ZEOD RC Achieves Full Electric Lap at Le Mans
Despite taking the LM P2 Class by storm with a 1-2-3-4-5 finish, this weekend’s Le Mans was nonetheless a letdown for Nissan, whose ZEOD RC was forced to retire five laps into the race due to a gearbox issue. Despite the letdown, which prevented drivers Lucas Ordóñez and Satoshi Motoyama from taking the track at all, the ZEOD managed to accomplish its goal of completing an 8.5-mile full electric lap.
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Driver Wolfgang Reip was at the helm for the ZEOD’s full electric lap during morning warm-ups. The former GT Academy winner’s debut at Le Mans will no doubt be memorable and bittersweet.
“I used electricity to originally become a racing driver through GT Academy and now I’ve used it again to achieve this tremendous goal,” Reip told Nissan. “I’m really thrilled for the entire team and honored I got the chance to be behind the wheel when it first happened. I actually got held up by a GT car during the lap. I was able to get past and it was quite a strange sensation to go by on electric power.”
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Gallery: ZEOD RC Completes Full Electric Lap at Le Mans
After the disappointing outcome of the race, Reip said that he is already ready for Le Mans 2015 after getting his first taste of the Circuit de la Sarthe.
Despite not getting on the track during completion, Motoyama piloted the ZEOD to another significant achievement—topping 300km/h on only electric power—during a Thursday test run.
With Reip and the ZEOD having gotten their first taste of Le Mans action, it’s likely that they’ll come back stronger and wiser in 2015 not just with the goal to finish the race, but to win the whole damn thing.
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