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Nissan puts Le Mans prototype program under review

Nissan had a challenging time developing its GT-R LM Nismo, then it faced enormous challenges at Le Mans, the race it designed the car for, and now the race outfit is dealing with challenges in the boardroom. While the outfit gets ready for a test at the Circuit of the Americas, Sportscar365 reports that Nissan executives in Japan are deciding how to proceed with their LMP1 program. The meetings were presaged last month by CEO Carlos Ghosn, who said at last month's Formula E race in London that "we must assess the strategy. We wanted to be different and competitive, we have only been different." Both Ghosn's wording and that of the Sportscar365 piece make it seem that company bosses are wrangling over continuing with "the current specification" of the GT-R LM Nismo, not the entire two-year race program. If that's the case and the decision goes against, we could see a more traditional Nissan racer in La Sarthe next year. While it's easy for us to say this, we think that would be a shame. Le Mans is hard enough to win with a massive budget and a traditional race car - just ask Peugeot and Toyota, and remember that Porsche didn't go home covered in laurels its first year back, either. Given just how different Nissan's car is, a year in the deep weeds at the world's biggest and least forgiving endurance race against veteran competition isn't an outrageous outcome. And remember, persistent issues prevented the team from using the car's hybrid system, robbing the GT-R LM Nismo of half its horsepower and rear-wheel drive. That was never going to go well. Can the engineers get the GT-R LM Nismo to work properly? We don't know. But we'd like to see them get a proper chance to get it right. Related Video:

Renault planning a Tata Nano rival. Again.

Four years ago, Renault confirmed that it would partner with India's Bajaj Auto to develop a rival to the Tata Nano. At the time, as everyone waited for the Tata Nano to arrive, you could have used a Richter scale to measure the tremors the executive suites of any automaker with an interest in the low end of emerging markets. Then the Nano, still the cheapest car in the world, didn't sell so well - at the end of last year its sales were just six percent of its most conservative projections - and everyone seemed content to let Tata spend the money to figure out if there really was a market for the cheapest car in the world.
Renault believes there is, kind of. Automotive News Europe reports that it will partner with Nissan to build two low-priced cars for emerging markets, one for €3,000 ($3,888 U.S.) and another for €5,000 ($6,400 U.S.). The price of the least expensive offering is nearly $1,400 more than a Nano, which costs $2,500, and that can't be considered a small sum in comparison. But one of the hindsight knocks on the Nano has been that even in emerging markets buyers don't want a car whose biggest lure is that it is cheap; they'd rather give their aspirations a bit more of a workout.
Renault's offerings are scheduled to hit the non-Western market in late 2014, which is coincidentally the same year that will see the return of the budget-minded and emerging-market-specific Datsun nameplate. They'll be built in Renault facilities in Chennai, India, with no mention made of Bajaj this time around.

Nissan wants an American driver for its Le Mans team

"We'll use every driver development tool we have to take them to the next level, but they will also have to step up." - Darren Cox
Nissan is aiming to put an American behind the wheel of one of its LMP1 racecars in 2016 as part of plans to grow its motorsports program in the United States.