Remember the Nissan ZEOD RC Le Mans prototype race car unveiled last year? Well, you’re not likely to forget the way it looks, surely. This is the engine that will power it round the famed 24-hour race this year – Nissan’s new 1.5 litre three-cylinder turbo dubbed the DIG-T R.
It may not look like much, but it offers as much as 400 hp and 380 Nm of torque. And no, that’s not a professional weightlifter holding it up either; that’s Nismo President Shoichi Miyatani carrying the small 40 kg engine. It measures just 500 mm tall, 400 mm long and 200 mm wide.
The downsized engine – developed with Nissan’s lubricants partner Total – will not be the only motor powering the ZEOD RC. A single lap of each fuel stint (approximately one hour) will be 100% electric powered, after which the DIG-T R will take over.
Nissan claims that the petrol-powered race engine’s output of 10 hp per kilogramme beats the power-to-weight ratio of Formula 1’s new equally-turbocharged 1.6 litre V6 motors that will be used this year. For a small 1.5 litre three-pot, that’s not bad at all, eh?
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great!
but…but…jaguar cx75 1.6 engine produce 500+Hp….dunno the weight however
Dear Nissan. Please put it in a production car. Thank you.
Also, the Delta Wing needs some DRL mounted on some sort of stick up front so that other drivers notice it is there.
wow nice performance hybrid
3 cylinder?
1.5 for 400hp.
F-1 1.6 is V6.
Nissan – Win Liao.
19,000rpm?? turbo to extract this much power!? engine waterjacket so efficient!!
So ford has its 1.0l ecoboost
Fiat has its own 1.2l Multiair
Honda is coming out with its own 1.0l Turbo EarthDreams which is coming soon
Now Nissan has come out with their own 3-cylinder, over 100hp/liter wonder…HURRAY
But after reading an article from Jalopnik, it turns out Three Cylinder today are very complicated machines compared to four. The fact that it is a four stroke engine meant that at least one cylinder is always none firing, causing an engine off-balance. Also, all three road-going engine listed are very complicated with a mixture of direct injection and Turbo wizardry to squeeze that power out. Modern tech by-pass all those hurdles, but through complication. Weather or not this factor in efficiency over reliability I am not sure, but all in all, there’s a very bright future ahead for the 3-cylinder engines.
Now back to Nissan, I think the amazing part personally is not the power but the weight of that engine. 40kg …Thats less than the complicated wizardy of the 1.6l V6 in the upcoming Formula 1 cars(90kg). Just detune that engine to say 180hp and put it in the body of the iDx concept NOW!!! Or even better….stick each end together and you have a new straight-six!! Perfect for either the new GTR or Fairlady.
It seems impossible but… WTF, 1.5L for 400 ponies? Oh, I forgot, the rotary engine also have done the same thing too…oh technologies…XD
just fyi… the displacement calculation of rotary engine is somewhat different to the piston 1…
an example is the Le Mans wining Mazda 787b, actual 2,622cc but rated by FIA @ 4,708cc…so it’s not a apple-to-apple comparison between these 2 engine types…
Apple-to-Apple…? Of course it is not fair to make comparison between these powerful engine…but I was just IMPRESSED with some of carmakers technology thingy today….they manage to extract high power output from a smaller displacement engine..In past, it was seems very impossible…Correct me if I’m wrong.. :-)
errmmm…. i can partially agree with you…
squeezing 400hp from a small displacement engine using bolt on turbo is nothing new here in Malaysia…however, getting a good drive ability and fuel consumption as well as reliability will always become an issue….so yes, this engine, if it is used for production car can be considered a great industry achievement
Imagine if Nissan venture into two wheels (big bikes) with that engine. Say, a Nissan Hyperbike? That would be mind-boggingly bonkers! Definately with ease claiming the title as most powerful production bike. Sayonara to Hayabusa and ZX-14R.
Never heard of Dodge Tomahawk? slowpoke?
tomahawk is not a production bike. btw, why are you even bringing that shit of a bike into discussion?? this nissan engine weighs a mere 40kg, whadya reckon the 8.3L v10 engine on that tomahawk would weigh? 280kg dude….
can transplant in me satria Neo? =P
If their country can send human to space, what you think they cant do ??? Their technology are way 100 years ahead of us…….
In the spirit of Chinese New Year, hold your HORSES!
Don’t ask Nissan to put this into a production car just yet. The right question to ask would be how long would it last. You don’t want to write off your engine after 10000 km
1.5 liter no power…. My Camery 2.4 liter much more powderful.
Ya….your camry 2.4 produce 1000hp and 2000Nm of torque with 4 speed auto somemore….
These type of engines should be researched and installed on all brands of production cars. In these era, with lesser and lesser oil left in the world, turbo or hybrid should be the only power train to focus on~
BTW, still in awe they can squeeze 400hp from 1.5l~!!! Wonder will it disintegrate Myvi when install in it~ haha^^
Wow amazing! Design thinking out of the box!
Way to go Nissan.
very ncie and our own proton under the leadership of so Called Dato Lukman is still tryiong to figure out how to make CamPro Engine work. just fire him and get a proper man to run the company DRB. what is it so hard? get automotive experts to run the company not a finance man. pls.before it is too late.
2014 will be the year of the 3-pot engines. bmw, fiat, honda, ford, volkswagen and now nissan. this will be an interesting year for engine tech indeed….
Put this in Saga… 0-100km/h in 2.0 seconds?
buf it will disassemble itself in 2.5 :p
Year 2016
Through success of Proton Accord,
another agreement to put Nissan ZEOD into MyVi
which will be known as ZeVi
Mase engineer head proton kene bashed, now economist pun kena bashed. Aptb.
Hope Nissan will put this into production..uhuhu..can’t wait.. “^_^” hehehe
Yeah put it in production and sell it in Malaysia, we’ll have cars that hug trees, dividers, bus stands, walls and pillars.
We’ll also see negative population growth on the very first time in our history.
Saga n mivy’s owners know their cars are slow,so they keep dreaming of this engine..ekzos besar peha,’twin tail pipes…but just syok sendiri..myvi n saga,pi main jauh-jauh…hehehe
proton, please rebadge this thing. i can deal with broken power window no problem.
I used to have an old ford escord 1.6cc. however, its engine are v4. a very small and capable engine somewhat during its time
i wonder if i can install it into perodua kancil…. if that could be done its going to be a very big wow……
Please put this engine in the upcoming Nissan models in the future.