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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ส.ค. 2024
- Let's take a closer look at the unique design of the Nissan GT-R LM Nismo!
Was it a genius design or just a total desaster?
How did they come up with the idea?
What caused the issues in this project?
How did they try to adapt the car?
And which potential could we see?
#24hlemans #24h #lemans #lemans24 #lemans24hours #nissan #lmp1
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If I had a dollar for every good idea ruined by management pushing the engineers to cut corners and insist on releasing before it is ready I'd launch my own Le Mans entry
Nissan has form here in the form of Infiniti. The Infiniti engineers came up with some very clever ideas and systems, only to be allowed to implement them in a half baked form that the management then abandoned, sometimes only a year into production.
Well you could probably afford a ticket at least 😂
yeah, was super sad not to see this thing compete as intended. With the hybrid system driving the rear wheels, it could have been a weapon...
If only they had more time.
Mastercard Lola F1 car is a perfect example of that
My favourite ever LM car. The true spirit of Le Mans. Shame Nissan abandoned the project. They were on the cusp of legendary.
DeltaWing is cool too
@@RCmaniac667 Cooler
Probably wouldn't have been a race winner. FF cars just have way too much tire wear to be competitive and understeer too much even if engineered really well. I think it would've been equally impressive if they made a FR car competitive, you can make a lot of work with that much space left at the rear for a diffuser and venturi tunnels.
Same here! I think the balance of performance should have been tweaked to equalize cars between drivetrain layouts, aero (downforce/drag), and efficiency. What always bugs me about this class of race car is that some manufacturers seem to be able to get rules breaks at will…and others are hung out to dry…
Front drivetrain is nearly exactly the same as…a Citroën SM. ;) Look that car up, with an eye to both the works rally cars and the privateer Bonneville record attempt…
Had they started off with an electric hybrid system sending power to the rear they could've had a winning concept. Having some power at the rear would've helped with slow-medium speed turns, acceleration onto the straight, and probably would've helped put some more load on the rear tyres to get more use out of them. Alternatively they could've leveraged the hybrid system to run a higher downforce setup without losing top speed.
Just a shame they killed the project so fast, but I guess all Nissan has cared for in the past 2 decades is cutting costs.
No because they fitted smaller tyres on the rear to compensate for the underbody aero and the fact it was primarily FWD
The rear wheels were also supposed to be driven, and take the majority of the hybrid power, which was to be deployed primarily on corner exit, which would have helped greatly with the cars slow speed late corner acceleration. Such as out of the Mulsane chicanes, through Indianapolis, and onto the main straight. The larger profile front tires would have also allowed them to attack the curbs a bit more. And the suspension geometry would not have been compromised in that situation either, such as it was at Le Mans with new spindles to fit the bigger brakes.
@@bigbuckoramma It would have helped their lap times, to be closer to LMP1 sure, but it wouldn't have made them competitive. The rules at the time for hybrid engagement were mandated at above 80kph. So the lack of traction for a FWD is absolutely still there, regardless of rear wheels being driven.
And given that the hybrid power was significant horsepower, and the fact their rear tyres were more narrow than anything else, it's hard to imagine they would have ever really been able to deploy it other than at high speed, when the deployment of hybrid is largely ineffective anyway.
Deploy hybrid at 320 and gain 5-10kph because you're at the vehicles aerodynamic v-max anyway
Deploy hybrid at 80kph through a corner exit and you'll be in excess of 30kph faster.
But they wouldn't have been able to do that with thin rear tyres
@@flammenjc name all the places on the Circuit de Le Sarthe that you are below 80kph.
Also, what wheels do the hybrid systems of the Toyota, the Audi, and the Porsche deploy through? Oh, that's right, the narrower front wheels. Do they have traction problems too? Of course not.
The width of the tire is determined by the weight balance of the car. It's as simple as that.
With a proper differential, and the correct suspension geometry (See: Revo Knuckle), you can make plenty of traction and forward bite in a FWD car.
There are benefits and downsides to everything. But if you are content on believing there is only one way to do something, then you will miss out on learning anything new.
@@bigbuckoramma Arnage, Mulsanne, Ford Chicane.
The reason Porsche, Toyota and Audi didn't have traction problems is because all 4 tyres were of more-or-less equal size.
