So did you see Nissan's Super Bowl commercial? You know, this one. The one with all the race cars. If you haven't heard why this is a big deal already (and if you haven't, what WEC hating rock have you been living under), it's because this is the official unveiling of Nissan's new LMP1 car.
RACER has a four page write up on the new car here. I'm still digesting all the information that's come out in the last couple of hours (ie, it's Sunday night and I'm getting ready for work on Monday), but even based a cursory glance, this car is...interesting. First, it's front engine, like the old ALMS Panoz prototypes (technically the car is mid engine, it just puts the engine in front of the driver, instead of behind the driver like every other mid engine car). Second, the car uses a five speed transmission. Let's just sit and marvel at those last couple of sentences for a second. Modern F1 cars all have eight speed gearboxes. Furthermore, A front engine car hasn't won an F1 race since 1960, while the last front engine car to win the Indianapolis 500 was 1964. A front engine car with a five speed transmission sounds like it should run on coal.
Now make sure your sitting down for this next part, because after you get passed the engine and the gearbox, things start getting really weird. This car is front wheel drive. Okay, that part is actually a bit of lie (sort of). Like all modern LMP1 prototypes, the Nissan is a hybrid (seriously, why are you listening to me say this, go read that RACER article, they're smarter then I am). The power from the car's internal combustion engine goes to the front wheels, while the electric power can go to either the front or the rear wheels. This means that the car can be run as an AWD car, but here's where things start getting confusing. Although the design of the car allows it to be run in an AWD fashion, Nissan can run it as a strict FWD car, if they choose. It's not particularly clear at this time if car is actually FWD, AWD or some weird crime-against-nature combination of the two. So, if this is all as clear as mud for you, good, we're on the same page. In all honestly, these guys are shooting for a car with somewhere between 1,250 and 1,500 horse power. Does anyone honestly think that the engineers are going to try and send all that power through the front wheels, and let the rear wheels just chill out and do nothing? I can't help but think that when Nissan goes to race this thing, some amount of power is going to be sent to the back wheels.
As I understand it, Nissan plans on campaigning the car this year in the World in Endurance Championship. When this thing shows up for the first race, there's no doubt it's going to be the most interesting thing on the grid. Which is what worries me. Sometimes, guys who innovate and try something new go on to curb stomp the competition. The other possibility (which I think is the more realistic scenario for the 2015 season) is that Audi, Toyota and Porsche focus on the business of winning races, while Nissan sits in the garage trying to figure out what's wrong with their Rube Goldberg Machine of a drivetrain today. The point I'm driving at is that Nissan deliberately built this thing so that it would be completely different from anything else currently on the grid. Judging on that criteria, mission accomplished Nissan, but building something completely different, just because you can, isn't necessarily the best way to build a race car. Don't believe me? Allow me to present exhibit A, the Delta Wing.
My Johnny Rain Cloud analysis aside, I'm really looking forward to seeing this car on the track. I'm planning on heading down to Austin this September for the WEC race at Circuit of the Americas, so hopefully we'll have some exclusive out of focus pictures of Nissan's brand new LMP1 car on The Racing Nerd before the year is out.
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