At The Track With Nissan’s Front Wheel Drive Le Mans Racer

Driving along I-65 through Bowling Green, Ky., you can’t help but notice the National Corvette Museum gleaming next to the highway. It’s a huge expanse of history, and the scene of a bizarre sinkhole incident that devoured eight rare cars last year. And yet I’m more interested in what lies directly across from here.

You can see the museum’s giant yellow dome and American flags from the racetrack’s pit road. The museum’s live webcam offers a clear view of the back straight at NMC Motorsports Park, a facility owned by the museum and opened for activities less than 12 months ago. Currently roaring down that straight is a race car of roughly the same vintage — Nissan’s front-engined, front-wheel-drive Le Mans car.

It’s the most talked about race car in years, for good reason: Who builds a machine designed to claim the top spot at Le Mans and then bolts the engine in the wrong place and sends around 1,000 hp to the front wheels?

Can you say ‘torque steer’?

If the name Ben Bowlby sounds familiar, it should. Bowlby designed the radical DeltaWing and is a bit like sports car racing’s version of F1 designer Adrian Newey, only with curlier hair and madder ideas.

Ben Bowlby watches on

On the day I barge in, Bowlby, wearing a headset that’s larger than his actual head, is darting between the giant white tent that houses tens of engineers slaving away on their laptops and pit road where his latest creation is circulating. We talk — briefly — before he gets distracted by radio chatter from driver Jann Mardenborough, who’s one of three men piloting the machine today. He scurries off, pressing the headset firmly against his ear.

Bowlby reminds me of a crazy scientist — a less odd version of Doc Emmett Brown, if you will. He doesn’t seek attention by being different; his mind is just wired this way. Only when he explains his ideas, he does so in a way that makes absolute sense.

The reason he chose this controversial layout for Nissan’s GT-R LM Nismo is simple: The rules are pretty restrictive at the rear of the car, while the front is more open to innovation. By placing all of that mass over the front axle, it eliminates the common issue engineers face in getting weight that far forward, while a rearward driver cabin ensures the rear axle has just enough mass to balance it out.

With components like the radiators now situated under the long, protruding hood, it clears the path for aerodynamic tunnels to run from the front of the car, around the side of the carbon-fiber cell where the driver sits, and out the back of the car. These channels, therefore, have no aerodynamic interruptions and produce massive downforce, making the GT-R LM Nismo, in theory, more slippery than its rivals and faster down Le Mans’ long Mulsanne straight.

And that’s its real secret. Bowlby designed the car to be a “Le Mans special,” making competitiveness against Audi, Porsche and Totoya during these iconic 24 hours the car’s sole purpose.

Crouching down in the paddock, peering at the back of the car through those defined tunnels, you can see right through to the mechanics’ feet wandering by at the front, proving Bowlby’s unobstructed theory. The tub tapers back to a sharp point, reminding me of the hull of a speedboat. In all my years of racing, I’ve not seen anything like it.

On track, the car sounds quiet, with a subtle growl and whooshing from the turbos and hybrid system. It looks fast. As it enters turn 1, a replica of the first chicane at Le Mans, the back end rotates with ease and the driver seems to have plenty of confidence getting back on the gas.

The question remains, however, after a number of days of testing now complete, how is the car actually performing?

“The media keeps talking about how unreliable we are,” says Darren Cox, Nissan’s Global Motorsports Director. “But you’re here, have we had any issues that you’ve seen?” He’s pointing to the tent where the car is being outfitted with a softer set of springs. The track is almost dry, but poor drainage has led to rivers in certain spots making testing especially tough. Cox is perched on the pit wall resting his feet: “It’s been a long few days,” he says.

The team arrived on Monday set for four days of solid testing. Heavy rain has hampered their running, but Le Mans has a habit of being wet at times, so perhaps that’s not a bad thing. “If it rains, the other teams won’t know where we go,” Cox says, his statement part joke part serious; thanks to that front-wheel drive, Nissan drivers don’t have to worry about the car swapping ends on power application under slippery conditions.

“It’s so much more predictable on cold tires or in the rain,” says Mardenborough, Nissan’s 2011 GT Academy winner and one of the team’s drivers for Le Mans. “It definitely feels like a front wheel drive car when you’re on track, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Our traction is actually really good.”