I'm not here saying people shouldn't explore new ideas. The point is, when a corporation does it in the effort to be a PR scam and nothing more. As motorsport fans, we should all hate that because they took everyone for fools, and many people took the bait and are still swallowing the hook
The product was bad. Even if their hybrid system was working it would NOT be fast enough. They could barely outpace LMP2 in qualifying with at least 200 more bhp. It wasn't good enough.
In many ways they tried to [cunningly] re-invent the wheel. And it doesn't matter how smart the methods were to force this project, it was never going to work and that's proven ONE; by the fact it was not faster than LMP2 with no hybrid and TWO by the fact Nissan dropped it almost immediately after Le Mans.
The car did ONE. RACE......
ONE.
And then it got canned.
ONE FUCKING RACE!
This project was such a radical departure from everything in the last 40 years of motorsport that they had to completely unlearn and relearn everything they knew about racecar engineering. Naturally this requires a lot more time to develop than tried and tested concepts. Could Nismo succeeded with more time? Maybe. But Nissan GT-R LM will be forever be one of the most fascinating cases of "what could have been".
I believe they would've done much better given grace
I always remember that in teh winter of 14-15 there were lots of rumours about Nissan being 6 months behind schedule, which were always vigorously denied but by the time the car turned up at an event it was still clearly about that far behind.
It's such a shame they never got the time to get a working hybrid in it, the whole project died without ever really getting the chance to actually test the core concepts underpinning it all.
It feels like a sequel to the Mastercard Lola saga, a good concept
kneecapped by a stupidly short development time imposed by the
managers.
Such a promising concept. One of the bigger "what could have been" at Le Mans.
I think you missed a very critical point of the aero development of the car, and why the FWD layout was chosen.
The rear diffuser was a heavily regulated design that was the same among all P1 teams. Where as the front splitter and diffuser area, much like the engine regulations, was nearly completely open and free for design. So the decision was made to exploit that area of the regulations, and make a massive front diffuser, with an extreme forward weight bias to match. That eventually drove the FWD layout, and the flow through tunnels to help with diffuser extraction and drag reduction at the rear. As well as making the rear diffuser significantly more efficient. Which is why at high aero loads, the car was fantastic at throttle pick ip, and mid corner speed, such as you described at the entrance of the Porsche Curves.
I think the way you presented it, makes it sound like they just decided this was a great idea to try FWD and be different, and then engineer around it as they went. When in fact there was a solid interpretation of the grey areas in the rules that drove this design brief right from thr start.
A couple of other things I think you also glossed over, is the fact that ToroTrak has never had a hybrid system that has worked as advertised. Even their system for commercial busses was grossly over promised, and heavily under delivered. It never ran with any reliability, or anywhere near the output power levels they claimed. During 2016, and the promotion of this cars racing program, ToroTrak gathered a massive amount of funding and investment money with multiple press releases about all the great things they would do with Allison, JCB, and a couple of CAT subsidiaries. By the beginning of 2017 the companies portfolio had nothing to show for, and by 2018 the company went into receivership. No FlyBrid system has ever been made commercially viable.
With regards to the brakes. Part of the caster change in the car was due to a requirement to make room for thr larger caliper for the larger rotor. Likewise, the brakes themselves were not LPM1 spec brakes. But where infact new old stock of LMP2 assemblies. And were being pushed WAY out of their deaign specification. Which was why they were required to be changed so often. And in connection with that, thr spindle and tire chane meant the cara suspension qas being put through significantly more loading. And in the tests at Sebring, they damaged the chassis at the puck up points for the suspension, because of thr high shock loads. This was also one of the primary reasons why the cara were told to stay off the curbs at Le Mans, because there was concen that they would have another suspension failure on yhe chassis. And because of the increased shock to thr drivetrain on an already over stressed clutch, which much like the original brake package, was deaigned lighter and smaller with a hybrid system in mind.
And lastly, the very final shot of the car sitting next to some trash, fenced off next to an industrial warehouse, was thankfully not one of the full race cars. It was just the static display model used for the auto show circuit. Less than 12h after this photo showed up online, this display model disappeared, and has never been seen again.
Thank you for these very interesting additional informations. May I ask where you have got this insights from?
For the first part of your comment: That's exactly what I explained. They didn't just choose FWD to be different, it was the result of careful consideration.
And thanks for your additional information in the later parts of your comment.
@@BSport320 Sure, just want to make a point that the rules regarding the front diffuser were really a big part of it all. I didn't feel that single fact was really emphasized enough. That's all. Always love the videos!
