Japanese Auto Sport magazine and GTCenter.net are showing images of what appears to be a GT1 or GT2 Nissan R35 GT-R testing at Fuji, just before Christmas.
No official confirmation from the Japanese manufacture, but GTR Centre believe that the car is a GT1 chassis with close to 600bhp.
You can see the lowered stance, extra cooling and air outlets in the hood (bonnet!), wider fenders, skirts and of course, the rear wing. It may share the same V8 engine as the GT500 racer. The FiA GT regs forbid all wheel drive, so we know it is rear wheel drive. Production of the street-legal GTR-LM is rumoured to be limited to 300 units.
The actual race-car, according to GTR Centre, will only be available to race teams. The question is GT1, or GT2. The magazine claims GT1, but with Corvette moving to GT2 after the 2009 Le Mans, and the long term future of the Aston Martin DBR9 uncertain, GT1 isn’t much of a challenge.
GT2 seems to be the future, with BMW and Corvette joining GT2 and Aston Martin’s Vantage slowly making ground in the same class. We know that GT regulations will be modified for 2010 and GT2 may become a ‘new GT1′, so maybe Nissan have some insider info.
Would be so cool to see this at Le Mans AND the American Le Mans series in 2009 or 2010. All speculation for now, but its good to have some good Sports car racing news after all the doom and gloom recently!
More pics and info over at GTCenter.net and GTBlog.com
– Andy Blackmore
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
that thing looks rad!!
Andy, that's a R35 not R34.....lol
If the sold that body kit on the market it would be bad ass.
Not to nitpick, but that's not an R34.
domi, it's an R35, but i ddin't see anywhere that said anything about an R34...
anyways i hope this car enters into GT1, that way Corvette might change their mind about going to GT2
WOW! 35GT-R LM!
It had said R34, then there was some ninja editing going on, then i posted another comment last night that my previous post should be disregarded and it never made it on here.
Anyway, there was a typo on the second line and now it's fixed, so all is well with the world.
...corrected - too much vino on boxing day!
Disregard the above statement. Nice ninja edit.
To Headbanger:
This car is being built for the FIA GT. Pratt & Miller and Corvette Racing are building cars for ALMS/ACO/Le Mans competition. It just so happens that cars racing in FIA/ACO competition are mostly interchangeable right now, but it doesn't look like that'll be the case when the new regulations begin. The ACO is likely going to a single GT class that will be based closely on today's GT2 cars which will make for an epic amount of competition. The FIA GT wants to stick with 2 classes.
Hopefully the new GT1 is more successful than the current one which is basically a dead class.
sorry guys, there does seem to be a delay in posts appearing
That might actually make me watch the FIA GT series on Eurosport again.
Nissan shure are on the offensive, in these days where everybody else drops out or backs down on motorsport programs.
they showed this info at Spa this year:
http://i42.tinypic.com/wgt9ps.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/ouy6ox.jpg
The GT-R would be a GT1 car.
Hi guys, Thanks for the intrest. This is definatly a GT1 car. GT1 specs have not been finalized so its hard to tell exactly what engine is in the car. The information that is confirmed is that its GT1, V8 NA, RWD.
Depending on the new GT1 specs the engine will either be a variant of the GT500 GT-R V8 with less restrictors on it (running at around 600hp (which also depends on the weight, it can goto 650 too)). or a Race preped VK56. The new GT1 spec is still in talks but they were talking about 5500cc engine wich would make the VK56 a requirement.
(i'll post this on both of our posts)
I'm a member on Ten-Tenths (as is a certain Mr Brooks ;), 'THE' motorsport forum, as you can imagine, their is much discussion about this car.
.
Member,' Japanese Samurai' posted...
The interview of the president of NISMO(Nissan motorsports international) was published in the Car Graphic magazine in Japan. The summary is as follows.
Nissan want to participate in the FIA-GT championship(GT1 class) with GT-R.
However, even if it is early, the participation time becomes after middle 2009.
They want to sell GT-R to customers by 100 million yen, too.
However, if the car that they can win cannot be manufactured, Carlos Ghosn will not say yes to this project.
And they want to be selling the GT4 machine of 370Z by 20,000,000-30,000,000 yen.
.
Personally, I dont get why Le Mans HASN'T been mentioned, or ALMS. As Mike states (and I was unaware), its likely that the ALMS/ACO/FiA wont have the same rules in future, so maybe manufactures will have to make a choice.
.
On the same thread, another Ten-Tenths member states that Nissan USA are opposed to this racing (in ALMS). Madness I cry. Just think Nissan beating Corvette, BMW and Porsche.
.
andy
hello
guys
in my opinion is that nissan .run first in fia gt if they run ,and if win severals races.
the pilot in my opinion is michael shumamcer. and the team manager the french jean todt.the french.
run the monaco rally ,in the early 70s.it the datsun 240z.
back tho the nissan gtr 600lm the nissan dont want spend a lot of money ,in a car that run ,only in le mans is very risky.if they win the firt race it the gtr outside of japan the car is grat etc etc bla bla.
but if dont win???and if the car finshis in 3 .or 4 place ,or finish the race in the top ten ,is not bad, but the nissan dont tho pass that shame only the porche want this that wapen they have furios it the nurburing record.and nissan make a car that is superior tho 911.
remenber the nissan in le mans in earlys 90s ??nissan make great cars but dont win in le mans except the fabulus 300zx in 1995 it geof brabham it the 300zx of the imsa of america.
back tho gtr the nissan run in le mans it the babulus r390 gt1 in 1997 .the car is very fast but the gearbox
dont resist ,a rece so long ,in 1998 the same model finsh the rece in 3 and 4 5 6 place .but the car is not so fast like previus model.
in my opinion is correct in a global ciris any automaker. dont want tho spend money it a car that dont win races.the ear is 2008 not in ealy 90s en the automakers have a lot of money ,nissan run in famos
groupc like the toyota mercades jaguar ,and porches etc etc.
the honda quit formula1 ,and audi quit le man series and subaru qut the rallys.and sukuki .
the skilines is a legend. and the gtr goes tho the same direction.
nissan dont want tho destoy the legend ,it the bad project ,the name of nissan ,and the gtr ,and skiline .is tho big tho destoy.
ony chauvinist reporters like this thing tho appen.
back tho shumaker the ferrari quit the german pilot beacause the mony .they dont run in formula 1
and any ferrari car.
and sorry abaut is i make any erros in my english.
but guys you andrestand eheheheheh
Not sure about a lot of that
I dont think Mr Schumacher or Todt will be involved!
hello
andy
thanks tho answer tho my opinion.
but i thing that you agree tho my opinion abaut ,the nissan experience it the le mans cars.
but if nissan goes tho fia gt. they have the pilots it experience .its better that have european pilots.
and tecnitians team it experience tho run in europe .and not in japan.
Well, Jean Todt had worked with Nissan. In the 70s, I think he was with the rally team when they ran the 240Zs.
Back to topic, Its interesting that Nissan had went with Michelins, instead of the Bridgestones they are so familiar with in Super GT. Hopefully they'll get the car competitive quickly. They have to be, there's a lot of racing history behind that name.
Will it be sofa king fast, they'll ban it again?
With so much doom and gloom in the car industry at the moment, its great to pass on some exciting positive