Mardenborough was the man involved in that huge wreck at the Nurburgring a few weeks back in his Nissan GT-R GT3 race car. His machine caught air over a crest, flipped over the catch fence and killed a spectator. The accident, understandably, shook him up, but he expressed a desire to get back behind the wheel as quickly as possible to eliminate any lingering nerves.

Mardenborough takes me for an exploratory look at the NCM Motorsports Park racetrack. Many of the corners were modeled specifically on the circuit at Le Mans, such as the Porsche Curves and Mulsanne Corner. I ask Mardenborough how accurate it is: “It’s actually really close,” he says. “There are slight differences, but in general, it’s pretty close. I didn’t even know this place existed.”

The track was designed with help from Pratt & Miller and the Corvette Racing team. At 1.2 kilometers long, the front straight is a reasonable indication of top speed for Le Mans: “If you had a radar gun,” Cox tells me, “you’d pretty much know what speed we’ll be doing down the Mulsanne in June.”

My first thought? “There must be an app for that.”

So how is progress truly going with this novel machine? “You hear a lot of rumors,” Cox says, “and most of them aren’t true.” In fact, he tells me that while they aren’t where they want to be just yet in terms of speed, things are moving in the right direction, stating that every day they test they’re gaining around one second per lap.

That time derives from each and every aspect of the car, including work on the hybrid KERS system, which was once stated to run in the 8 megajoule class but due to complications will now run in the 2 megajoule class. This means more emphasis will be placed on the 3.0-liter twin turbo V-6 up front.

Why not the 8 MJ set up as planned? Many reasons, not least being that the team would be 50 lbs. overweight due to the additional heavy batteries. This would cost 2.5 seconds per lap at Le Mans, and Cox isn’t convinced that the additional punch on acceleration would offset that deficit. Come 2016, however, the car will be lighter and the 8MJ class remains the goal, along with forcing all power from the KERS system to the rear wheels.

Yes, next season the GT-R LM Nismo will be all-wheel-drive.

As for this year, Cox says don’t expect miracles: “We won’t have any super, super soft Michelin tires for qualifying to set a lap time,” he says. “We aim to be reliable and see where we’re at by the third stint, see if we’re in the lead pack. A lot can happen in 24 hours.”

Rear tires on the left, front tires on the right

Talking of tires, the car’s rears are so thin they look as if they’re from a Nissan Juke; while the front tires are so wide they appear as if they were bolted to the rear axle of a 1990’s F1 car. It looks all wrong, and while this may create engineering challenges, as Cox tells me, “It’s just a race car.”

One aspect that has proved troublesome in testing is the brakes. The front rotors take most of the beating in all race cars, and the heavy engine up front has compounded these problems. With the team having expected to run in the 8MJ class, more regenerative braking was expected. Currently, the boys behind the wheel are having a tough time applying enough pressure to engage the brakes correctly, and yet rotor temps are still very high.

When things need changing, however, Bowlby’s the man. There’s no board of designers that need to approve things in unity; Bowlby simply picks up the phone and instructs his handpicked team to start building a new component. Before you know it, it’s on a plane from England and being bolted to the car. This ensures the incredible rate of development Cox spoke about earlier.

But is the GT-R LM Nismo just a marketing exercise? Not according to Cox: “Why take on Audi by trying to be Audi?” he says. “The best way is to come at it from a different angle.”

He has a point. Audi has been winning at Le Mans since 2001, and it has a rumored budget of around $200 million per year. Nissan gave Bowlby a clean sheet of paper and a rulebook and said, “Have at it.” Cox didn’t say the budget Bowlby has to play with, but needless to say, it isn’t $200 million.

With some media already suggesting the program is a failure, rumors have even surfaced that Cox lost his job a few weeks back: “It’s funny,” he tells me. “You’re here, do you see all these smiles? We’re doing just fine. It’s a long road, and the speed won’t arrive overnight. But just wait until 2016.”

Indeed, confidence is brewing at Nissan. With failed crash tests putting the team behind and the cancelation of its first scheduled public race at Silverstone, the press have voiced their concern. But here in Bowling Green, I’m not sure it’s justified. They may not beat Audi or Porsche or Toyota in year one, but these guys are serious about closing the gap. And they’re bringing proper innovation into racing again, something fans have been craving for.

Cox continues talking, quickly, sometimes bouncing off topic and on various tangents: “What was your original question?” he says, smiling. “Can you tell I’m a bit excited?”