I remember Nissan making a huge deal of this car at the Super Bowl. They had made some waves before with the DeltaWing concept, that people agreed was a promising concept that didn't get to show its potential. Then they came to the Super Bowl with those ads saying that they're "here to take back what is theirs" or something like that. While showing a FWD race car, a radical and surprising concept. Since they had good history of race innovation (not just the DeltaWing, but also the GT-Rs), this was taken quite seriously, although with a pinch of salt. All of this made the faceplant of the 24 Hours of Le Mans sting that much more, and even if there might have been potential, it was all buried under volcanic layers of shame, disappointment and mockery. I'd love to see someone take over that concept, and try to make it work (same story for the DeltaWing), with more humility of course. But Nissan's pride cost these innovation their chance.
I'll always be grateful for the GTR-LM as it was the car that got me into watching Lemans in the first place. As Nissan was live streaming the race with some onboard cameras and other stuff on their TH-cam channel
Their coverage and access to the project was second to none. And it shocking to me that no one else has bothered to give the fans that same level of content since. It was a great time to be a racing fan.
@@bigbuckoramma that would not work today sadly. Because of tv/broadcast rights. It's a shame. Because if you take the N24 for example it was mega. 24+ hours high quality live stream on TH-cam. Even with multiple onboard channels.
This is the best video on the GT-R LM I've seen. Thank you.
So, the speed trap results suggest the inherent aero efficiency of the body design was as planned. Your video implies that the two critical points for the project were the failure of the mechanical hybrid system - which never worked - and Nissan management impatience by demanding it race before it was ready. Without working hybrid pushing power to the rear wheels, it was a purely FWD car that upset the total design and engineering concept, and therefore could never be competitive. Then, Nissan management lost faith with the concept before giving the team the time to work through the fixes.
Would an electric hybrid energy system have worked in its place for 2016? Is this a design that was really only suited for Le Mans' unique mix of long straights and fast changes of direction?
What has happened to Ben Bowlby since? Is his reputation trashed, or is he still highly respected?
This car have insane tech under hood.
1250Hp and its FF!
Mechanical energy storage i never heard about that,wow!
9:18 That is crazy!
I loved this car, the innovative design. The way it had the potential to obliterate the competition by doing everything “the wrong way”. I was gutted to hear that the Nissan management were short sighted and pulled the plug. I genuinely believe we were robbed of a genuine Le Mans Legend in this car.
A few other things to mention:
1) The electronics were terrible (presumably related to time pressure), so in the onboards you can hear how crude the traction control is, and how long it remains active after slow corner exits.
2) The pullrod front suspension (combined with poor electronics above) meant that when the drivers touched kerbs it would massively upset the front end, resulting in even more problems.
3) On at least a few occasions drivers would lock the front wheels up so severely that they stalled the engine and had to restart it. You can see an example of this in the night onboard video that's also on TH-cam at 0:27.
I was a bit disappointed they cancelled this program, because I do think it had great potential.
edit: One more thing: there was a HUGE amount of flex in the steering column too (visible from onboards), which probably wasn't reassuring for the drivers.
Things to also keep in mind with regards to this.
The hybrid system was supposed to shove the car out of corners from the rear wheels. And there would be little need for front wheel traction control.
Likewise, with a functional hybrid system harvesting energy under breaking, the front wheels would have used the smaller 13" brakes, with the smaller 16" wheels, and the bespoke tires with higher sidewalls would have compensated for the suspension limitations, by being an active damper for rough road, and curbs.
Couple that with the car needing new spindles for the now larger brake kit they had to run, that also further compromised the geometry of the suspension, and the new lower profile 18" wheels also imparting more shock load into the suspension pick up points.
And finally, the clutch and drivetrain issues with the stalls were also because of lack of hybrid. Those parts were never intended to move the car on their own. And were being pushed well beyond their rated load and duty cycle.
Without the hybrid, it was like trying to run a marathon without feet. Could you still do it? Sure. But you would struggle mightily.
My take on this design, where as the delta wing was a neat idea with genuine benefits, this seemed like it strayed more into the realm of an engineering fixation. Sounds like the actual fixation was the mechanical energy storage.
I wouldn't even call it a fixation, it's just that by the time it was clear that the full-mechanical hybrid wasn't going to work it was just too late to do anything about it for that year.
I liked that design a lot. The delta wing was so cool as well. Thinking out of the box.
