With so much doom and gloom in the car industry at the moment, its great to pass on some exciting positive news coming out of Nissan Motorsports.
Nissan today announced its 2009 Super GT programme, but the main news was the plan to develop the FiA GT1 NISMO GT-R during 2009, in preparation for the 2010 season with Gigaware Motorsport.
Gigaware Motorsport have previous experience running a Aston Martin DBR9, in addition to having the ex- Ferrari team manager, Nigel Stepney (!) as their team manager.
The team plan to enter 4 races in 2009, as non-championship entries. Drivers are expected to be Michael Krumm and Darren Turner. Excellent choices!
Full technical spec is unclear, but as AWD is not allowed in GT1, the racecar will be rear wheel drive!
Note this car will run to 2010 FiA GT1 rules, different to current ALMS GT1 rules.
Gigaware will remain committed to running a Aston DBR9 in the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours.
In Super GT, each of the four teams (NISMO, HASEMI, IMPUL and KONDO) will have one chassis each. Satoshi Motoyama and Benoit Treluyer remain with the NISMO team.
The GT500 machine has new air-cooling, paddle shift transmission and revised aerodynamics following some rule changes. Nissan will continue to support the privateer Fairlady (350)Z’s in GT300.
-Andy Blackmore
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
Wow, WTF. Fastest turnaround response to Speedhunters commentating?
http://www.speedhunters.com/archive/2009/02/26/news-gt-gt-2009-le-mans-entry-list-released.aspx
ACO Entry list was announced yesterday, this today.
Yea twas thinkin that myself, anyway AWESOME!
That is indeed an awesome news !
Thanks for the info's Andy.
I always saw/see MKrumm as a Nissan driver, good choice/s indeed!
holy CRAP. that is so sick. can't wait!
Realy funny to see how tame the GT1 GTR is compared to the SuperGT one.
Well there is good news for the GT-R after all. So what is the difference between the FiA GT1 rules and the ALMS GT1 rules? The drive selection is a good choice as well...
Firstly I don't think Stepney was ever Ferraris F1 team manager. Secondly they better keep him happy or he might pass on their secrets/strategy to their competitors given his history.
GOOD!
i think it would be great to see one of them driving at the 24h race at the nurburgring, but since they're planned as GT1 cars they would be way too fast and they wouldn't fit into the reglement...:(
but just a normal GTR would be fine aswell, just to spice up the grid, xxporsches and a viper is a little bit boring
greetings
Marius
Wooooo! You're right he was never the team manager, he was the chief mechanic I do believe. And I just so happen to be the luckiest person ever and have an interview at Gigawave on Tuesday...... here's to hoping!!!
Nissan makes some very wicked looking GT cars, thanks for the post Andy
Ryan & Mako - I didnt word it very well, but Stepney was Race and Test Team Technical Manager from the end of February 2007 (press release was 23/2/07). Prior to this he was Chief Mechanic
1920x1200 desktop size please!
ik vint je lief
Thanks for the clarification Andy. The wording of the article made it seem like he was manager for the team as a whole. (This job was held by Jean Todt until last season when I believe Domenicali took over).