As I sit here, en route to Bathurst for next weekend’s Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hours, it’s difficult not to feel a real buzz.
Not just because I’m about to cross off a massive entry on my own personal bucket list, but also because of the events of the last 24 Hours.
It has been very, very tough not to bite on the internet apple of temptation to explode myths about the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, and not either to give due credit for the good investigative work of others. Stand up Mulsanne Mike Fuller for consistently well reasoned and sourced work that nobody else got even close to.
Now the car is out in the open it, of course, becomes a different game.
Will the car be fast? Will it be reliable? Will yet another utterly radical Ben Bowlby concept confound the doubters and be a game changer? I’d put money on some of the opposition having already ‘done the numbers. They’ll be watching with interest for sure.
It will be a very hard road ahead, read Darren Cox’s comment from this morning and you’ll see that there is justified respect being shown here to the other factory teams, but the fact that yet another manufacturer is stepping up should warm the cockles of any fan’s heart.
Thursday will see confirmation of more of the driving talent that Nissan will align this year and there too is a theme that a motorsport lover can warm to, Sportscar and GT racing is providing a career structure at the moment, based on a series of commercial realities, that no other area of the sport can currently match.
Thursday will, we expect, see a series of announcements showing that the world of ACO rules racing is strong, we expect the same when the season entry for the Blancpain GT Series follows. After the awful days following the major financial crash just a few short years ago when teams, programmes and suppliers folded, and highly skilled and experienced people were put out of work in their droves, lets celebrate for a moment the corporate bravery of Nissan for stepping into the gladiatorial arena.
We’ve got a way to go yet before we know whether it will be thumbs up or thumbs down, but all should know that Godzilla can take a hell of a beating and still come up the winner!