Saw them up close and personal, back at Le Mans '15.
Truely great effort. Sad it didn't come to fruition.
As others have said, really epitomising the Spirit of Le Mans. Such a brilliant design that would slide (ironically) into LMH perfectly. Maybe Nissan should look at a return with a conventional Hybrid system and no rear wing like the peugeot....
I especially went to the 15 24hLM race to see that car in action! I was a huge fan of the concept, exploiting the aerodynamic loopholes. I thought, getting everything working, it was a potential winner. Shame it was stopped, does anyone know where the remains of the cars are now?
Thank you very much for the video. You gave a lot of insight into the challenges of the hybrid (flywheel) system. Since Audi also used a flywheel, what was so fundamentally different that Audi's concept did work and Nissan's did not? Just the much, much higher KJ (energy) requirement? The challenges for Audi must have been similar.
Also: There were once interesting rumours about Audi's fuel tank / fuelling pipe design that saved them time during pit stops, but can't find it anymore. Maybe worth a video? :) Liebe Grüsse aus der Schweiz!
Thanks a lot!
So Audi used the already proven Williams Single Flywheel, which had 0.72MJ energy storage. Until 2014 that was only good for the 2MJ class. With a few updates, they could push that system up to the 4MJ class, but that was the limit.
The Williams system was an electric flywheel, so all the gears and oil requirements like the Torotrak system of the Nissan were not there.
Since Audi had the heavy Diesel powertrain, they wanted light energy storage solutions. A second flywheel or battery would have been too heavy for them at that time.
@@BSport320 Awesome, thank you for the insight!
Basically Audi used a flywheel as a battery for electric motors where Nissan was using the flywheel as the power deployment and energy store
Ben gave me my first job at Lola Cars about 24 years ago. He was a very smart man and very good engineer.
Such a shame that this didn't work out. It's my favourite Le Man's car ever, purely on the basis of the incredible outside thinking. Nissan's engineers and designers tried something totally different to everyone else, but Nissan management killed it with their impatience.
If they had been able to get the mechanical flywheel system working, I can only imagine what a truly wondrous car they would have had.
I don't think that flywheel system would ever have worked. None of ToroTraks systems ever worked as advertised. Which is why the company went into receivership in 2018.
During the last test of the car, at COTA in sprint configuration, with proper LMP1 brakes, revised front suspension geometry, an updated clutch and gear ratios, and crucially WITHOUT the hybrid system, the car was showing great pace, and they were clearly making progress on the development. It was also around that time that the rumors of working with the Renault F1 team, and procuring dual a MGU-K and MGU-H units and a unique Super Cap system, based on the success of Porsche using both MGU aystems, was gaining traction, and seemed like a very logical step in the cars progression. But it was literally during that test, that the plug was pulled on the whole project.
5:43 Wow, that's impressive! I had no idea the Chief Engineer on this project was a baby...
A throwback to the '60's and '70's, when entrants were willing to think out of the box and try radical new approaches. If only they'd given it another year.....
Hopefully one day someone revisits a similar concept: the possibility of a non-rear wheel drive car ever winning a 24h race is just too fascinating to ever give up on.
Getting a penalty for spinning the tires on pit exit is the most French rule I’ve ever heard of.
I followed the project from the first time I heard about it. When I learned that the hybrid system was a mechanical one I knew that the project was doomed for the time frame that was given. An electrical hybrid would have had much more flexibility in the long run imho. I loved the wacky concept, but it was not given proper development time and was rushed. Same can be said for the Peugeot this year, but their concept seems to work far better and I really hoped that they would take the win this year.
If they had’ve gone with an electric system from the start the whole thing could’ve been a real winner. Some genius outside the box thinking undone by impatience and underdevelopment. Definitely one of the biggest “what if’s” in motorsport
Shame this car is remembered as a failure and a joke because the ideas behind it were amazing and inspiring
You have to consider that, at the time, the battery tech was no good enough to last a full 24h. The degradation was pretty substantial. This is exactly why Audi used the electric flywheel design. Because even with the conversation losses, the flywheel would maintain consistent output. And also why Toyota used Super Caps. Porsche had said that they lose somewhere near 20% of the total capacity of their battery over the course of 24h. That's huge.
So the mechanical flywheel made sense in theory from that standpoint. And could have harvested power significantly faster than the electrical systems, and suffered almost zero degradation over the 24h.
