I Turned The WORST LMP1 Car Into A Money Making BEAST!

[@NotFastEddie]

This car wasn't a failure because it was front wheel drive. It was supposed to be all wheel drive with an electric motor/s driving the rear wheels. The hybrid electric system wasn't ready in time for the race, but NISSAN chose to run it anyway. If they had waited until all systems were race ready, then they just may have been a contender. It's a shame they didn't bring the car back the following year to see what it could really do.

[@bigbuckoramma]

@@NotFastEddie correction. The Hybrid System was a Kinetic Flywheel system known as "FlyBrid" from a company called ToroTrac. It was a total flop. And basically any time the system experienced any amount of vibration, the complex CVT and clutch system would break. They were forced to run the car with the broken hybrid system inside of it. Which was the root cause of all the cars issues. See my post above for a more complete breakdown. It was only after LeMans that they consulted Renault F1 engine team tonlook at their Electric Hybrid system as an alternative. Apparently trying to use a Super Capacitor system like Red Bull were using. But the details on that never fully emerged, because the project was so abruptly cancelled.

[@Doughtinator]

Yeah it was certainly crippled when it raced. I do love wild race cars. Always a great story behind them 👍🏻👍🏻

[@kevinliddell7350]

Excellent video and thanks for exposing this car which I haven’t paid much attention to.

[@johnnyddavis058]

Excellent build!! I always thought the car is ugly and never had a tune for it but after doing this tune the car is a real nice drive! Appreciate the tune keep it up!!

[@Doughtinator]

100% agree. I felt exactly the same. But now. I probably would drive it again. Super interesting back story to the car too 👍🏻

[@bigbuckoramma]

