Nissan announced during halftime of Super Bowl XLIX that it is ready to take on the best sports car manufacturers in the world, revealing its "dark" horse for the Le Mans race – the Nissan GT-R LM Nismo .
Last year's Super Bowl was the most-watched program in U.S. television history with more than 110 million viewers. The 2015 match was therefore the perfect opportunity for Nissan's first commercial airing. The ad shows the eagerly anticipated Nissan GT-R LM Nismo, a car that will compete with the world's best for prestige at the 24 Hours of Le Mans .
With this bold move, the Japanese automaker demonstrates its innovative approach to interpreting the technical regulations of motorsport, coming up with a front- engine, front -wheel-drive car . The wheels are turned by a three-liter V6 gasoline engine with two turbochargers and a kinetic energy recovery system.
" It was with great pride that we unveiled the Nissan GT-R LM Nismo during the Superbowl halftime, " said Roel de Vries , Nissan's Global Marketing and Brand Strategy Manager. “ The combination of the Super Bowl and the 24 Hours of Le Mans – two of the world's most watched sporting events – was a unique opportunity for us to boast our most ambitious motorsport program in recent memory. "
" The GT-R is our flagship road car, " he continued. “ This ultimate GT-R car continues a sporting pedigree stretching back three decades, now with the Nismo division, Nissan's motorsport and high-performance arm. Le Mans is an engine of innovation, so success on the race track will lead to greater innovation in our road vehicle range. We are new to Le Mans. Our opponents are the best in the world, but we are ready. "
The new car will compete in the LMP1 class in the FIA World Endurance Championship , the highest category of world sports car racing. The race series will begin on April 12 at Silverstone in the UK, before heading around the world via Spa in Belgium, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Germany's Nurburgring before continuing overseas to the US , Japan , China and the Middle East .
" These are really exciting innovations, " said Shoichi Miyatani , president of the Nismo division. " Sustainability is at the forefront of our concern and the technical regulations for the Le Mans race give us the freedom to come up with new ideas in this area. Our current record at Le Mans is third place overall, so we still have a lot of work to do. We want to win and we have the knowledge to do it – for our customers, employees and supporters. The competition is extremely strong and it is an exciting challenge for us. "
" Our LM P1 program builds on the close connection between Nismo on the road and Nismo on the racetrack, introducing our brand's DNA to a global audience, " explains Darren Cox , Nismo's Global Marketing and Sales Manager. " We bring motorsport to a wide audience. We tell the stories of technical innovation, but also the stories of people, using all the exciting communication channels available to us today. We'll be innovating off the track as well as on it, so you can be sure that what you see is just the beginning of the story. "
The intensive testing program of the Nissan GT-R LM Nismo , which began last year in Arizona , continues this week at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, where the team is taking advantage of the warmer climate of the southern United States . Nissan drivers for the LMP1 class will also be introduced soon.
Source: Nissan