However, ToroTrak sold them an engineering brief full of statistics that the system could have never reached. And in fact, none of their flywheel hybrid systems ever worked as advertised. Always at less speed, less output, and less capacity, all of which made them have no benefit due to their weight. There are some cool engineering ideas in their products, but it was far too complicated and convoluted to ever work right as a complete system.
@@bigbuckoramma had they’ve gone to Williams or just about anyone else really then they would’ve had a much better chance at making it work
This might be my favorite race car of all time! I was so so hyped about the idea from the start. Alone because of the pure bravery in taking on a massive challenge, and doing something really innovative and new. Seeing this video just makes it even more wonderful, because the potential was there. If it just had better management and a better hybrid system, it might have changed LMP racing forever! It will forever be the biggest “what if” in my book of motorsporting memories! 🏁
Nissan: - Go, produce a car in half the time required!
Also Nissan: - Why is it so slow? We cancel the project!
Wise decisions...
Great video, as always!
I loved the look and concept behind the car when it was announced, and had great hopes for it.
I would love a video about the Panoz Esperante GTR-1. It's my dream car.
Nissan corporate and the American side that was developing the car rather mismanaged everything. It's a shame really, the first iteration of the Porsche 919 was a disaster but it was fixed by totally revising the car and then making success. The team under Bowlby's leadership did pretty well considering all the problems they faced. It's been said that Nissan generally were arrogant and thought they could just turn up and win without much investment and it's hard to disagree with that generalization. A side effect of the car being very different is that Nissan chose to be fairly open about the car and with this had a remarkably good marketing and internet coverage over the car, maybe the best I've seen. I seem to remember the brand head of Nismo then, Darren Cox, answering technical questions about the car or the race effort in TH-cam livestreams. Probably raised the expectable a bit for online race coverage in general. Shame, the 2016 car looked nice.
I really would contrast it to the 919 for how to come back from a troubled concept to one that can compete.
Funny how no one ever remembers how shit the 919 was, or the first R8 for that matter. Both were absolute dogs the first year, and grossly underperformed. But no one talks about them like they talk about this project, that was crippled from the start, and never given an opportunity to correct itself.
Such a Dorky looking car even compared to the delta wing cars, but you gotta love the outside the box approach for this car. Seeing the gap in the rulebook for the front aero is something that couldve made this car great.. if they began development earlier or just waited out a year. A shame really.
My favourite LMP1 has to be the R18 Rp5 (the 2015 version). slightly more radical design but not quite as intense as the rp6. And the calm sound of the diesel engine is just top notch.
It's a great design, just underbudget, under-developed & needlessly complicated hybrid system.
I loved and still think the concept has great potential. As mentioned in the video, it was the Nissan top management that ruined the concept. Ben and his team simply didn't have the time they needed to finish the concept as they intended. There are several cars that I would to see them get revived today; 1) the Mazda Furai, and 2) is Nissan GT-R LM Nismo.
The front engine front wheel drive prototype LM car.... What a beast in that configuration
One of the coolest cars ever built.
I just stumbled on this video and I'm incredibly impressed just how much technical details were mentioned. This was a great insight about a car that I was very much interested in, thanks!
Man this car was so damn cool! A poster car! By far the coolest thing about it is the screamer exhaust spitting flames on the onboard cam. I hope Nissan somehow revives this philosophy some day.
This car looked fantastic and I wish Nissan had kept developing the car
The Peugeot 9X8 skipped Le Mans 2022 and after a bad start in WEC in Le Mans 2023 they lead the race before the crash of the 94 car, a month later they got their first podium in Monza, if Nissan skipped Le Mans 2015 and entered later maybe it was going to be a really good car
Honrstly I do wish it would have gotten a fair shout. Successful or not it would have been nice and interesting to see something completely different given fair development.
This video confirms my suspicions, the cars were underdeveloped and never given the chance to fix the issues.
Absolute beauty aside, this is my favourite race car. Followed closely by the Deltawing, again, designed by Bowlby. I’ve fallen in love with automotive engineering because these kind of machines exist. The ones that are different, ambitious, and bold, and had so much potential. Too sad fate were always hard on them.
Great story. My favourite LM cars are the also / nearly rans from the 1960s. The DB-Peugeots, the Alpines, the Lotus 23, the 2 litre Lotus Elite, Marcos, the 275 GTB of Mairesse/Beurlys that finished 3rd in 1965,
Could we have your observations on the fine work of the Glickenhaus team perhaps?
