MOTORSPORT: Nissan says ZEOD a success

Despite managing only five laps at the Le Mans 24-hour before its gearbox broke, Nissan is acclaiming the performance of the radical ZEOD RC petrol-electric ‘Garage 56’ racer as a success.

While its race lasted only 23 minutes, the controversial ZEOD RC (Zero Emission On Demand Racing Competition) managed to achieve two targets set for it: exceeding 300km/h on electric power down the Mulsanne straight and completing an entire lap of the 13.629km circuit running solely on battery power.

The former objective was achieved in qualifying on Thursday night and the latter in the warm-up on Saturday morning.

“It (the ZEOD) has gone fantastically well -- we have hit our objectives,” insisted NISMO's global head of brand, marketing and sales, Darren Cox. “We never said we were going to go 24 hours."

The ZEOD made it into the Le Mans race as the experimental ‘Garage 56’ entry. Powered by a 1.5-litre triple-cylinder turbo-petrol engine and two electric motors, the plan was for it to compete one lap in every 13-lap stint during the race on electricity alone.

“The technology is incredible in this car – we have a three-cylinder engine, an EV system and a gearbox that can run both,” Cox told Radio Le Mans.

“We didn’t even bring our Plan A batteries with us,” he revealed. “They are stuck in customs in America, so we have lots of power, we know what we are doing now and we could have run a lot faster.”

The other obvious technology highlight of the Zeod is its narrow front-track Deltawing design. Nissan has shown a concept road car using the same chassis principle called the Bladeglider which it has strongly hinted will make production.

However, the ZEOD project is mired in controversy because of a law suit brought against Nissan, Cox and the car’s designer Ben Bowlby by US automotive and motorsport heavyweights Don Panoz and Rick Ganassi, who insist the intellectual property that it is based on belongs to them.

Despite all that the ZEOD is expected to make more appearances in the World Endurance Championship this year.

While the budget is still being negotiated, the Japanese round of the WEC at Fuji in October looks a strong chance and the US round at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas in September is also being mooted.

“Wouldn’t that be lovely – I love Texas and I love Japan,” said Cox. “This is not a museum piece, it is a rolling laboratory.”

Nissan enters the World Endurance Championship with an LMP1 program to take on Audi, Porsche and Toyota in the outright class in 2015, although class regulations dictate the ZEOD’s shape can’t be employed.

However, the learning derived from the Zeod’s powertrain will be valuable as regulations also dictate the NISMO GT-R LMP1 will have to be a hybrid.

“The three manufacturers in LMP1 have brought three different types of technology and we are going to bring a fourth,” Cox said.

“This is the place where future road technologies are proven.”