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FIA GT: Nismo GT1 GT-R to Appear at Final FIA GT Round 2009
FIA GT Championships for 2009 is set to wrap up at the conclusion of round 8 this coming weekend of the 24th and 25th of October. The race, to be held at Zolder Circuit in Belgium, will also be the last of the four rounds that Nismo will enter the 2010 GT1 spec Nismo GT-R into for 2009.
The Nismo team will use Zolder in order to further enhance development for the completion of customer spec cars. Next year, the car will return in the hands of race teams to join the competitive field of 2010 FIA GT World Champions GT1 class cars.
We were able to improve the GT-R further since the Spa round and are now getting much closer to where we want the car to be for next year’s FIA GT1 World Championship. Of course development will continue, but I believe we have a very good baseline now and it will be interesting to see how our car handles the very challenging Zolder circuit.
– Michale Krumm, NISMO
Following on from their great success at the 24hrs of Spa in July, the team has held three private test sessions in England to continue tweaking and preparing the car for performance and durability so they’re keen to see how it does.
The changes to the car that will be seen at Zolder include some aero revisions and a new rear wing design.
Click the Read More link below to read the full press release from Nismo…
Source: Nismo
FIA GT: Nissan GT-R Returns to the 24hrs of Spa for Round Four 2009
The highlight of the summer for the FIA GT 2009 championships is coming up this weekend, the Total 24hrs of Spa in Belgium. This race marks the third out of four total races that the 2010 GT1 specification Nissan GT-R is entered in this year as part of the development program. This year is not the first time a GT-R has contested the Spa 24hrs, back in 1991 the Zexel Group A R32 GT-R won the race outright. While this year it’s all about developing the Nissan GT-R for the 2010 championship season and just finishing the grueling 24hrs, it’s sure going to bring an smile to European Nissan fans faces to see the GT-R back out there.
The FIA GT1 specification Nissan GT-R has come quite a ways since the program inception and has now over 10,000 km of track testing under it’s belt. Team Nismo / Gigawave seem confident that reliability is improving every race but, while they did finish round #3 at Oschersleben in Germany, there is a very big gap between that and a 24hr endurance event.
Spa is one of the most challenging tracks in the world. Full concentration is required on every corner here not to make a mistake. Because many corners are extremely high-speed, a mistake normally means the end of the race. Hence to race for over 24 hours at Spa is extremely exciting. Our target is of course to make it over the whole distance, not an easy target for a new car, but we will do everything in our power to achieve that goal. The Nissan GT-R is getting faster and more reliable at each event and so we hope to make another step forward for this all-important race at Spa!
– Michael Krumm, Driver, Nismo
To bolster the ranks for the race, Nismo have added ex Formula 1 driver Anthony Davidson as the third driver for the race. Overall it should be a great race, the circuit is amazing, the weather is unpredictable and the GT-R is involved.
Check the Nismo press release after the jump…
Images: (C) DPPI via FIA GT
Link: FIA GT Related Stories on GTRBlog.com
FIA GT1 Nissan GT-R Testing Update and News
Well unless you’ve been buying property in exclusive under-rock-locations lately I’m sure you know that Nissan Motorsports NISMO and Gigawave Motorsports have partnered in the entry of a 2010 GT1 specification Nissan GT-R into four races in this years FIA GT series.
The first offical FIA GT test session wrapped up on Tuesday last week and we all got a great look at the Nismo GT1 GT-R in detail thanks to various media in attendance on the day.
How’d the GT-R do though? Yes it’s just a test day but the laps were timed and that includes the 2010 FIA GT1 spec GT-R. All up 100 (!) laps were run over the two days of testing on the Paul Ricard circuit. Keeping in mind that the 2010 FIA GT1 specification limits the modifications that the cars may run versus the 2009 GT1 specification you musn’t compare it to current laptimes.
That being said here are the best lap times for the three 2010 GT1 cars from the first official test days:
- 2010 GT1 Nismo / Gigawave Nissan R35 GT-R – 2:05.447
- 2010 GT1 Matech Ford GT – 2.05.948
- 2010 GT1 VDS Ford GT – 2.07.401
Godzilla likes to win it seems.
Testing resumes today and tomorrow (15th – 16th of April) in Portugal at the Algarve Circuit. A circuit which Michael Krumm, Nismo’s GT1 GT-R racing driver personally loves –
[Algarve Circuit is] a new and very exciting track that was build basically out of the most exciting corners from circuits around the world. I’m looking very much forward to drive in the Nissan GTR there!
– Michael Krumm
In other news, Gigawave has confirmed our previous post regarding which races the Nismo / Gigawave GT1 Nissan R35 GT-R will be entering in the 2009 series. Additionally they’ve confirmed a third event while leaving the fourth and final event undecided upon at this stage. The three confirmed rounds will be:
- Silverstone, UK – May 3rd 2009 – Series Round #1
- Oschersleben, Germany – June 21st 2009 – Series Round #3
- 24 hours of Spa, Belgium – July 25th – 26th 2009 – Series Round #4
Starting to get pretty exciting with all the GT-R motorsports coming our way. SuperGT 2009 round #2 this weekend should help me get my fix as well as Targa Tasmania 2009 which is coming up in less than two weeks now.
Link: FIA GT Website
Link: Gigawave Motorsports
Link: FIA GT GT1 Spec GT-R related articles on GTRBlog.com
Photo Gallery: 2010 GT1 Spec Nissan GT-R
FIA GT1 Nissan GT-R In Detail: Photo Gallery and Video
The Nissan GT-R has spent it’s first official test day at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France and been the target of quite a lot of attention. French website endurance-info.com has the hookup for some real great photos.
You can see in these great shots, the basis of the Nissan GT-R is a standard car. The standard radiator support is even reused in a modified form. As for the engine bay, well not much remains stock here with a 5.6litre NA V8 VK56DE in place of the standard Nissan’s VR38DETT twin turbo engine.
On the same subject, MC from NAGTROC spotted that GigaWave, who have partnered with NISMO on the FIA GT1 spec nissan GT-R have setup a new streaming video website, called GTRLive.tv, to show off some of their technological capability. The first video is an in-car camera video from the GT1 car testing. Check it out below.
Photos: Anthony Megevand, David Fontayne
Link: GTRLive.tv – GigaWave’s Streaming Video Site for GT1 GT-R Activities
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