The Nissan GT-R LM NISMO will take on the best in the world in the race to glory at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
In a bold move, the Japanese manufacturer has interpreted the sport's technical regulations in an innovative way, producing a front-engined, front wheel drive car that is powered by a V6 3-litre twin turbo petrol engine and a kinetic energy recovery system.
"It gave us great pride to reveal the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO during the Superbowl," said "The combination of the Super Bowl and the Le Mans 24 Hours – two of the most watched sporting events in the world – presented us with a unique opportunity to showcase our most ambitious motorsport programme in recent times.
"The GT-R is our flagship road car," said Nissan global head of marketing and brand strategy Roel de Vries.
"This, the ultimate GT-R, continues a sporting bloodline that goes back three decades with NISMO, the motorsport and performance arm of Nissan. Le Mans drives innovation so success on the track will lead to greater innovation in our road car range. We are the new kids at Le Mans; our opponents are the best in the world but we are ready."
The new car will contest the LM P1 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the highest category in world sports car racing.
Starting at Silverstone, UK on 12 April the series travels around the world to Spa in Belgium, onto the Le Mans 24 Hours and Germany's Nurburgring, before going global with races in the US, Japan, China and the Middle East.
The FIA World Endurance Championship is the ultimate proving ground for automotive companies as technological gains on the track can carry through to road cars.
Racing car engineers are facing the same challenges as road car engineers as the spotlight falls on energy efficiency.
With more technical freedom than Formula 1, the LM P1 engineers have ample opportunity to innovate.
"This is innovation that excites," said NISMO president Shoichi Miyatani.
"Sustainability is at the top of our agenda and the technical regulations for Le Mans give us the freedom to pursue new ideas in this area. Our record at Le Mans is third place overall so we have unfinished business there. We want to win and we have the knowledge to do that – for our customers, our employees and our fans."