OK, so i have to be THAT GUY again, and pull out the "Well, actually..." in the comments section...but here we go anyway...sorry in advance for the novel. The Nissan GTR LMP1-HY was plagued with a series of unfortunate events that all interconnected to make the car completely useless as a race car. First we need to talk about the design brief, and why the car was FWD. Basically, at the time, the LMP rules had a spec fixed rear diffuser size for all LMP1 cars. And with LMP1 cars being mid engined, and having a rear biased center of mass, a smaller rear diffuser meant less rear downforce, which also meant significantly less front downforce in order to keep the car balanced on center of pressure and center of mass. Which effectively slowed down the LMP1 cars average lap times, by significantly reducing the performance through Tertre Rouge, Indianapolis, and the Porsche Kurves. Which is what the ACO wanted. With this balance in mind, there were absolutely zero regulations on the front diffuser, you could make it as big and as wild as possible, and if you moved the engine forward, and with it the center of mass, and the drive wheels, you could produce more downforce, have better overall balance, and gain significant advantage. The overall design of the car was also supposed to use a ToroTrac FlyBrid Kinetic Flywheel system, which would provide a massive wallop to the rear wheel, to help offset the FWD nature of the car for accelerating out of the Mulsanne Chicanes, Mulsanne Corner, Arnage, and the Ford Chicanes. The car also employed a unique flow through tunnel system to extract the air out of the front diffuser to the rear of the car. This would significantly reduce the drag wake at the rear of the car, as well as extend the airflow expansion out of the rear diffuser helping it to generate more downforce than its mid engine counter parts. The design, in brief, was technically sound. So the whole root of the problems in the car basically begin and end with the FlyBrid system. It was a dud. It never worked in the car, any amount of vibration caused the bespoke fragile CVT and Clutch system to fly apart. As they drew close to LeMans, it was clear the car would have no Hybrid System at all. Nissan petitioned the FIA to move the car to the lesser non-hybrid LMP1 class, but as a manufacturer, they were disallowed, and told that not only did they have to run the car in LMP1-HY, but they had to do so with the dead Hybrid System in the car, weighing it down. With no Hybrid Harvesting, and no Hybrid Deployment, every design compromise of the car to better incorporate the Hybrid System, became an Achilles Heel. The original design called for a smaller 16" wheel, with smaller brakes. This was to better balance the physical brakes with the Hybrid Harvesting, and like Formula1 at the time, also use the wider tire sidewall to manage most of the bump absorption. No Hybrid meant that Bigger Brakes where required. Bigger Brakes meant Bigger Wheels. Bigger Wheels meant Smaller Sidewalls. Smaller Sidewalls means more road impact gets transferred to the Suspension Pick Up Points. And they had already cracked a tub at the pick up points in Testing at Sebring earlier in the year, so the order was given to the drivers to avoid all curbs at all costs, so as not to damage the tub again. The larger brakes the got where also not designed for an LMP1 car. It takes a year in advance to order LMP1 Carbon/Carbon Brake Sets, you cant just buy them off the shelf, and they are bespoke to every car they are made for. The only thing they could find that was viable prior to the race, where some new old stock LMP2 brakes. Which were never designed to handle the weight or the speed of an LMP1 machine. So they had to be careful on the brakes during the race as well. And to add injury to insult, they also had to completely redo the knuckle design of the front spindle to fit the bigger brake housing and caliper. This completely changed the front end geometry on the car, and a lot of the baked in magic geometry to help the FWD car maintain traction under acceleration where lost as a result. It was also intended that Hybrid Deployment would be used for all low speed corner exits, and pit exits, so the car was fitted with a small compact clutch, because it should have hardly been used as designed. Obviously with no Hybrid, it meant that ALL of the cars motivation at low speed would have to come from this small clutch pack. And the Clutches failing was one of the major issues the cars suffered at LeMans. So without the Hybrid, the whole design concept was basically useless. And the car was more of a flopping fish, than a high speed tuna. That said, there were two things in the car that absolutely worked, and did prove themselves at the race. 1: The Aero. The Aero Package worked EXACTLY as intended. And despite being down a few hundred horsepower with no Hybrid system, and not being able to attack the curbs in the chicanes, the LMP1 GTR's had some of the fastest trap speeds down the Mulsanne Straight. So the pressure recovery, and the front diffuser set up, DID work. The rest of the car that should have supported it...did not. Because of a failed Hybrid System. 2: The engine. The V6 Twin Turbo engine was an absolute gem. It never faltered, and the design has since been repurposed to other Nissan and Renault Motorsports uses, and has been absolutely flawless. The biggest shame of the whole car is that, in the end, thanks to the financial shenanigans of Carlos Ghosn, the project was killed in mid development testing. There are images of the car, on the last day the team was a team, testing a new Sprint Aero Package at Circuit of the Americas. Along with a completely revised front suspension system, a completely revised gearbox and clutch, no hybrid unit weighing them down, and lap times that were purported to be 4-5 seconds a lap faster than the previous iteration of the car. And there was rumor from team managers that they had been in contact with the Renault F1 Engine Program, and were looking at getting a Dual Motor variant of the Red Bull Super Capacitor Hybrid system, and adapting it to the Hybrid Layout of the GTR. Which would have greatly simplified the car with a known working Hybrid system. But...midway through testing they got the call to shut everything down, and the team packed up all of the cars at the test, and they have never been seen in daylight since then, and likely never will ever again. What could have been will always remain a mystery. I am just happy that Gran Turismo, for better or worse, has kept this car alive in the virtual world, at least giving a small glimpse of how it was supposed to work.

[@Doughtinator]

All good man. I love detail like this. I did start to look into the story behind it as stuff like this really interests me. But if I went too deep the video would be super long 😳🤣 I do appreciate the detail though. The trials and tribulations of race car design is brilliant. 👍🏻👍🏻

[@bigbuckoramma]

@@Doughtinator oh man, you're not wrong! Happens to me more than I like to admit! I was all in on this project from the start, and was one of the first people to presume from the leaked chassis shots, that the car was Front Engine and FWD, and through my technical understanding of FWD Touring Cars (which I used to race, and almost owned an old Accord Super Touring Car at one point) I was able to establish a line of communication with Team Manager, and then GT Academy Lead, Darren Cox. As well as a couple other members of the design team, and directly and indirectly with Ben Bowlby himself. And I have been quoted directly and indirectly in several articles and essays about the car, as well as proofreading the technical analysis of the car in several publications articles. I think there may only be a few people not directly associated with the team that know as much about, or care as much about this car, than I do. So, in a very strange way, I have made it my mission to help educate people about the cars development, and history, and what could have been, if only the whole package had worked as intended and designed from the start. It is a real shame that instead of being remembered for actually being something different, it ended careers, instead of promoting out of the box thinking.

