I can't believe that Nissan was trumpeting its unclassified finish among the walking wounded at the Le Mans 24 Hours as "mission accomplished". We expect a bit of spin from underperforming manufacturers from time to time, but what we have read from the Japanese manufacturer after last weekend takes PR puff to a new extreme.
Nissan did always say that one of its goals was to get a car to the finish, but there were other stated targets that the front-wheel-drive GT-R LM NISMO didn't come remotely close to hitting. Like the one about being "significantly faster" than the best of the LMP2s. Or simply being credible.
![]() Nissan's fastest race lap, through Tincknell, was just 0.791s up on the best in LMP2 © XPB |
That was a word that had disappeared from the Nissan PR vernacular over the weekend. And quite rightly so. I can't see what was remotely credible about Nissan's performance on its return to the top division of endurance racing.