 13th with the #21 Nissan of Tsugio Matsuda in 15th place and behind the fastest LMP2 car.

[jfxavier]

Nissan GTR-LM prototypes failed to make the 110% cut in qualifying and were relegated to the back of the LMP2 field, starting 30th to 32nd. Looks like the cars are not so easy to drive around the track.

Jann Mardenborough: "You have to adapt to understeer and, from a set-up perspective, what you ask your engineers for is often very different from what you’d ask for in a rear-wheel-drive car. The steering inputs are similar – you try to be as smooth as you can – but the way you come off the brakes is different and you pick up the throttle a little earlier than you would in a conventional racing car."

[zenren]

Hulkenberg and co. leading Le Mans with 3 hours remaining.

[jfxavier]

Nissan experienced all the pain of a first-year effort with its front-wheel-drive GT-R LM NISMOs. They were consistently 20 seconds slower than the leaders, and problems kept the cars in and out of the garage.
The #21 car retired late into the night after losing a rear tire, while the 23 stopped running with just an hour to go.
All three Nissans ran with no or minimal hybrid assist, which caused a lack of acceleration and put more stress on the front brakes. "It's frustrating for all of us but it's the right thing to do, to turn as many laps as we can. It's a massive learning curve." Said team chief Darren Cox.
The #21 GT-R LM Nismo was forced into retirement when it experienced right front suspension failure coming out of the second chicane on the Mulsanne Straight and lost a wheel out on track. Tsugio Matsuda limped it round to Arnage before pulling over, but after much gesticulating with marshals that wanted him to go no further, he ignored their instructions and managed to bring the car back to the pits before retiring though. The car managed 115 laps.
By the 10th hour #22 GT-R LM NISMO car had already been in the pits for a while, having hit something out on the track. The incident caused substantial damage to the front-end of the car. Both the 22 and 23 continued to make appearances on the track even after that.
The second of three GT-R LM Nismos to retire was #23 as Jann Mardenborough was forced to retire when the gearbox on his car failed. The car turned in 234 laps before dropping out with just minutes over an hour left to go.
Hopefully NISMO has gathered massive amounts of data and will mount a better challenge next year.

[jfxavier]

Reliability issues with the flywheel hybrid rear wheel drive part in initial testing saw the team take the brave decision to turn up at Le Mans without it and go on gathering as much of data as possible. It also put massive extra strain on the engine and brakes, which had to do without hybrid assistance. A bigger brake package was hastily assembled but cooling it without altering the car's aero fundamentally was not possible and hence it was sacrificed and as soon as the car had to slow for any reason the brakes caught fire. The first disc change took place within the first six hours (the ones that came off promptly melted a hole in the floor), and this became a routine. Without the balancing effect of electric drive on the rear axles, putting the power down was a nightmare for the drivers and hence the car was slower than even the LMP2 class and some of the GT cars on the exit of corners. This improved as the race progressed as the team adjusted the traction control settings with the car and finally recording 210mph on the Mulsanne during the race.

Only one of the three Nissan GT-R LM Nismo machines entered in the LMP1 category crossed the finishing line, and even that # 22 car was discounted from the results because it failed to complete 70% of the winning Porsche’s 395 laps.
The whole 2015 Le Mans might look like a failure for Nissan, but there are positives to be taken from the experience for sure.
"We managed 600 laps across the three cars, which I'm very proud of," designer Ben Bowlby told. "It showed this to be a worthwhile engineering approach which we will now develop further."
Nissan's motorsport boss Darren Cox remarked: "Le Mans shouldn't be easy, it's the world's toughest race. We came here with very short lead times, so we knew this year was all about learning, and we chose to do that learning in public, which is often uncomfortable, but means we will be back much stronger next year..."
And there's no doubt that while slow, the Nissan was massively popular. The spectators, other teams and wider world recognised this is a car doing things differently.

Source: http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/n...sis-2015-06-16

[StarrySky]

So, curtains down on the experiment, at least for the time being.

[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

So, curtains down on the experiment, at least for the time being.

Or will it have anything to do with the rumored Red Bull Racing LMP1 car in the Red Bull Racing building 9 facility, which houses their AVL virtual track testing rig.

Renault withdrew Infinity from F1 sponsorship with RBR and allowed for a re-branded engine on the back of RB12. It all seems too amicable for me.

[Gannu_1]

40 odd employees who were working on this project fired, some of whom were on a vacation! Damn!

Jalopnik