6 Reasons Why We're Giving This FWD Nissan Race Car Mad Respect

1. Its front-engined, FWD layout is radical

Make no mistake, the Nissan LM GT-R Nismo is hugely unconventional. While its competitors run a mid/rear-engine layout and send power predominantly to the rear with extra harvested energy sent to the front, the GT-R LM is front-engined, and front-wheel drive.

This isn’t just Nissan being different for the sake of it, however. It thinks there’s an advantage to be had with this layout, and it’s all to do with aero and the fact that race regulations limit what can be done at the back. That’s exactly why Nissan has focussed on the front of the car; moving the engine forward opens up a lot of options…

“Having the weight further forwards allows you to make more of your downforce from the front of the car, which is intrinsically more efficient than the rear of the car. It means we can have a higher lift-to-drag ratio than a car that has a more rearwards aero balance,” technical director Ben Bowlby explained. And nailing that lift-to-drag ratio is vital for Le Mans with its gigantic straights. Here, a little extra top speed can make all the difference.

Some have scoffed at the LM Nismo’s ‘front-wheel drive’ label, given that the car is designed to send recovered energy to the rear, but calling it ‘all-wheel drive’ simply doesn’t do the unconventional nature of the car justice. The rear tyres only get in on the action for brief periods of time while the car exits corners, and in any case, due to the ERS system not being sufficiently developed, the car will only run with power to the front wheels at Le Mans.

2. It won't understeer as much as you think

We’re used to front-wheel drive road cars chucking out anything up to 300bhp these days, and it’s usually a trick limited-slip differential that helps effectively put that power down onto the tarmac. The GT-R LM - which sends 550bhp to the front wheels from its V6 engine, with up to 1250bhp available when factoring in the energy recovery system - is no different; it’s running a hydraulic limited-slip diff.

However, as Bowlby stated, that’s only part of the understeer-killing story. “We’ve been using aero balance as a countermeasure, but using the rake in the car at the low speed [corners] to get the balance forwards aero-wise, and then trimming the car out on the straight. We use rake change to give us different aero balances with speed.” This is allied to a sophisticated traction control system. Unlike the pesky TC on road cars which tends to take power away, the system on the LM works out how best to get as much power as possible onto the track.

Of course, the ERS sending power to the rear will help once it’s ready for race deployment, but even without it, the GT-R LM is described as being remarkably neutral.

3. The tyre setup is as unconventional as the rest of the car

With the rear wheels only occasionally being under power, the Michelin tyres don’t need to be that wide. While the front rubber is 310mm wide, the rears measure just 200mm across. If you’re used to seeing racing cars with fat rear tyres, you’ll be taken aback when you see the skinny little things the LM Nismo runs. However, that reduction in width has an aero advantage, freeing up space between the tyres to increase airflow.

They also last a lot longer. In fact, we were told that the rear tyres will be good for up to six stints - each stint being almost 100 miles long. The front tyres meanwhile, are exceeding expectations in terms of wear, despite having to deal with all that power and the steering.

4. It's amazing in the wet

Bowley joked about how the LM squad would be “doing a rain dance,” as the car is described as being “bionic in the wet.” And it’s all to do with that front engine, front-wheel drive layout. Should the heavens open at Le Mans, the GT-R LM could end up with a big advantage over its competitors. “The drivers have such a high degree of confidence,” Bowlby explained. “Harry [Tincknell] was the first guy to go bananas in the wet. He was hitting rivers across the track, and was able to stay full throttle. Had it been a [mid-rear] rear-engined, rear-wheel drive car, there would have been a huge yaw event and it would have just lost control. Just like a front-wheel drive car in the snow, it’s very low drama.”

5. It's completely unproven

The most fascinating thing about this whole project is the leap it’s taking into the unknown. Nissan is taking a huge gamble, and it’ll be a while before we know if all this is a good idea. With the project still at such an early stage, the company isn’t expecting to challenge LMP1’s front runners at Le Mans this year. As Bowlby puts it: “we’re quite uncomfortable in the level of innovation, because where’s the proof that this works? Show me another one that does it - well, there isn’t one. That’s why it’s genuinely interesting.”

6. It promises exciting things for the next GT-R road car

With the R35 GT-R road car making way for the R36 in 2018, the influence of the GT-R LM racing project filtering into the next Godzilla could result in something very exciting indeed. Nismo boss Motohiro Matsamura was understandably coy when we asked just what influence the GT-R LM might have on the R36, but he did simply say that “each technical aspect, I hope to connect to the future innovation of the road-going cars.”

Given that road car designers don’t have stringent racing aero rules to deal with, we’re not expecting the R36 to have a brazenly unconventional drive layout like the LM, but we can see ways the project will end up impacting the R35’s replacement. The ‘VRX 30A’ 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 the GT-R LM uses is being referred to as an ‘early ancestor’ of the engine we’ll see in the R36, which means we can expect a unit that’s as powerful (if not more powerful) as the VR38, while being considerably more efficient.

Could the R36 end up with an energy recovery system like the LM car? It certainly wouldn’t surprise us, and Nissan bosses have previously made noises about a hybrid GT-R road car. We can’t wait to see how all this affects Nissan’s next supercar.

If you have any other questions about this car, let us know: we’ll be trackside with Nissan at Le Mans this year, and will be seeing the LM GT-R in action.