TOKYO MOTOR SHOW: Nissan BladeGlider

Inspired by its radical Le Mans race car, the DeltaWing, Nissan’s BladeGlider could be the most outrageous concept car at this year’s Tokyo motor show.

Without the revolutionary DeltaWing – the endurance racer shaped like a rocket – the BladeGlider would not have been possible. But there is one big difference between the two.

Whereas the DeltaWing employs a turbocharged 1.6-litre petrol engine, the BladeGlider incorporates lithium-ion batteries and two in-wheel motors for its pure electric powertrain. And that will cause as many compliments as raised eyebrows in automotive boardrooms around the world.

So why all the hype about a race car-inspired, wedge-shaped two-door concept that seems as far away from Aussie showrooms as France’s Sarthe circuit is from Bathurst? Because Nissan bosses tell us that this concept is hinting at an upcoming production version. That’s right, a staggered-track car fit for public roads!

This is a tall claim indeed and a lot would have to transpire for the car to clear safety and crash regulations between now and then for it to show up on Main Street.

But Nissan is serious and if the company has its way, we could see a concept like this on the road within three years.

So what is the BladeGlider all about?  “A clean slate was the starting point for this project,” says Nissan’s product strategy general manager Francois Bancon.

“The goal was to revolutionise vehicle architecture to change the way we think about cars, and to see how zero emissions can help redefine our conception of vehicle basics.”

OK, that’s all very cryptic and typical manufacturer blurb. But one look at the BladeGlider’s arrow-like design and it’s easy to see that Nissan is challenging all previous perceptions about car design.

Nissan says the inspiration for the car’s one-metre-wide front track and 1.8-metre-plus rear width dimensions, impressive downforce and superb handling (proved by racer Michael Krumm in the DeltaWing at Le Mans) was drawn from two signature aerial images.

They are the silent freedom of a glider and the triangular shape of a high-performance ‘swept wing’ aircraft like an F-14 Tomcat. Hence the term ‘glider’ in the BladeGlider’s name -- Nissan wants you to feel as if you are ‘gliding’ it, not driving it.

And that may very well be what a driver, oops, glider feels behind the wheel. The BladeGlider, in rare McLaren F1 supercar-style, is a three-seater with the driver’s seat centrally located and two passenger seats staggered behind the driver’s shoulders. The driver’s seat moves aside automatically when the door opens to allow access to the rear seats.

British designer Ben Bowlby, who penned the 2012 DeltaWing and the ZEOD (Zero Emission On Demand) race car slated for next year’s Le Mans, is the driving force behind the BladeGlider’s unique silhouette.

“By its very nature, the DeltaWing shape with its narrow front 10cm wide tyres, wide rear track and downforce-maximising underbody, does not need huge rear wings like other race cars to keep it planted to the road.”

And those narrow front tyres develop enough grip to corner at over 200km/h. Having the front wheels close together reduces drag and understeer and enables high-G cornering assisted by a 30/70 per cent front/rear weight distribution ratio.

If we look at Nissan’s progression in the development of the BladeGlider, we can see method in the madness. With ex-F1 designer Bowlby on board, the company first perfected the DeltaWing shape and ensured it handled at high speed.

While circling the Le Mans racetrack using half the petrol of rival race cars and suffering half the tyre wear (leading to less pit stops), it still generated the same amount of downforce as Audi and Toyota hybrids with huge rear wings.

Then Nissan, the industry leader in electric cars, applied the motor and lithium-ion battery technology it perfected on the LEAF, to the hybrid ZEOD race car.

The regenerative brake energy created and cumulatively stored in the ZEOD’s batteries over 10 race laps will be channelled to the car’s electric motor for one lap under EV power only.

And it’s an extension of that technology, especially those twin rear in-wheel motors, that will propel the BladeGlider into the future.

Nissan plans to bring its first plug-in hybrid models to market in 2015 and ZEOD will be the brand name under which they will be sold.

If the BladeGlider works and it does make it onto the road, Nissan would have not just created a revolutionary new sports car but a new yardstick by which all low-emissions sports cars could be measured.

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