[@SUBZERO8K]

@@bigbuckoramma Interesting comment, thanks for sharing. Shame we didn't get to see what it could have become.

[@martypies]

Thanks mate, great car and great build. I own 400 cars but never considered this one, it was a pleasant surprise.

[@Doughtinator]

Defo an unexpectedly good car 👍🏻👍🏻

[@SUBZERO8K]

Cool car. One of those that I own but don't think I've ever driven it. Lap times look nice, I'll have to try this out.

[@Doughtinator]

100% agree. It’s why I want to try and make it work 👍🏻

[@andsoitwas3046]

This car is so crazy.... such a unique build

[@Doughtinator]

100%

[@everythingNotHere]

building this as soon as I finish eating! THANK YOU 🙏

[@stephenrobinson9709]

There is no way he did this race in 24 mins... The car is as slow as hell. Stick to ya mazda 787b... I get 1.33 laps from it. The nismo was only giving me 1.39😢

[@Gdad-20]

Nice 1 mate, did you get the Moza n adaptor firmware update sorted? 👍

[@Doughtinator]

I rolled back to previous release firmware on the R5. I think it might need a Raslution update when the firmware is public 👍🏻👍🏻

[@markharley237]

Yess 700 le mans

[@MichaelRichardson-j6s]

Just tried the tune it's so easy to drive tried this car before couldn't get a tune to work

[@Doughtinator]

It’s surprisingly good 👍🏻👍🏻

[@VivariumSnake]

Love the content and intell you put forth brother much love from Tucson, Az. The question i have is.. wich is faster in all manners of driving. Tire wear or not.. sports soft or intermediate tires...if you have time and are willing to share some input I'd love to see your feed back ❤.

[@supercededman]

I like your tunes, Chris, but this car is still a bucket of shyte. Good tune, but you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Valiant attempt.

[@Doughtinator]

Yeah it’s better than I thought it would be. But still not great 👍🏻👍🏻

[@santiagoivanmagana4859]

Hi I really like the ks wheel but I don’t know what buttons work on ps5. Can you tell me your experience with the ks wheel on gt7 pls? Also I would like to know if the rotaries work

[@Doughtinator]

It’s a great wheel if you want a formula style wheel. All the buttons work but the rotaries don’t work. It’s a benefit if you have access to a PC too because you can customise button colours etc.

[@santiagoivanmagana4859]

@@Doughtinator thanks now I know that it does work on ps5. I hope I get it soon

[@Doughtinator]

I’ve got a full guide on my Moza R5 on PS5

[@santiagoivanmagana4859]

@@Doughtinator also another question. Does it have an specific button mapping for the brook ras1lution 2 or its fully customizable?

[@Doughtinator]

It’s hard coded button mapping. But then in GT7 you can re map as you want.

[@WB-14]

I take it you hate FF cars is because they're not realistic in gt7, work well in BTCC races in the real world!

[@WB-14]

Wow ignoring a comment 👍🏻

[@Doughtinator]

Sorry man. I do try and respond to all. Yeah it just feels like FF’s in GT7 suffer so much with on power understeer.

[@crusher-101]

I want one! Thank you...😬

[@crusher-101]

Okey-doky just picked it up. I'll do the tune and see what we can do at Sardegna. I'm sure we can make some big bucks on Sardegna. Love that circuit.

[@SSRT_JubyDuby8742]

Very nice, 👏. Like deployed 👍 😎🎙🏎✅️

[@Doughtinator]

Thanks Julian 👍🏻👍🏻

[@stephenrobinson9709]

I think you lied about your race times. I followed your tune & my fastest lap was 1.39 & I've been playing since day 1.... In my 787b I was doing 1.33s! The car is stable & very slow & I don't think you did that race in 24 mins😢😢