Damn I wish they continued this project, seems like so much innovation went into it but regulations and time wasn't on their side
I can only have respect for the companies who invest in complete new concepts. I can fully understand the potential they saw.
Shame they did not continue
Thank you. I have been searching for a serious detailed information about this car for a long time.
Man I wish Nissan developed this more. Was a great out of the box concept. They basically pulled out of everything but Super GT afterwards.
I spend more than £4000 in 2015 just to watch this car at lemans. I was disappointed years later when i learned torotrak failures pretty much torpedoed nissan entire prototype program.
Similar to the Panoz Esperante story - just on a different level. They also had a Hybrid Version.
Panoz and TVR hybrid in profile.
It just needed a second chance. Looka at Honda F1 engines given a second chance and holy shit where it has reached now
It's a shame that Nissan kill it so early, it has potential, it just need some more time in the oven.
So long story short, if they just chose a conventional hybrid system, a very large part of problems would have been avoided down the line
Je me rappelle de cette voiture au Mans 2015: elle n'a malheureusement pas fait long feu mais au moins Nissan a essayé de changer le game. Dommage qu'ils ont abandonnés ce projet...
I think people were turned off because of its FWD, fair, but the engineering was excellent, that guy needs to be in an F1 team
FWD can’t be competitive with RWD and AWD in open classes like this. There’s just to many drawbacks that can’t be fully overcome.
If it had the full power it was supposed to along with the rear drive from the hybrid it would have been competitive enough to be interesting. If they’d actually been fast it’s likely the rules would have been changed to stop from everybody having to design all new cars.
IDK. the F1 rules are so terrible and restrictive that the genius would be wasted. Unlimited time attack on the other hand....
Best video I've seen on this car!! Awesome stuff!
I'm a Nissan guy, my first cars was a Nissan, etc. So this project was so exciting at the time and I'm sad to this day it was never given the chance to show what it's made of truly 😢 miss you nismo lmp
Excellent summary. Aerodynamically the design delivered, the top speed and cornering stability in the wet prove that. Sad that the crucial element of mechanical storage way its downfall. Any other options, even the Williams ElectroMechanical flywheel would have been better. To think that that electric would have given the recovery brake assist the front rotors needed help with, and solved the pit lane sendoff issue too. Did they pitch for too high a MJ class (8 MJ), and would a 'reliable' version at only 4 MJ last... a suspect the engine could have happily managed the strain of the then allowed increase fuel flow.
corner stability he said. i think he mean understeer when they over-drive the car.
@@zuminlair92cp front wheel drives always push understeer, brake oversteer - if you've ever driven one hard.
Just complete decelerating before the apex then push on exit to the rumble strip, gives longer acceleration onto straights, aiding top speed.
Any new attempt at a competitive vehicle is genius in my book
This LeMans regulation was very interesting!
One of the greatest attempts in the 21st century to think outside the box and progress motorsports formula.
You got to praise Nissan on their motorsport inovations. Such cars!
This was the sametime that wtcc was running the TC1 regulations, crazy fast and crazy stable, but nissan rush the whole project and show up at le mans with a car that wasnt even 50% complete
I was there the year this ran at Le Mans. It was a shame it didn’t quite work, I loved the left field design.
Dreamers, theorists, simulations, MB F1 2022.
lol 10/10
Another great video, and a very interesting story B Sport. Thank you. A hugely ambitious project with some potential that was killed way too early I think.
These guys would re engineered the damn radiator cap if it brought them speed.
Tip my hat to that kinda determination, skill and engineering!
One of my favorites. In pretty much every racing game that has prototypes, I choose this one.
Man.. I wish this was a success.
The management cannot see potential. Too bad
Love your intro
It is by far my favourite in concept. But was doomed with all these shortcomings. They really did reinvent the wheel!
It was both. It was a genius concept which was simply too ambitious for their tight time constraints, resulting in a veritable disaster.
I still love this car despite its failure simply because of the fact it's a front engined and front wheel drive LMP car for crying out loud. This and the DeltaWing are so different compared to the rest. They challenged the norm regardless of whether or not it would be successful. That's the kind of stuff motorsports needs to be exciting.
Considering all the hiccups this car had.. it did amazing. This car had no business racing Lemans in that condition but to even finish, I think that’s a win in my book.
