But first – in a series of Global Media Center Best Of selections this holiday season – here are some highlights from the racetrack.
REMIX: Nissan at Le Mans 24h Overall Summary
The Nissan DeltaWing made its debut at the Le Mans 24 Hours. The ground-breaking racing car gave a strong start but an accident pushed it into a wall and it was forced to retire, despite a valiant team effort to get the car running again.DeltaWing became a firm fan favourite and the biggest story of Le Mans 2012, thanks to its outlandish, dart-shaped design and efficiency-driven technology. Witness the debut race of the innovative car in the video below.
REMIX: Super GT Rd.7 (Autopolis) Digest
The MOLA #1 S Road REITO MOLA GT-R driven by Masataka Yanagida and Ronnie Quintarelli were crowned champions for the second consecutive year in the GT 500 class in the Super GT race. This was the deciding round at Autopolis, also the GT-R’s 2nd consecutive win at this race track.The winning team also set the record for being the first in the history of the series that the same driver pairing has won two championships in a row.
Shotaro’s pit-stop – Life in the Pit Lane
Have you ever thought about what it takes to be under the pressure of having to work in an environment where seconds count?Well, the Nissan Global Media Center’s Shotaro Ogawa has been finding out and will be sharing his experiences in the pit lane with you through the year via a series of videos.
Here’s an interesting one from this year. Watch as he learns to lift and change a Super GT race car wheel that is much heavier than it looks.
V8 Supercar on Melbourne Track
Back in November, just three days after its official unveiling, the 2013 Nissan Altima V8 Supercar was rolled-out at Calder Park Raceway in Australia for the first part of aerodynamic testing.Despite being sidelined after a recent shoulder reconstruction – team owner and driver Todd Kelly was given the first honors of taking the wheel of the car. Impressively, he took the car round the track using just one hand.
More to come in 2013, as the team plans to place four Altimas on the grid at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.
Driving Lightning – Michael Krumm & Usain Bolt
A few months ago, Nissan’s GranDrive played host to two experts in speed: Nismo race driver Michael Krumm and Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world. Bolt had just been named Nissan’s Director of Excitement and he showed a fair bit of excitement himself when Krumm took him around the course in the Nissan GTR.Krumm summed up the experience in our interview: “It’s not so easy to drive in a small place like this and show him the limit. So I showed him that you can drive on the limit, and he really enjoyed that a lot. He was screaming and shouting a lot in the car. ”
