{"id":40157,"date":"2015-03-31T14:05:01","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T13:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/?p=40157"},"modified":"2022-06-22T16:01:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T15:01:30","slug":"nissans-le-mans-contender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/blog\/nissans-le-mans-contender\/","title":{"rendered":"Nissan’s Le Mans Contender"},"content":{"rendered":"

Images of Nissan’s front wheel drive Le Mans prototype have been bouncing round the web since it aired at the Superbowl commercial break. <\/strong><\/p>\n

And everyone knows how expensive that piece of advertising real estate is.<\/p>\n

Testament, that, to the importance Nissan is putting on its great-looking front wheel drive Le Mans prototype for 2015. It comes with a 550 BHP V6 (a bit like the one in the GTR road car, aka Godzilla).<\/p>\n

\"nissan-gt-r-lm-nismo-lmp1-by-marshall-pruett-1\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

Apparently the emphasis of the design is on extremely low drag coefficients, which, in a high speed endurance race like the 24 Heures, is essential.<\/p>\n

But while the car’s internal combustion engine does indeed put all of its power through the front wheels, the hybrid drive
\nis a KERS system that collects kinetic energy from the front wheels under braking and pushes it out to the rear wheels under acceleration.<\/p>\n

Nissan reckon that way an additional 700 BHP can be deployed out of a corner – meaning that comes to a whopping 1250 odd horsepower at full power.<\/p>\n

Mental.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The prototype shatters another motorsport orthodoxy too, in that the front wheels are wider than the rear, which lay a meagre 9 inches of rubber onto the tarmac in comparison to the 14 laid down at the front. This is again, apparently, in aid of the all-important drag coefficient.<\/p>\n

We can’t help but think that will look, let alone drive, a little strange.<\/p>\n

We’ll have to wait and see.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t