Nissan Is Ducking Out Of The World Endurance Championship Until Its GT-R LM Nismo Works Like It Should

It’d be a bit of an understatement to say that Le Mans didn’t go smoothly for Nissan’s LMP1 effort. With the car behind in development and its all-important hybrid system disengaged, the famous 24 hour race essentially became a big public test for the GT-R LM Nismo. One car managed an unclassified finish after - like its two sister cars - spending large parts of the race in the pits. To get the project back on track, drastic action is being taken: it’s been announced today the team won’t race the car again until technical issues - particularly the troublesome energy recovery system -have been resolved in testing.

There are a multitude of reasons why it’s vital to get that ERS working as it should. The most obvious is power: when functioning correctly, it’s supposed to be able to add 750bhp. There’s also the issue of handling: the GT-R LM is designed to send some of that power to the rear boots on corner exits, cutting down on understeer. Thirdly, there’s reliability to think about. As Nissan put it when announcing this news: "without a fully working ERS, many of the car’s other systems were compromised."

The testing will mostly take place in the United States, and there’s no official return date as of yet. The car will simply be out of the World Endurance Championship until it can be reliable and competitive. Speaking of the news, Nismo president Shoichi Miyatani said :

“We know people will be disappointed but be assured that nobody is more disappointed than us. We are racers and we want to compete but we also want to be competitive. That is why we have chosen to continue our test programme and prepare the GT-R LM NISMO for the strong competition we face in the World Endurance Championship. When you innovate you don’t give up at the first hurdle. We are committed to overcoming this challenge.”