The Le Mans 24 Hours is slowly but surely gaining more traction with automakers than Formula 1, with Nissan being the latest major company to join the competition.

The Japanese carmaker has announced that it will compete against Audi, Porsche and Toyota in the top LM P1 category of the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2015, with the main objective being to win the world’s most important endurance race, the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Nissan said it will enter two prototypes under the GT-R LM Nismo nameplate as a tribute to the company’s flagship road car. And here comes the interesting part: Nissan will follow a different route to its competitors. “We want to win in a very different way to that of our rivals. We won’t be turning up in a vehicle which is a basically another hybrid that looks like another Porsche, Audi or Toyota – they all look the same to me – our intention is to do something that is a little bit different,” said Andy Palmer, Nissan’s Chief Planning Office & Executive Vice-President.

The new Nissan GT-R LM Nismo will allow the Japanese carmaker to return to Le Mans where the company says it has “some unfinished business.” Nissan’s new racing car is a global project, with the team including engineers and technical crew from Japan, the US and Europe.

“Believe me, I think this is the car that will go down in the annals of time and be one of those cars which will be long remembered, not only for the fact that it will have won Le Mans but also that it reset the real meaning of Nismo as a link between success on the track and success on the road,” said a confident Palmer.

The drivers of Nissan’s factory team will be announced at a later date, but the carmaker said they will come from both inside and outside of the Nissan family. I don’t know about you, but I’m already excited about upcoming Le Mans 24H races. If only Ferrari would join too…

By Dan Mihalascu

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