I loved it and it was a shame from memory they blamed everything on the technical director. Bad planning by management was the reason why this car did not reach its potential. Who directed the exhausts through the duct work, would that aero?
No prizes for beauty
I just learned that the mechanical flywheel in this car was housed inside a vacuum, because at 60,000rpm it’s going so far above the speed of sound that the sound energy alone would cause it to disintegrate. I mean that’s insane. If only they’d been given time to make it work. ☹️
If im not mistake, the 2009 Williams F1 car has a similar flywheel ERS design. But i doubt its as powerful or spins as fast as the one Nissan designed
Wouldn't it have made a lot more sense to use an electric hybrid system? You could have put electric motors in the rear wheels with torque vectoring without needing a driveshaft or extra transmission.
Quality analysis as always
Such a beautiful car indeed.
Brilliant analysis of Bowlby’s work. The media simply rubbishes this car and the delta wing. The reality is somewhat different. You can see the management interfering in something they have no idea of. It’s probably the old thing of the Japanese scared to loose face. The fact that it’s 20sec per lap slower is hardly surprising when it’s 800 hp down on power.
Its nice that in Gran Turismo you can drive this car at its full potential
5:40 The chief engineer was a baby? 🧐
Very brave maybe revolutionary considering history of Nismo Delta wing !
The top speed is not very good metric to use when comparing hybrid race car to non hybrid. The main benefit of hybrid engine over turbo or naturally aspirated engine (or even purely electric) is the capability to use the power when you need it. Or even more specifically, not use it when it is not optimal to do so.
You want to get the fastest lap time so you want to accelerate hard out of turns to get to your top speed quickly. In other words use the hybrid power in addition to engine power to accelerate faster, not necessarily to raise your top speed.
So the nissan might have had same top speed as the winning car but the huge difference is that the winning car could use its hybrid power unit to get to that top speed a lot earlier on the straights. So the nissan could take a 800m straight to reach that number whereas the winning car could do it in 400m and then just stay at that speed for the remainder of the straight.
i watched this car from Arnage corner at LM 2015 - it really was bad in the slow corners.
Now let me guess.... Understeer?
We will not know because they didnt show up 2016 with a finished car.
The 2015 car was not finished or ready.
You don't get to the winner's circle by playing it safe. Even if this program didn't win at its single race, Nissan and the team learned a lot about hybrid systems. The use of a flywheel for energy storage in a high-g, low-weight application seems really challenging. Not sure I'd want to sit next to one, tho.
Sadly, Nissan had no role in the Hybrid system, other than some general size and performance requirements. The company that built the unit, ToroTrak, never got it anywhere near functional. Which, sadly, is true of all of their FlyBrid systems. They never could manage to get them to work. As a concept, using the raw kinetic energy is brilliant. In theory it allows for a much greater efficiency of storing and releasing that potential energy. In practice, however, the components simply can't take the abuse, and the precision required to make it all function is far to great to be viable in a rattly, bouncy, high G-Force environment of a prototype race car...or a city bus...or anything else ToroTrak tried to put one of their units in. They never delivered on a single engineering promise.
I think this car would have been one of the best, as it was so cleverly built. They just didn't give themselves enough time
I remember trying it on gran turismo sport it was brilliant in high speed corners but bad in lower speed I didn’t know why was that happening only with this car as it was better than others in high speed corners but worse in lower speeds now I know
There quite a few cars with that layout.
Cord 810, Citroen 2CV, Traction Avant, SM, DS, Renault 4, Renault 5 1 and some others.
2CV had it the other way around
@@BSport320 ok, my bad.
But the R4 had it like the Nissan
I loved driving this car in Gran Turismo.
Brilliant analysis, thank you so much for the insight!
Glad you enjoyed it
It was worth trying the concept. Seems that more money and time would have allowed it to perform a lot better.
Fascinating. Its a shame they gave up.
Got a feeling Nissan and their race team only thought about "can we do it?" without thinking about "should we do it?"
Any updates on when will Nissan come back to Le-Mans?
That disastrious LM project was the beginning of an end for the factory Nismo Nissan team and has never returned since.
They're known for their AWD system used on the GTR and some brilliant RWD designs like the Silvia series, so why embarrass themselves with weird shit like this? Especially after making the legendary Delta Wing.
Putting over 1000hp solely on the front axle, you'd already know that this car will never steer.