One of the ingredients that added to the anticipation of the 2015 24-hours of Le Mans was the participation of the Nissan GT-R LM Nismo. A lot was written about this car going into the event, mostly very optimistic. The consensus was the car would do very well, and I for one was enthused by the potential of its design. However, the results did not live up to the hype.
At a qualifying time of 3:36.995s, it was trounced by the Porsche and Audis. The race results where not that much better. Only one car made it to the end, finishing last in the LMP1 class.
What we’ll be discussing in this article, then, is my take on what went wrong and how it could have been fixed.
Before we begin, let me state that I do not intend to re-write history. One of my pet peeves these days is how, when things go wrong, everyone goes into arse-covering mode and refuses to take responsibility. So, for the record, I stand by every word I stated in my original article. There are some strokes of genius in this car, and it is a project that deserves to be continued.
Deciding factors
Ultimately, the two factors that let this car down were its front weight distribution of 66 of the design at that point, though still should have taken this into account.
