Nissan LEAF Battles Tesla Roadster at Japan's Sugo Sportsland Circuit

By Eric Loveday · September 12, 2012

The Nissan LEAF NISMO RC gets ready for action at Japan's Sportsland Sugo circuit.

The Nissan LEAF NISMO RC electric racer was only nine seconds behind the Tesla Roadster . That's rather impressive considering that the electric-only race lasted for approximately 27 minutes and that the LEAF NISMO RC is little more than a glorified stock Nissan LEAF.

On September 2, at Japan’s Sportsland Sugo circuit, the Nissan Leaf NISMO RC placed second behind a blazing fast Tesla Roadster at the Sugo 50-km electric vehicle race. The 14-lap race lasted 27 minutes and in the end the LEAF NISMO RC trailed the first place Tesla Roadster by just 9.777 seconds.

The Nissan LEAF NISMO RC features the same electric motor, battery and inverter from a stock Leaf, but is a purpose-built racer. As such, it's considerably lighter than a standard LEAF and, due to its rear-wheel-drive setup and altered location of its powertrain components, has improved weight distribution, which apparently improves its balance and its acceleration.

While the LEAF NISMO RC was ultimately defeated by the electric Roadster, it did manage to record the fastest lap of the day. How's that possible? Check out the video and find out.

About the author

· Eric Loveday

Eric Loveday is an automotive enthusiast who is passionate about everything auto. He purchased a 1970 Chevelle at age 16, quickly outgrew its dated engineering and outrageous consumption of gasoline, and sold it off. Eric developed a true passion for automotive writing after graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in print journalism. Eric spent most of his time since then ...

Full bio · 353 posts

Comments

· darelldd · 35 weeks ago

Outstanding. I want one!

· Benjamin Nead · 35 weeks ago

I guess what surprises me most, Darell, is someone actually wrote something nice about the Leaf today.

· darelldd · 35 weeks ago

Ha! Sadly so true.

I've gotta say... as a sports car with a huge wing, this thing looks pretty nice!

· tterbo1 (not verified) · 35 weeks ago

Poor Leaf. hehe

My positive armchair leaf comment for the day is that it still looks cool. hehe

· Anonymous (not verified) · 35 weeks ago

It is hard to call such trial a RACE if the drivers must think of the energy consumption instead of beating the time...

· Tom Moloughney · 35 weeks ago

Actually fuel management is an important part of many types of racing Anonymous.

· darelldd · 35 weeks ago

Ah. Tom beat me to it. Just think of most of the big auto races these days and you'll see that fuel management is one of the HUGE factors. In fact I think (can't think totally clearly right now) that Formula 1 no longer lets you take on fuel during the race. You start with one full tank and if it doesn't last you the full race, you're cooked. They meter it out to the gram. If all we do is try to go fast, we're missing the point.

· Elp Tique (not verified) · 35 weeks ago

Isn't it perculiar that, in order to write something nice about the LEAF, they have to enter in the vroom vroom mode?

· ex-EV1 driver · 35 weeks ago

@Elp Tique,
The cool things are that:
1) There is no "vroom vroom", only a silent but fast "whoosh"
2) Its good to hear the EV movement wake up and started thinking about power and speed - the most important performance aspects of an automobile.
I just hope that Nissan comes out with a production EV soon that is competitive with a production Tesla. Today, clearly, their EV isn't very competitive with any other production cars except for the kind of energy that it uses. I'm tired of making excuses for Nissan.

· tterbo1 (not verified) · 35 weeks ago

ex-EV1: I thought a while back they'd talked about an electric GT-R. I guess if you google GT-R and Electric though, awhile back is 2009.

· ex-EV1 driver · 35 weeks ago

@tterbo,
Talk, yes. I want to see it.
I'm impressed that they actually put something on the track against something fast. I'd prefer it were a well known ICE performance car that they could beat but this is a start since we know the Tesla can beat most ICE sports cars..

· Lad (not verified) · 35 weeks ago

I would greatly like to see the particulars of the modded Leaf; What's the weight? What they have developed is a well-engineered chassis waiting to compete in any series with a change of drive line,i.e., battery pack, motor and gearing.

· Anonymous (not verified) · 35 weeks ago

@Tom, I did not express myself clearly enough. In fact " fuel management is an important part of many types of racing" but what I understood from the movie is that Tesla did not show its full capabilities. The same with Nissan - they had best lap over 5 sec faster then Tesla and still finished almost 10sec behind them. For me that was more like "eco-driving test" then a true race with max speed and pushing cars to the edge. (sorry if my English is not clear enough)

PluginCars

Nissan LEAF Battles Tesla Roadster at Japan's Sugo Sportsland Circuit

About the author

Comments

All Discussions

Real World Leaf Range 27 - 38 miles

Five Must-Have Features for Tesla's Affordable Mass-Market Car

Ford C-Max Energi Operates As Pure Electric Car for First 20 Miles

Have Kids? Three Family-Friendly Electric Cars To Consider

Emergency charging thru portable Generator

How to Maximize Your Electric Car's Range

Used Market for Plug-in Cars in Nascent Stage

Survey: To Be Satisfied, Electric Car Drivers Want 150 Miles of Range

BMW Videos Emphasize Carbon Fiber in Electric Car Strategy

Public EV Charging: Think Before You Plug In