Nissan's electric Le Mans racer unveiled

Nissan remains confident its ZEOD RC race car will be able to complete electric laps of the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hour despite a technical setback that means it will be unable to perform demonstration laps at this weekend’s World Endurance Championship round at Fuji in Japan.

The ZEOD RC (Zero Emission On Demand Racing Competition) was unveiled at the global headquarters of Nissan’s motorsport and modified production car division, Nismo, in Yokohama yesterday, although it is actually being developed in the UK.

Previously, a prototype of the ‘Garage 56’ experimental racer for the Le Mans race next June had been shown at this year’s French endurance classic. The car revealed yesterday had revamped styling, new cooling inlets and aerodynamic updates.

The ZEOD RC is a precursor to a full-on Nissan attack on the superstar LMP1 category as soon as 2015, which means it will be taking on at least Audi, Toyota and Porsche in what shapes as a fascinating on-track and technical battle.

Using a distinctive triangular bodyshape that is a signature of the car’s designer Ben Bowlby, the ZEOD RC will power its rear wheels via two brushless DC motors producing 220kW, a 400-volt electrical system and a year to be confirmed Nissan turbocharged petrol engine.

Electric power will be regenerated via the braking system and stored in an advanced and complex 12kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

The petrol engine will be transverse-mounted, as will the orthodox transmission attached to it. The electric motors will drive into the same transmission.

The intention is for the ZEOD RC to do one electric lap of Le Mans under four minutes for every 11 it runs using the orthodox internal combustion engine. Top speed is expected to exceed 300km/h.

Right now, however, the ZEOD RC is purely an EV with a temporary electrical system rigged up so it can at least roll briefly under its own power at Fuji. Nissan had originally committed to the car doing full electric demonstration laps of the race course.

The ZEOD RC is an attempt to link in with Nissan’s claimed leadership in the production electric vehicle market, which includes the sale of more than 80,000 Leaf plug-in battery electric small cars since its launch in 2010.

“This is a very tough task that we have done in a short space of time,” admitted Nissan Global Motorsport Director, Darren Cox. “This is zero to ZEOD in seven months.

“We are trying to be really open with the fans. Too often in motorsport the garage door is closed and you don’t get any stories about how the car is developed. We think in the new digital age with social media we should be showing the fans how exciting a development program like this is.

“That of course has a risk. If we are telling everyone what we are doing, if we have a problem we have to tell everyone. Our aim was very clear; we wanted to do a lap of Fuji this week. We have had lots of challenges in the sense of engineering and unfortunately that has meant we can’t run the car for a full lap.

“We will continue to develop the car; it will be flown back to Europe after the weekend. We have to fix the issues that we have but we certainly are taking on a very challenging engineering project.”

The other aspect of this program which continues to buzz along in the background, is the prickly relationship with US sports car racing team owner Don Panoz, who has hinted at legal action because the ZEOD bears strong resemblance to Bowlby’s previous design the Deltawing, which ran at Le Mans in 20102 and Panoz now campaigns in the USA.

“This car is an absolutely clean-sheet design,” insisted Bowlby, who is Nissan’s Director of Motorsport Innovation. “Every single element of this car is actually a new conception.”

Bowlby, who spent 11 years at racing car constructor Lola and another nine with Ganassi Racing in the USA, is a world-class aerodynamicist and champion of the narrow-track front-end that is a feature of both the Deltawing and ZEOD.

A striking feature of the concept’s completely enclosed low-drag body is the complete lack of wings, aerofoil and other aero add-ons that festoon most modern racing cars. It also ultra-light, weighing in at just 600kg.

“We are using the triangle-shaped car is to achieve unmatchable lift to drag ratio,” said Bowlby. “That is to say the downforce on the car compensates for the drag it creates. This is a very efficient shape of car. When we have limited power from the battery so we need to use extremely efficient aerodynamics.

“We also need very low rolling resistance which is something we can achieve using the weight distribution of the car and the tyres supplied by Michelin that work with this shape of car.”

The ZEOD RC testing program is being undertaken by Nissan-contracted drivers Michael Krumm and Lucas Ordonez, who were in Australia recently to sample the Nissan Motorsports Altima V8 Supercars at Winton.