Nissan Has Officially Killed Off The GT-R LM Nismo

After making its sole outing at Le Mans earlier this year, Nissan has announced that its crazy GT-R LM Nismo will not race in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2016

Jack Leslie

Updated: 10 Oct 2024

Nissan Has Officially Killed Off The GT-R LM Nismo

Nissan’s GT-R LM Nismo will not race in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s LMP1 category. The Japanese firm has announced that its entry to the series has been withdrawn.

After an extensive development and test programme, the bold, unusual front-wheel drive GT-R LM Nismo debuted at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans. Nissan entered three cars but all of them suffered numerous issues and problems, although there were at least some positives to take away from the less than ideal debut.

The #22 machine led the way but picked up an unclassified finish, while the #21 and #23 cars both registered DNFs. They all spent plenty of time in the Nissan garage, during what was effectively a very public test.

In August Nissan confirmed the GT-R LM Nismo would not appear again in the FIA WEC in 2015, and now the plug has been pulled on the project altogether.

They said in a statement:

“Nissan entered LMP1 in the 2015 season with an innovative new, and bold concept, with the ambition to compete at the front of the field. The teams worked diligently to bring the vehicles up to the desired performance levels. However, the company concluded that the program would not be able to reach its ambitions and decided to focus on developing its longer term racing strategies.
“Racing is a core part of the Nissan DNA, and the company has a proud history of innovating to win. Nissan’s commitment to motorsports remains strong, as evidenced by its victorious track record in the 2015 season – from achieving the overall winner of Super GT two years in a row in Japan, to winning the Blancpain Endurance Pro Class, Bathurst 12hr race with the GT-R GT3. Nissan will continue its support of WEC through its various engine programs including recent introduction of LMP3 engine.”

Comments

A FWD couldn’t have ended better…….

What’s stopping them entering the R35 into the WEC GT class?

A scratch made FWD car trying to compete with years of designing and engineering on a RWD car?

Yes but, those cars have barely changed, Nissan is trying new things and maybe one day they will create a monster of a car that will win

The FWD layout was absolutely fine.

The reason why it failed was because half the car didn’t actually work. A large chunk of the hybrid system was completely non-functional. If they had gotten that working, the car would’ve stood a damn good chance of being near the top.

Thank you for helping to continue the fact that FF is bad at racing, despite the massive potential it had behind it all.
TRAITORS…

It’d be an embarrassment to bring it back. And however much CT tried to persuade us back in the summer of it’s credibility, it was a failure.

It’s a shame, but budget dictates a lot of things.
Also, Nissan needs to not kid themselves. Come 2017, there are no WEC classes that they can support aside from sponsorship, and LMP3 is a regional class.