Ride along with the NISMO LEAF
Nissan will be taking the NISMO LEAF to Le Mans to run in an exhibition event this week. The first exhibition will be held on Thursday with the second coming up on Saturday. We’ve linked you to some of the shakedown run videos previously offered by Nissan. This one offers a glimpse from the driver’s seat.
The first thing that struck us (and it will you if you have track experience) is this – pulling out of pit lane onto the track there was no shifting. Just step on the accelerator and go. Having a couple of months experience in our own LEAF now, we are well aware that it is a one speed reduction gear that requires no input on the part of the driver. Every competition vehicle we have driven on a track though has had a manual transmission. It just seems really weird to hear the car pick up speed with no shifting required. It seems actually kind of video game-ish.
For the hard-core among you (us) that would like to see the entire in-car track video (4:19 long), here you go (watch how smooth the test driver’s steering wheel movements are):
For some reason we can’t embed the in-car video. Here is a link.