Posts Tagged ‘Nissan’
JRM & Öhlins partner to develop Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 suspension for customers
JR Motorsports Ltd, the official partner of the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 racer, has announced a collaboration with leading suspension developer Öhlins. In response to 2013 rule changes and car upgrades, engineers from both organisations will work together to develop and provide teams running GT-Rs with more performance, features and bespoke suspension components. The first of these, in response to a regulation change, is the introduction of a new four-way, adjustable damper. In addition, JRM and Öhlins will also be creating bespoke suspension packages for customers wishing to use their cars in specific events such as the highly demanding Nürburgring 24 Hours.
The introduction of the four-way adjustable damper enables engineers to tune individual settings for both high speed compression, such as riding over kerbs, and low speed compression, to respond to pitch and roll. Limited testing and differing control tyres for the Blancpain Endurance Series, FIA GT Series, and the multitude of national GT championships across Europe, Russia and the Middle East, have placed a premium on the ability to fine tune the chassis effectively and in a short space of time. Read the rest of this entry »
Nissan launches Nismo.tv
Nissan has announced a collaboration with YouTube to form a new channel to be known as Nismo.tv. Launching in April, Nismo.tv will, according to their press release, ‘curate, aggregate and commission global Nissan Motorsport and performance product content’.
Nissan plans to share its motorsport stories every week of the year, and provide constant behind-the-scenes access to viewers. Projects such as Nissan’s experimental Le Mans electric prototype and gamer-to-racer GT Academy are focused on, as will more traditional motorsport coverage.
To promote the new channel, Nissan will feature YouTube branding on its GT-R racer competing in the Blancpain Endurance Series and new FIA GT Series. The car will compete in the hands of Lucas Ordonez and Nissan regular Alex Buncombe, and for the longer Blancpain Endurance Series races by one of the newest Nismo drivers, American Steve Doherty.
Nismo.tv will follow the exploits of the Nismo team, many of which are GT Academy winners who have risen from being console gamers to real world racing drivers. Special programs are planned on the new channel aiming to illustrate the challenges faces by those making the transition from online to real world racer.
Nissan positive after Portimao GT-R test
Following a four day test held in Portimao last week, JRM, the development team behind the Nissan NISMO GT-R GT3 racer, believe a raft of 2013 performance upgrades have delivered significant improvements in both qualifying and race pace of the GT-R GT3 car. Despite the test car not benefitting from all the planned 2013 engine upgrades, the changes to the suspension and a substantially revamped aero package enabled JRM test driver, Peter Dumbreck, to consistently lap substantially faster than the sister 2012 spec car running at the same time. The test also allowed potential customers to try the revised car.
“The test gave us four full days running in predominantly dry conditions, working through aero and damper set up changes to optimise the car ahead of homologation,” said JRM’s Nigel Stepney. “The drivers reported turn in is significantly improved and the repositioned rear wing is more efficient than last year’s, resulting in downforce without the drag.” Read the rest of this entry »
Nissan ready for British GT title showdown
The scene has been set for a dramatic showdown in the 2012 Avon Tyres British GT Championship, with a group of cars all in with a shot at the title at the season-ending event in three weeks’ time. This past weekend’s race at Silverstone produced a mixed result for many of the title contenders, not least Nissan’s GT-R Nismo GT3, which finished eighth after a three-hour long battle.
The #35 Nissan GT-R is third in the championship, but the scores are so close that the Donington race looks set to become a winner-takes-all event.
Even though it was Nissan GT Academy star Jann Mardenborough’s 21st birthday on Sunday, the young Nissan racer didn’t get the winner’s trophy this time out. With many of the top runners receiving time penalties for various on-track misdemeanours, the #35 Nissan GT-R wasn’t left out, and had a few too many trips to the ‘naughty step’.
The weekend started well for the team, Jann qualified the GT-R in ninth against the professional racers in the series. His team-mate, Alex Buncombe, took the start and was up to third by lap four. It looked like the Nissan duo would be in contention for the win, but then the penalties began to come. The main issue was with drivers running too wide at Copse corner, but that extra bit of tarmac was far too enticing for most of the cars on track, one of which got caught out six times. Read the rest of this entry »
GT Academy sees over 830,000 entrants
Entry to the 2012 Nissan PlayStation GT Academy qualifying closed last week, after more than 830,000 people from the participating European countries had downloaded and played the online qualifying demo. The demo, based on the popular Gran Turismo 5 game for the Sony PlayStation console, has attracted the most entries from the UK (over 161,000) closely followed by France and Spain. The qualifying demo made use of virtual Nissan cars on a variety of circuits, before culminating in a one lap time trial using a Nissan 370Z on a new virtual version of the Twin Ring Motegi circuit.
