Nissan is documenting the construction of the Zero Emissions On-Demand Race Car (ZEOD RC) that’s scheduled to occupy the Garage 56 Technical Exhibition spot for the 2014 24-Hours of Le Mans. The last time we checked in with this car, Nissan had announced that it was going to be a pure battery electric vehicle and we discussed what it would take to make that happen. It seems that since that article was written, Nissan has come to the same conclusion as almost all of the other automakers trying to produce green supercars: hybrid is the way to go. The cost, weight and range of current battery technology is still not good enough to be the foundation of a performance oriented car. Electric power specs mentioned in the video are prefaced with “when running in pure electric mode” which probably means the ZEOD RC will be a series hybrid. I will update with more information as it becomes available.
In this first chapter of the ZEOD RC build, the Nissan engineers showcase the carbon fiber main tub. They talk about some of its unique features which mainly revolve around driver safety. Nine months is all the time that Nissan will have to complete the construction and testing of the car. Spaniard Lucas Ordóñez, the winner of the first Gran Turismo Academy competition, will be the ZEOD RC’s test driver. The official public debut is scheduled to occur at the World Endurance Championship race at Fuji Speedway with Michael Krumm behind the wheel. Lets hope the Deltawing based ZEOD RC will usher in a new era of green race cars. We will be following these build videos very closely.
Source:
Nissan Newsroom on YouTube
This is on-board footage from the 1991 Mazda RX-7 IMSA GTO race car as it laps Laguna Seca during this year’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. Mazda won the 1991 season with this car. The GTO class of IMSA racing was for engines above 3 liters in tube frame cars that had production car silhouettes. Motivation for this car comes from a 26b 4-rotor engine that makes 600 hp at 8500 rpm and 390 ft-lbs of torque at 7000 rpm putting power down through a Hewland 5-speed transmission. You can see two of the three other 4-rotor cars that Mazda had at the event racing on track with this RX-7.