Fully charged

If you think the new generation of F1 cars are quiet, wait ’til you hear this… or don’t!

The Nissan LEAF Nismo RC is a very different type of racing car. Where most racers are all fire and brimstone, the Nismo RC barely raises a snap crackle or pop. It steams away from pit road with a subtle crescendo of gear whine and an aural electrical signature of which Melbourne tram travellers will be most familiar. It’s just missing the ‘ding, ding’.

As its steams past us down Calder Raceway’s main straight, the contrast couldn’t be any greater from the Altima V8 Supercars that factory Nissan drivers Rick and Todd Kelly have been throwing around the short simple layout just moments before.

The V8s are all bellow and revs. But in the case of the Nismo RC all you hear is some wind and tyre noise.

And this is for one reason alone – unlike 99.99 per cent of racecars on the planet, the Nissan Nismo RC is electric. Totally. Not hybrid – a full EV.

A proof-of-concept vehicle built to test the viability of electric racecars, the Nismo RC made its first appearance at the New York Auto Show in April 2011. Just a few months later, its public racetrack debut took place at LeMans where it carved demonstration laps of the famed Circuit Le de la Sarthe.

Aussie racegoers saw the car in action in an all-Nissan race-off at the opening round of the 2014 V8Supercar title in Adelaide in March. The driver behind the wheel that time was the younger of the Kelly brothers, Rick – a self-confessed electric car and gadget advocate.

Now, it’s my turn, in an exclusive Aussie drive.

That’s likely why Nissan’s claim of a 0-100km/h acceleration time of 6.85sec is conservative, but nevertheless not that far shy of twice as fast as the road car.

Top speed is another kettle of fish. At a claimed 150km/h (we saw about 155 on the MOTEC style dash), the Nismo RC is only 5km/h faster than The LEAF road car.

Nissan claims the battery pack is good for around 25-30mins of running at race pace. As the TV ads go: “actual results may differ...”

In so many other ways, the RC is a world away from its street sibling. Indeed, even compared to many racecars, the cockpit of the LEAF Nismo RC is almost bare. There's plenty of naked carbon fibre to see, but not a lot else.

Seats are simple lightweight race buckets and the belts are a club-level four-point harness set-up – a clear indicator this is more a proof-of-concept exercise rather than pukka racer.

There's no floor-mounted gearlever, nor even a handbrake. A box of electronics separates the driver’s feet from that of the passengers -- otherwise it’s all one remarkably spacious ‘cell’.

A vestigial roll cage combines with the carbon-tub to provide crash protection. Behind the adjustable seats is a solid carbon-fibre firewall and directly behind that an integral, structural battery box.

Lift the one-piece rear clamshell that covers much of the car and you'll see the simplistic nature of the EV racer continues.

The standard LEAF motor sits at the rear in a chrome-moly sub-frame. There's no gearbox or elaborate linkages. Behind the motor, receiving air from ducts on the side of the car, a small radiator provides cooling to key electrical components.

The sub-frame strategy is also used at the front. Simple double-wishbone suspension set-ups fashioned from chrome-moly steel are used front and rear.

Steering is mechanical, unassisted and remarkable communicative, yet not nervous.

A check of vital dimensions reveal a wheelbase 9.9cm shorter than the production LEAF, yet the RC overall is 2cm longer. It’s 17cm wider and very clearly 35cm lower. It clears the ground by just 6cm.

A brake-bias adjuster is familiar and above that there's a colour-coded dial switch that allows you to select the amount of 'engine' braking the car exhibits. This latter switch is a little at odds with a true racecar but allows the RC to reclaim some energy to extend its running range.

Ahead of the driver is a simple MOTEC-style digital IP. In the place of the 'sweep' that would normally be a tachometer, there's a power gauge.

Charge is depicted both graphically and in numerals. Our driver starts with around 90 per cent charge available. About six laps of Calder later the figure is closer to 50 per cent. Despite its LeMans debut, an endurance racer, the Nismo RC is not.

But it does feel like a racer with the same light steering most mid-engine cars exhibit and the sort of initial lack of front grip drivers of open-wheelers and early 911s will recall.

Nismo claims the car has decent aero credentials but at a top speed of about 150km/h and Calder’s stop-start layout that's hard to determine.

But Rick Kelly has driven it in anger. And when he speaks of the little Nissan racer, his enthusiasm is genuine.

“It was exciting to have the chance to drive it. And, you know, you just don’t know what to expect,” Kelly told motoring.com.au

“The first time you drive it out of pit lane on the circuit was… Well, you know, I was laughing out loud… because you hear a few stones flicking into the guards and that is absolutely it. You feel like that you’re on Back to the Future at the movies

“Within a lap or two of the Clipsal circuit [however] you soon realise the strengths of the car are its acceleration up to around 100km/h, its turning capability, because it’s so light, and [that] it’s got pretty good brakes as well.”

Rick reckons neither Adelaide’s Clipsal layout nor Calder really shows the Nismo RC in its best light.

“The sort of circuit it would suit is like a, probably a longer go-kart track, you know -- somewhere you can throw the car around.”

He says the car has hints of an open-wheeler in its behavior but that it has its own character.

“It’s a little bit unique as well -- because it is so light and so nimble with pretty good grip. It’s sort of its own little animal, and an exciting one at that.

“I’m not sure how long the battery would last, but you could have a really good, fair dinkum, little battle for a few laps in it in a race for sure.”

Indeed, ever the racer, Rick reckons close racing would be an even more involving for the driver – because of the new quieter EV ‘soundtrack’.

“It’d be interest if it was close racing where you lent on people -- any sort of rubbing or touching or bashing into cars. It’d make certainly a different sound [in the car] because it wouldn’t be muffled by the sound of the engine and gearbox – like we normally have.

The big thing for us in our [V8 Supercar] car is to try and mentally get rid of the noise as far as letting it distract you.

“All that racing a car is about, generally, is the tyre on the road. Whether you’re accelerating, braking or turning, it’s about the tyre contact patch on the road and how you’re using it. So you might think you’re going fast, because it sounds extremely loud in a Supercar, but really, you can’t let that overwhelm you as to what the actual tyre’s doing

“In the LEAF [Nismo RC], it’s easy to forget about everything else and just focus on that and focus on what that’s telling you around the corners. There’s no noise and no distractions on anything else -- you can almost hear the contact patch on the road.”

In my short stint I concentrate on ‘hearing’ the grip but there's no real chance to provide a detailed assessment of the Nismo RC potential in a muggle’s hands. That said, the Bridgestone tarmac rally tyres warm up quickly and there's enough grip for the RC to be entertaining and, as Rick reinforced, no shortage of acceleration from 0-100km/h or thereabouts.

The two pedals are set up for left-foot braking like a formula car and you need to trail brake to get the car to steer towards the apex of Calder's bottom corner. There's good grip from mid corner onwards and even on lap two you're able to get the rear to step out just a little through the Esses.

On lap three I try and be a hero and drift it just a little on the off-camber entry to Calder's main straight and promptly spin -- the first electric racecar pirouette ever on an Australian circuit. I'd like to think so.

After a few more laps the charge graphic is rapidly shrinking so I roll into the pits.

If we had three or four more RC’s on hand, I’d be suggesting a rapid recharge (as with the original, rapid-charge connection allows the battery to snatch an 80 per cent recharge in about 30 minutes from flat) and that fun six lapper to which Mr Kelly was referring to top off an entertaining entre to high-voltage racing.

Alas, there’s only one Nismo RC and it has an appointment with an airfreight pallet.

Perhaps an assignment for next time...