Why Did Nissan Leave Gt1 In 2012

[wizlb]

Hey People

Does anyone know why Nissan has left FIA GT 1 World Championship Race?

B In Sydney

[Wardski]

Not sure, maybe earthquakes et al in Japan have made them focus inward for a bit..??

[wizlb]

Cool....Warski

All I know is GT1 is full of great cars this year and Nissan R35 should be their........its a shame!!!!

[Snowman]

Nissan never ran a team - JRM did. And they have changed their focus this year away from GT1 to the world enduro championship - in a Honda.

You tend to find with history that very few GT1 teams hang around in that championship for long as they are all pretty much private companies.

[Adzmax]

JRM still have the GTR in GT3 no?

[notsofast]

Well I bet Nissan werent too impressed with building half a dozen (at the most) purpose built GT1 spec GT-R which wouldve cost them millions of dollars to develop and build and then with the stroke of a pen towards the end of last year the rules changed and FIA GT1 decided to run GT3 spec cars this year. Leaving Nissan with those cars sitting in their collection with nowhere to race.

There's a GT3 spec GT-R but its still in its development phase and it seems Nissan would rather privateers race the cars without them having to invest like they did with the GT1 GT-R. No teams stepped up and JRM had no funds to spare to race in GT1 again so it didnt happen.

And lastly but no least Nissan have the silverware, thats all they care about, they won the championship last year. Target achieved.

Edited April 24, 2012 by notsofast

[wizlb]

Thanks was spot on Nosofast

So GT1 changed the rules within GT1 to favor those cars from GT3 and now it's more or less a GT3 race.

Correct Nosofast

[notsofast]

Thanks was spot on Nosofast

So GT1 changed the rules within GT1 to favor those cars from GT3 and now it's more or less a GT3 race.

Correct Nosofast

Yes. Originally it was to be mix of GT1 and GT3 cars Ferrari and McLaren were not happy with this and would not race in championship with a mix of cars, only GT3 would do for them. And so it came about and this year the championship is only for GT3 racers. NZ driver Mike Halliday has a drive in a Porsche GT3R and won the championship race at Zolder this weekend past. Its a shame JRM arent running a pair of GTRs in it, they had a lot of technical support from NIssan/Nismo with some gun driver lineups including David Brabham who ironically is racing for JRM in the Honda LMP in WEC for them this year with Peter Dumbrek and Karun Chandok.

No idea where the GT1 GT-Rs will end up (Nissan storage, collectors, historic racing etc). Not sure who owns which cars between Nismo and JRM and if the cars were brought or leased by JRM.

Edited April 25, 2012 by notsofast