In the latest episode of ‘Jay Leno’s Garage’, Jay talks tech with Chief Engineer Zack Eakin about Nissan’s Nissan GT-R LM Nismo, getting in-depth about the engineering decisions that gave birth to this remarkable car.
Jay also takes time to talk with GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough, getting a closer look under the hood in the pit garage and then driving the car on track at NCM Motorsport Park, Bowling Green, Kentucky.
It’s quite unusual to get this close a look at a current generation Le Mans entry, let alone find out which part of it a two year old can crawl into! So sit down for a 25 minute look at the car three GT Academy champions will pilot in this year’s Le Mans and then try the car out in the final qualification round for GT Academy 2015.
See more articles on GT Academy 2015, Jann Mardenborough, Le Mans, Nismo, and Nissan.
Top notch presentation by Jann. It seems that he has the chops to not only win races at the highest levels of motorsport, but to also be a great young ambassador for racing.
This is needed now more than ever, as more parents opt for the “here, play with this ipad” style of raising children, real sensory excitement like auto racing is going to take a hit. Except for cool events like Lemons 24hr, autocross, and PDX trackdays, racing costs a LOT of money. In order to spend such money, the desire must be high. Does anybody really expect an ipad kid to develop a desire for autosport?
(steps off soapbox).. Go Jann and Lucas!
That was actually a really good interview, best of luck to Jann!
With the car entirely under 700hp I really don’t see any chance for this car finishing Le Man in the top 3….
That’s just the petrol engine though, the Hybrid power pushes it up to 1,250bhp. So it has plenty of grunt. It was actually the quickest through the speed traps at the Le Mans test day last week. Although, being FWD, it loses fair bit of time in the corners.
As NW48 said, the combined power output is well over 1200hp, and power isn’t everything as well. The original DeltaWing only had a 1.6L 4Cyl. Turbo with 300hp and often finished well in the Top 10, and all of this due to the exceptional work that has been achieved through streamlining the car and make is very aerodynamical. The same thing goes for the GT-R LM here, it’s not only insanely powerful, but also very slippery, which will help in terms of top speed.
I’s about efficiency over power, lot of the Le Man cars run under 700hp, pretty sure that Audi runs 500-600hp or in competition form. It’s about lasting the duration in fuel use as well as parts wear.
Very well done and a pleasure to watch.
I really appreciate Jays’ Garage. Mr. Leno does the world a service with his collection and his love of the history / design and people stories.
The car looks fast, but lets be honest it will be hard for.nissan to acomplish what audi has been doing for more than a couple of years. But they are on the correct path to beat them tho. Also if i’m not mistaken this is one of the few cars we get in GT series that is contemporary. aka trending. XD
I believe “current” are the words your looking for.
This was neat to watch. Nissan is REALLY trying to put its name on the map! Hope that they do well!