Nissan Le Mans car

I’ve always been fascinated in how the functional aesthetic of race cars transfers to design trends. The most obvious is how popular wings became a decade ago.

I’m very curious if the car above will have an impact. Excuse the grainy photo, it hasn’t been publicly unveiled and is completely bonkers. It’s the Nissan GT-RLM, to race at Le Mans next to the Audis that you see in the commercials. Except that the Nissan is front engine, front wheel drive with no rear wing and bigger wheels and tires in the front than the back. Moreover, we believe that the rear will taper off with a smaller width in the back than the front.

I hope this interests some others!

crazy, it is counter to everything. I love that.

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The 13 year old in me is cool with that.

I still think the '89 Batmobile was a high point in car design. So cool!

It’s certainly counter intuitive…the very basics of car handling mean that FWD is always at a major disadvantage since you have to ask the same 2 tires to accelerate, brake, and steer.

But Nissan has been into weird stuff lately with the delta wing, so maybe they just want to see how good they can get an FWD car so they can pump something useful into their FWD platform of products.

you can catch a glimpse of it in their Super Bowl ad, which was super well done BTW.

Yay American sappy faux sentimentalism.

R

That plus 1,250-1,500 hp electric+gas. Holy crap. Glad I’m not a German engineer right now…be afraid.

idk,

The “bum” dad without a job is the better dad?

Back to the car, there’s a long more technical article about it for those interested in the motoring sports.

Some very interesting things, certainly no shortage of challenges. 1250hp through 28" of rubber? It’s basically a steamroller with a driver in tow…should be interesting.

The rear driveshaft setup seems super crazy - they basically offset the driveshaft so it doesn’t cut through the aero tunnel. Interesting to prioritize the aero so heavily over the mechanical complexity and weight penalty of those additional parts - that must have been an interesting design review meeting.

Jalopnik article: http://blackflag.jalopnik.com/the-nissan-gt-r-lm-nismo-is-a-front-wheel-drive-1-250-h-1683150735


I have alot of reading to do tonight! THanks!

Cyberdemon: Weight is regulated. Today’s technology is so advanced, a good team will be able to build the car underweight and then add ballast.

The aero is the priority for winning at Le Mans. There are about 4 1.5mile long straights. An extra few mph will more than make up for losing a tad in the corners.

Valid point…makes me remember playing Gran Turismo and setting my spoilers so low that the car would take flight and launch across the track…woops! :smiley:

Absolutely agree. Easily the best batmobile. (and best movie, but that’s for another forum)

I would go with second best Batman movie behind the first Christopher Nolan one. I really enjoyed Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne.

BTW, I love the first comment in the comments section of that Jalopnik article.
t46itu0ye4gskircpi35.gif

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Maybe its just the background music, but I’m into it!

Nissan pulls the plug.