The 16 fastest gamers from the UK and Ireland online time trial join 16 Live Event Wild Card winners to take part in a National Final event at Silverstone circuit (17 and 18 July), where they will face a combination of gaming challenges and real driving tests using the Nissan 370Zs. Six leading UK and Ireland candidates will then return to Silverstone in August for the International GT Academy Race Camp.
The week long GT Academy Race Camp will see the six UK and Ireland finalists go head-to-head, as they are put through a series of driving, physical and mental challenges designed to measure what it takes to become a modern day professional racing driver. The leading UK and Ireland competitor will then battle it out against other European finalists to determine who will be crowned the 2012 GT Academy European Champion. Read the rest of this entry »
Nissan’s GT1 star & electric car set for Festival of Speed
Nissan has announced its line-up for this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed (28 June -1 July). For motorsports fans the highlight will be current FIA GT1 world champion, Michael Krumm, unleashing the full 540 horsepower of his GT-R GT1 race car as he heads up the hill climb over the weekend.
Also setting a time will be a very different race car – the all-electric LEAF NISMO RC. Apparently this will be the first time that an electric racing car will set a timed run at the Festival of Speed.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any word yet on if the Le Mans fan favourite DeltaWing will be on display.
Virtual gamers will also be able to participate in this year’s GT Academy competition at the Festival of Speed. Sony PlayStation and Nissan have again joined forces to take some of the best online gamers from around Europe and provide them with the tools to become a real life racing driver. There are three places to be won at Goodwood for the national final, eliminating the need to enter the first online round and potentially skipping past more than 100,000 competitors.
Nissan has high hopes for Le Mans
Nissan has high hopes for this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours (June 16/17). The Japanese manufacturer hopes to dominate the LMP2 class of the field, where 13 of 20 cars are using the company’s engines. However, the real noise is being made by Nissan’s experimental DeltaWing racing car, which the manufacturer believes will change the face of motorsport by proving the viability of new, efficiency-driven technology.
Paul Willcox, Senior Vice President of Nissan in Europe, said: “The 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours will be Nissan’s biggest yet – everything we are doing at La Sarthe this year illustrates how Nissan is the boldest, most innovative manufacturer and, moreover, how we are taking an exciting, different approach to this most famous of motor racing events.
“On-track, Nissan will be the story of the race – the radical Nissan DeltaWing, as an experimental concept, harks back to the original motor racing trailblazers of the 1920s who first set out to go as fast as possible for as long as possible. Those pioneers changed the face of motorsport and, while we can’t win with the Nissan DeltaWing because it sits outside the regulations, we can’t lose either – the huge strides it will help us make in terms of future motorsport and road car innovations means Nissan has won before the race even starts.” Read the rest of this entry »
Nissan ready for start of European Le Mans Series
The new European Le Mans Series season gets underway this weekend at Paul Ricard in the south of France. Nissan driver, Lucas Ordonez, will make his debut for the championship-winning Greaves Motorsport team, alongside Alex Brundle and Tom Kimber-Smith.
With no LMP1 cars, the LMP2 category is the premier class in the 2012 European Le Mans Series, so the race will be for the overall series title. Seven out of the twelve LMP2 teams are running with Nissan power this year too.
“ELMS is going to be a very competitive championship this year,” said Lucas. “There will be a big grid of LMP2 cars fighting for the victory but I think we have a strong line-up at Greaves Motorsport. The team are the current champions so there is no other objective than to win.Tom (Kimber-Smith) is a fast, experienced driver, Alex (Brundle) is a young, fast single-seater racer and I now have a full year of LMP2 experience so I think we have a good chance. I have had the opportunity to spend time with my new team now and I feel very much at home here. I’m delighted to be with them for ELMS and of course for the Le Mans 24 Hours.” Read the rest of this entry »
