After being previewed earlier this year, the Nissan ZEOD RC Le Mans Prototype debuted at the Nismo headquarters in Yokohama, Japan on Wednesday.
It’s been just 33 weeks since Nissan announced its plans to enter the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours and in that time, the Nissan ZEOD RC has been created essentially from nothing. During the car’s Japanese debut, Nismo president Shoichi Miyatani said, “The ZEOD RC utilises our technology gained through the development of the Nissan LEAF Nismo RC, the first EV racer based on the mass production zero emission vehicle.
“The LEAF RC’s energy management and efficient energy recovery system that is suitable for racing are just examples. We believe these technologies serve as important steps for using EV for motor sports,” he said.
The Nissan ZEOD RC is set to become the first car at the to make a full lap of the 8.5-mile Le Mans on solely electric power. This feature will only be used once during evey stint. When all the systems are running, the Nissan ZEOD RC will be capable of exceeding 300km/h.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IXp2Y_N_yc[/youtube]
While speaking at the car’s Japanese debut, Nissan Global Motorsport director Darren Cox said, “Our goal for the program is to draw back the curtain for the fans to see the innovative technology that Nissan is developing. We could not think of a better place than the Fuji round of the World Endurance Championship for the actual ZEOD RC to appear in public for the first time. We have interrupted our intense testing in the UK to fly the car to Japan for this display for the Japanese fans.”
