MOTORSPORT: Nissan's radical front-drive Le Mans car

BREAKING: Nissan has stunned the racing and WEC/Le Mans world by announcing a front-drive GT-R badged hybrid super racer.

Dubbed Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, the front-engined, front-drive LMP1 endurance racer will spearhead Nissan's return to the premier class at the French endurance classic later this year, when it takes on fellow Japanese giant and reigning world endurance champion Toyota, as well as Le Mans-dominant Audi and the other great German sports car marque, Porsche.

Nissan debuted the racer – dubbed "the ultimate GT-R" – as part of its US$13.5 million Superbowl TVC today.

The Nissan GT-R LM NISMO is powered by a turbocharged 3.0-litre petrol V6, which drives the front wheels. An Energy Recover System (ERS) stores energy under brakes and powers the rear wheels to "augment" acceleration. The potential of the combined system is claimed in some quarters to be exceeding 1000kW!

As wild as the racer's bodywork is, it's the mechanicals underneath that have gained the most attention – even just minutes after the details of the car were revealed.

Ben Bowlby, Nissan's LM P1 Team Principal and Technical Director described the racer thus: "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."

It will have wider tyres at the front than at the rear and it is believed it is narrower at the back than its nose.

"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," Bowlby also noted.

The GT-R represents the pinnacle of motor racing development for Nissan and Nismo, but it also brings together road and race synergies with Nismo's long-standing performance background, as Nissan's global head of marketing and brand strategy, Roel de Vries explained.

"The GT-R is our flagship road car and this is the ultimate GT-R," he said. "It continues a sporting bloodline that goes back three decades with NISMO, the motorsport and performance arm of Nissan.

"Le Mans drives innovation, so success on the track will lead to greater innovation in our road car range.

"We are the new kids at Le Mans. Our opponents are the best in the world, but we are ready."

Nissan has named veteran Spanish driver Marc Gene as the lead pilot for its new tilt at Le Mans glory.

It is expected to field two entries in the entire World Endurance Championship and three cars at Le Mans in June.

It will be Nissan's first attempt at outright honours at the 24-hour French classic this century, although it has dabbled with the DeltaWing and ZEOD (Zero emission on demand) experimental entries in recent years.

Nissan has never finished better than third at Le Mans.

Former Nissan vice-president Andy Palmer vowed, when flagging this new Le Mans challenge last year, that the company would "win in a very different way to that of our rivals."

Bowlby says now that Nissan has "turned the whole concept of the conventional LMP1 car on its head".

And he claims that the GT-R LM will burn about 30 per cent less fuel than a petrol-engined car at Le Mans two years ago.

Testing of the radical GT-R began at the Nissan Technical Centre in Arizona late last year and in January the car was spied on track at the Circuit of the Americas, where some of the vision for today's launch footage was filmed.

"Our LMP1 programme makes the connection between NISMO on the road and NISMO on the track, showcasing our brand DNA to a global audience," said Darren Cox, global head of brand, marketing and sales at NISMO.

NISMO GR-R LM NISMO technical specifications