Nissan Nismo – Going the Distance

Well, that was a bit…anticlimactic. The hype around the 2015 season of the FIA World Endurance Championship had seemingly gone into the stratosphere when Nissan used the television spectacle of the Superbowl to reveal their LMP1 challenger, the GT-R LM NISMO.

The car’s radically retro front-engined layout and even more bold front-wheel drive drivetrain – reportedly four-wheel-drive at first in order to align itself with its famous road going namesake – caught the attention of everyone already following the WEC as well as those outside of it.

It would definitely qualify as a let down that Nissan has decided to spend more time fine tuning its striking looking LMP1 machine before giving it its racing debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That means missing the opening two rounds of the season at Silverstone and Spa.

Nevertheless, Nissan’s decision to put the GT-R LM NISMO’s debut on hold is indicative of the competition that the company is against in the manufacturer class of the WEC. Defending champions Toyota, former champions and Le Mans winnners Audi and returnees Porsche are now well established marques ready to eat their challengers alive if they do not come with their A-game. Not to mention that the three have amidst their ranks some of the best racing drivers in the business like Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer. Along with which you have an ex-F1 hotshot Mark Webber and current Sahara Force India driver who will drive for Porsche just at Le Mans.

Nissan has chosen to counter such firepower behind the wheel with a mixture of youth and experience. Along with graduates of NISMO’s GT Academy; Jann Mardenborough and Lucas Ordonez warhorses like Marc Gene, Michael Krumm, Oliver Pla and Tsugio Matsuda are essential components of the ambitious Japanese marque’s assault on Le Mans glory. Alex Buncombe and another ex-F1 racer, Max Chilton round out NISMO’s three car entry.

Although given that we won’t see their radical machines turn a wheel in competition until June – let alone get to NISMO’s target of hitting 400 kmph at Le Mans – it’s all talk for now.

What matters is who is actually putting rubber to the tarmac come the opening race at Silverstone on April 12. That itself should be mighty interesting.