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Nissan says it will win Le Mans 24 Hours within next two years

Nissan has made the bold claim that it will win the Le Mans 24 Hours within the next two years with its all-new LMP1 challenger announced today

Company vice-president Andy Palmer said that a victory within Nissan's initial two-year commitment to the World Endurance Championship's P1 category was a realistic target.

"We are aiming to win. No, we are going to win - in a very different, a very innovative and a very Nissan way," he said on the launch of the P1 programme today.

"We are facing a big challenge form highly-respected rivals on a global stage, but for the record messrs Audi, Porsche and Toyota, we are coming to spoil your party, rain on your parade.

"To come in and win in the first year would need a combination of luck and technical prowess; to win in 2016 is not an unreasonable ask."

Asked if Nissan had the same level of resources as its future rivals, Palmer said: "We are certainly not spending at the level that I understand the Germans to be spending.

"But it depends on the talent you put in the team: we are clearly backed by a lot of the technology that the company has in terms of energy recovery."

Nissan's factory P1 entry, which was a condition of its entry with the ZEOD RC experimental racer at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours, was signed off in March, Palmer revealed

"I knew what we wanted to do nine months ago: the question was whether doing that could we be competitive and could we win," he explained.

"It was March before we had enough data to say, yes we can be credible in 2015 and we can win this thing in 2016."

Nissan has yet to disclose details of the car to be known as the GT-R LM NISMO, but it has revealed that all the technical decisions have been set in stone for some time.

The engine has been running on the dyno for three months and the GT-R LM is scheduled to hit the track in October ahead of a two-car assault on the full WEC in 2015.

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