With the factory programme pulled the noughties became a decade to forget for Nissan fans – Just four cars powered by Nissan in the decade – There was one major highlight though as Nissan moved into the customer engine market, and it came early!
2000
The new LMP675 class was designed to give privateers an opportunity to run almost as quickly as the full fat LMP 900s with lighter weight and smaller capacity or production based engines.
It was a slow burn to begin with but as the class evolved there were some clever moves, and one of the very first was to feature the robust Lola B2K/40 chassis with what was to become a ubiquitous power plant in smaller prototypes in the early part of the 21st century. The Canadian entered Multimatic effort may not have been super quick but it survived, and took another class win for Nissan power
LMP675
#32 Multimatic Motorsports Lola B2K/40 Nissan Scott Maxwell, John Graham, Greg Wilkins
274 laps, 25th overall, Class Winner LMP675
Nissan (AER) VQL 3.0L V6
2001
If 2000 was a high – then the following year was undeniably a low! Two cars in LMP675 – both out early in the race.
#32 KnightHawk Racing/ Roock Racing International Lola B2K/40 Nissan Claudia Hürtgen, Rick Fairbanks, Chris Gleason
94 laps DNF
Nissan 3.4L V6
This had some potential, albeit as a solidly Pro-Am effort but a 2 hour delay after a shunt was the portent of doom later – the damage believed to be the cause of the engine’s later overheating – DNF.
#35 S & R Rowan Racing Ltd. Pilbeam MP84 Nissan Warren Carway, Martin O’Connell, François Migault
3 laps DNF
Nissan (AER) VQL 3.0L V6
The little Pilbeam had been thought o as something of a ‘sleeper’ after some very strong runs in the FIASCC, it was among a group of cars though that were aught up in the chaos that resulted from a cloudburst soon after the race began, a promising effort ended in the barriers after only a handful of laps.
2005
#8 Rollcentre Racing Dallara SP1 Nissan Michael Krumm, Bobby Verdon-Roe, Harold Primat
133 laps DNF
Rollcentre Racing bagged an opportunity to try Nissan power in LMP1, the last top class LMP to run with a Nissan engine before the now announced 2015 factory effort! The car initially had a 3 litre, later 3.6 litre turbo V6 but had a troubled start to its Le Mans outing, the car refusing to fire up and losing an hour at the start of the race. It was retired in the 19th hour having failed to complete 50% of the leaders race distance. It would be six years before we would see a Nissan powered car in the great race!
GG
With thanks to John Brooks and www.racingsportscars.com
