So even if the Nissan finished 3rd, you would still be on here complaining about it? OK...

Incidentally, if there weren't two safety car periods in the last 2o minutes, who do you think would have won the race? And would you still have a BoP problem then?

I look forward to seeing your recommendations to the FIA ;)

I didn't say the Mercedes needs turbos. It does have a lot less torque than the Nissan in GT3 spec, so there will be situations where that puts it at a disadvantage, particularly at circuits like Bathurst.

Nonsense. I think you'll find they ran near the front with hot-shot pro Alex Buncombe on board, and dropped back when they switched to a GT Academy racer who was more cautious/slower on cold tyres. Boost/engine mapping has nothing to do with it.

Balance of Performance. It's an FIA thing, btw. Acronyms!

I'm not sure where you're going with this. The Mercedes also has much less torque than the Nissan, due to it's lack of twin turbos. RJN have been successfully competing in many different championship with a lot of good results (FIA GT3, British GT, Blancpain, etc. etc.). They would probably have had more victories if…

It's not a power difference or a top speed difference, it's torque. The twin-turbo Nissan develops more torque than the NA Audi, so in a straight drag race it has an advantage. Over a lap, the Audi is slightly faster. It was the circumstances playing to the Nissan's strengths that won the race (plus the 2nd 3rd and…

http://www.bathurst12hour.com.au/

You can always say Skyline when talking about Bathurst. It's right there on the map ;)

So, the Nissan was ridiculously overpowered, but without the safety cars the Audi would have put almost a lap on them? So, does that mean the Audi was more ridiculously overpowered? The Nissan was set up to be fast on the straights. Some of the other cars were optimised for the corners on the mountain, and others…

No it didn't. The fastest car was the Phoenix Audi which finished second.

I had some amazing taxi rides on a trip to Togliatti, Russia, a couple of years ago. The spatial awareness of these guys was amazing. They seemed to understand exactly how little space there was to all the traffic around them, and use every inch of it.

2001 Tokyo Motor Show Nissan Nails concept. One of the greatest of all time.

Japanese concept cars/trucks are the best concept cars/trucks. Fact.

Torch, you NEED to go to the VAZ factory in Togliatti to see where they make these things. It's astonishing, dated and a bit decrepid, just like the cars. The floor is even made of millions of little wooden bricks. All apart from the new Renault-Nissan production line, which exists in a parallel dimension/century.…

In the UK, you could buy two cars from the factory with chromaflair paint very similar to that. One was a TVR. The other was this Micra:

Great stuff as always, Torch. Keep up the good work (or whatever the equivalent of that is in Icelandic)! :)

I think his name was Hans Lehmann. He was the man for whom the dubious job description 'car scoop photographer' was invented, and his ability of snaffle out disguised prototypes as they performed pre-production testing on public roads was legendary. He must have made a small fortune in his pomp, and no one could deny…

Some jingoism in the comments, unsurprisingly. The US forces based themselves in Europe because it served US interests to do so. Facing down the Soviet threat during the Cold War was not just about babysitting the European countries. Had this consolidation occured 12 years ago, it wouldn't have been that surprising,…