There have been a number of opportunities during 2012 for DSC to chew the fat with some significant people in the sport away from the tracks.
It’s no surprise that Nissan featured heavily in some of those opportunities, their backing has brought our content to a hugely increased audience in 2012 and they’ve made it easy for us to stay enthusiastic about their contribution, plenty of interesting and engaging stories came our way from the men 9and women) in black this year, an early opportunity to see the Nissan DeltaWing in action at a Snetterton test brought together most of the significant partners in the (almost literally) mould breaking project.
Michelin were hugely enthusiastic about the potential for the car, and for the direction it might take tyre development, the front tyres looking rather closer to a Moto GP item than an LMP, the French tyre makers wheeling out their big guns for the Snetterton event.
If the theory was to work they would get through remarkably few of them in 24 hours of racing!
Phil Barker, Michael Mallock and the RML crew that provided the logistical and technical support for the car in 2012 were their usual stoic selves, hugely high standards and work rates were required, and that’s what they delivered, never though without the emotion we love to see in the sport. A proper team!
Ben Bowlby must have spent a fair amount of 2012 resisting the temptation to flick two fingers at the cynics – His patience and genius was hugely rewarded by the media and public response to his extraordinary design.
Perhaps the most interesting and relevant response though came from Jerry Hardcastle, then Global chief marketability engineer for Nissan and later adding the duties of technical director for global motorsport activities to his already packed cv (as well as an OBE, rather neatly awarded in June!).
His response to a question from the DSC Editor on the relevance of the case to Nissan’s real world product range was a strong one, not relying on marketing driven messages, relevant though they are, he pointed beyond the fuel efficiency and tyre wear to the aerodynamics, pointing to the crossover between the DeltaWing and a regular road car, most of which aren’t adorned with the ‘add-on’ aero of a modern race car but instead rely on aero efficiency incorporated into the bodywork, or the underbody, exactly as the DeltaWing does!
There was a chance too to see the standards employed by Nissan in their road car manufacture with an excellent tour of the company’s flagship Sunderland plant. The plant’s current portfolio includes Qashqai, Juke and Note models, plus the battery packs for Renault and Nissan electric cars, one of which, the impressive Leaf is set to be built in Sunderland later in 2013, with the company due to add the new Infiniti Etheria to the plant’s output by 2015.
After the tour, which redefined several of our journalistic colleague’s personal definitions of a “skilled factory worker” to rather higher levels than previously held, there was an opportunity to sample a number of very interesting cars on the plant’s short test track.
There were a number of interesting people to chat to too, not least the Brundle family with Martin and son Alex due at that point to contest the Le Mans 24 Hours in a Nissan engined Greaves Motorsport run Zytek LMP2. It would be a breakthrough year for Brundle the Younger in sportscars, the young man showing he could learn well from his mistakes and get stuck in with the best out there in wheel to wheel action.
The DSC Editor though chose to interview the third member of the clan present, Liz who was the driving force behind Alex’s career. “There’s a lazy assumption from some that Mum is in the background and comes along for the ride, “ Alex told me later, “nothing could be further from the truth. She’s been around the sport for a long, long time, has been my motivator, coach, negotiator and a lot more besides. It’s great to do this alongside dad, but it’s better still to have her alongside both of us.”
And then there was the third racing driver on site, younger still than Alex, young Jann Mardenborough was suited, booted and ready to impress, and impress he did, taking the assembled media out for some hot lappery and coaching each of us around a very tight, twisty, technical handling course – The weapon of choice for this one was none other than the Nissan Juke R, another stroke of genius from the Nissan/ RML skunk works, Darren Cox doesn’t like to take credit for much but one thing’s for sure, it this thing hadn’t been the runaway media success that it turned out to be he would likely be scanning the Sits Vac columns rather than sitting in a new office next month!
First things first, I defy anyone to spot any evidence whatsoever either in terms of fit and finish, or in dynamic terms that this pocket rocket was anything other than an ‘off the peg’ factory produced supercar. It blew my expectations of a potentially raw, aggressive near race car product into the Wearside weeds – The car was stunningly capable, very refined indeed but oh so fast, not just in a straight line but everywhere! The first customer cars, with even more power and an eye watering price tag, have rolled out of Wellingborough and into the hands of their lucky new owners now – The Juke R deserves its short chapter in supercar history.
Jann’s tutorial around the handling circuit was short, fast, faultless and very, very impressive. The DSC Ed’s effort was longer, riddled with mistakes and was dealt with diplomatically by this very impressive young man.
There are plans afoot for young Mr Mardenborough, and correctly so – The GT Academy may just have come of age!
There was the chance too for a spin at the wheel (not literally thankfully!) in the all electric Nissan Nismo Leaf RC, a combination of the drivetrain and powerpack from the impressive but not sporty Leaf road car and a near GT300 chassis.
The car was speed limited to less than warp speed but its power delivery was a massive eye opener and the dynamic differences, (no engine braking, no gearchanges and no apparent drop off in accelerative effort to the speed limiter!) It would take much more getting used to than the track time allowed but there were plenty of the assembled media emerging wide eyed from the experience – It certainly but a different spin of the potential for Formula E!
The final automotive opportunity was in the alluring, aggressive shape of a Nissan GTR, a Nissan performance driving tutor on hand to help me to get the best that my fists of ham could from this astounding road car – If you have the means and the inclination this HAS to be on your wish list – If you can’t get beyond the Nissan badge then, put simply, you’re wrong!
Again the car was surprisingly civilised for so capable a machine but god this thing is fast, and not just in a straight line either!
It was in a straight line though that the Ed’s best bragging line of the year emerged – There were a couple of competitive strands to the day’s activities, a skills test to measure our abilities against those expected from prospective apprentices to the assembly lines (my personal abilities fell very far indeed from the required standard!) and a simple 0-60 test designed to show off the GT-R’s launch control ability.
Suffice to say, when electronically assisted by a machine with more computing capability than the entire fleet of Apollo moon missions put together, my abilities were flattered, indeed were flattered to such an extent that I posted the fastest time of the day (3.01 seconds), something which Racecar Engineering’s Sam (slower than me) Collins hasn’t forgiven me for yet – “Yeah but it’s launch control isn’t it, it’s not skill?” Yes Sam, but despite that I still beat you! At some point (slower than me) Sam will realise, probably after reading this, that I get a tad more pleasure from his evident irritation that I actually do from having beaten him in the first place!
With thanks to Darren Cox, Sylvia Mink and Lindsay Morle
