Nissan GT-R LM is Officially on Life Support

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

After Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn said they would have to reassess whether their GT-R LM program was fruitful, the company announced Friday it was pulling the car out of competition.

“We know people will be disappointed, but be assured that nobody is more disappointed than us,” said Shoichi Miyatani, president of NISMO.

The car had struggled in competition this year with one car finishing at Le Mans well behind the leaders, one disqualification and one DNF at the famed race in France.

Nissan said the car’s complex Energy Recovery System was to blame for the poor results. Although the car developed around 1,250 horsepower — nearly half from the electric motors in the rear wheels — most of it never materialized. Nissan said the system was disabled on all three cars at LeMans and the lone finisher limped to the end of the race.

Nissan said testing the car — which is widely expected to share some of its powertrain with the next-generation GT-R — will continue in the United States.


Aaron Cole
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  • 360joules 360joules on Aug 08, 2015

    Making radical changes in F1 technology and expecting to immediately succeed is a well known path to failure. Yanking the tech after running a partial season seems foolish.

  • Tosh Tosh on Aug 10, 2015

    “We know people will be disappointed, but be assured that nobody is more disappointed than us,” said Shoichi Miyatani, president of NISMO. Nissan. We're not happy until you're not happy.

  • Sky_Render Sky_Render on Aug 10, 2015

    So the capabilities of the GT-R-LM were overinflated by Nismo? You mean kind of like the Deltawing?

  • Highway27 Highway27 on Aug 10, 2015

    The car never had an electric hybrid system. It was designed as a mechanical hybrid with the option to send power to the rear wheels if they fitted additional drivetrain, and that system failed miserably, to the point of disabling it from the car for Le Mans.

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