Nissan GT-R returns to Nurburgring 24 Hours

Nissan aims to bag GT3 honours at this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours – to be held on June 21-22 – with an international line-up of drivers piloting a trio of GT-Rs.

The assault on one of the toughest track races in the world comes shortly after Nissan claimed the lap record at the Nordschleife for volume production cars with its new GT-R NISMO, which scorched around the dipping, diving 20.81km circuit in just 7 minutes and 8.679 seconds.

Nissan claims the new benchmark is an emphatic statement of the “giant-killing performance” of the latest iteration of the Nissan GT-R and it’s billed as further evidence of the company’s commitment to developing its performance models at the ’Ring.

The record lap was set by Michael Krumm, who is part of Nissan’s line-up for the Nurburgring 24 Hours.

The GT-R brigade at the enduro will be spearheaded by a two-car entry from Nissan GT Academy Team RJN, which will be run in conjunction with NISMO Factory engineers from Japan, and a further GT-R entered by Schulze Motorsport.

The first GT-R Nismo GT3 is the Number 80 entry (the number represents the 80th anniversary of Nissan) and the team will be led by former F1 pilot Nick Heidfeld, partnered by German GT Academy winner Florian Strauss, Lucas Ordonez and Alex Buncombe.

“I’m delighted to increase my involvement with Nissan from my judging role on the German GT Academy show to now also include racing the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 at the Nurburgring 24 Hours,” said Heidfeld.

“To be teammates with Florian, who I helped select as the 2013 winner of the GT Academy competition, is quite incredible and is a great chance for me to continue the mentoring process with him at the Nordschleife. Together with Alex and Lucas we will tackle one of the most beautiful and challenging circuits in the world.”

The second car comes courtesy of Schulze Motorsport and bears the number 30 to signify how long NISMO has been in existence. This car will be piloted by Michael Krumm, Kazuki Hoshino, Katsumasa Chiyo and Tetsuya Tanaka.

The third and final Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 entering this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours is the Virtual Star entrant also from Schulze Motorsport. It will be piloted by Gran Turismo creator Kazanori Yammauchi and 2008 GT Academy Winner Jordan Tresson.

Earlier this month, Nissan NISMO driver Alex Buncombe showed Porsche, Aston, Audi, Bentley, Mercedes, Lamborghini, BMW and Jaguar how to be the boss of the first lap of Monza with an epic charge through the field.

In the opening race of the 2014 BlancPain Endurance series, Buncombe climbed 17 places in the opening lap alone. He started the race way down the grid in 32nd out of 44 cars, but ended his second lap in 13th position, leaving the team in a great position.

Here’s the in-car video… it makes for highly entertaining viewing.