One doesn't even have to follow motorsport that closely to have an idea of what a racing car normally looks like these days, be it F1 or even prototype sportscar racing like in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
The car will most likely be rear-wheel-drive (sportscar racing allows enough freedom for four-wheel-drive but with a rearward bias), have the engine behind the driver and have fat rear tyres designed to handle the delivery of power.
TRYING SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Nissan, however, have proved themselves to be in pursuit of motorsport glory in a different fashion than other manufacturers. Along with successfully competing in the LMP2 category of the WEC the Japanese manufacturer has previously shown its willingness to do things differently with its involvement in the Deltawing project and by fielding the ZEOD RC at the 24 Hours of Le Mans' 'Garage 56' category that is reserved for innovative cars that look at alternative means of propulsion.
It's return to the top class of prototype sportscar racing had been teased throughout 2014 and Nissan made it official by unveiling the radical machine with which it will compete in the LMP1 class for hybrid vehicles in the WEC as well as at Le Mans.
ON A PATH NO LONGER TAKEN
To say that the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO that was revealed in the early hours of Monday morning is different than the machines one normally sees in the WEC - the Japanese company chose to do so during halftime of the American-based National Football League's Super Bowl - would be an understatement.
Not only does the car have it's 3 litre, twin-turbo, V-6 engine mounted ahead of the driver, a concept last in vogue in the early 1960s, it is also front-wheel-drive.
Technically one could say that the car has more in common with a Nissan Micra that one sees puttering around in bumper-to-bumper traffic in Indian metros than even the mighty GT-R sportscar, which is the company's flagship performance vehicle.
BIG ON AMBITION AND POWER
However, the GT-R LM exceeds both the humble Micra and the GT-R in quite spectacular fashion when it comes to grunt. NISMO (the racing and performance division of Nissan) engineers claim that the car produces a total maximum power of 1,250 bhp. Imagine all of that going to the front wheels of a car weighing just 880 kgs!
The power is produced by the conventional internal combustion engine, which amounts to 550 bhp and also through an F1-style Kinetic Energy Recover System that will give the car a maximum boost of 700 bhp. In theory it should lead to a tremendous burst of straight-line speed although as was seen in last year's WEC and at Le Mans, reliability is what ultimately takes a car to the winner's circle.
A MIGHTY CHALLENGE AWAITS
The likes of newly crowned WEC champions Toyota, Le Mans winners Audi and prototype sportscar racing returnees Porsche all posted wins with cars following the long established mid-mounted engine that sits just behind the driver.
Porsche's 919 Hybrid and Toyota's TS040 Hybrid are both rear-wheel-drive vehicles too that temporarily get drive to all four wheels via a power boost from their respective Energy Recovery Systems. The Audi R18 e-tron quattro is a permanent four-wheel-drive machine.
While one shouldn't write off Nissan's chances even before the opening round of the WEC on April 12 at Silverstone, it is hard to categorically state that three automotive giants like Toyota, Audi and Porsche that use tried and tested means will fail against Nissan's upstart challenge.
Especially when you consider how great the task of keeping the GT-R LM reliable becomes when you have in excess of 1,200 bhp being transferred to just two wheels instead of four. Even F1 cars, which are rear-wheel drive, get a boost of 160 bhp from their Energy Recovery Systems. Nissan is aiming for far more than that.
THE UPSIDE OF UNCONVENTIONAL THINKING
The benefits of Nissan trying something different could be argued to be as great as the difficulty in making it work.
For one thing, it adds some much needed variety in the world of top-flight motorsport that seems to have settled into a rut when it comes to design. One would need to be all but blind to not be able to differentiate the GT-R LM from its rivals when on track.
With its 'gamer to racer' GT Academy that has even been introduced in India and seen aspiring racers with little or no previous racing experience race in the WEC as well as in GP3, Nissan has shown that it is committed to taking unconventional roads in motorsport with more than just the intention to be different.
Challenges of frontal drag, weight (it was not easy to get the GT-R LM get the GT-R LM to its target dry weight of 880 kg), packaging and reliability await the latest returnee to the WEC, a championship that seems to be growing in strength and appeal thanks to a very clearly defined structure and good racing.
It's hard to bet against the incumbents but equally hard to not root for Nissan's new approach to succeed in the face of conventional wisdom.
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