New Nissan GT-R to be powered by 3.0-litre engine from radical Le Mans race car

Ben Bowlby, team principal and technical director for Nissan's LMP1 campaign, told Top Gear that the 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6 engine, which debuted in the Nissan GT-R LM Nismo earlier this year, is "truly an early ancestor of what will be a future Nissan GT-R engine".

According to Bowlby, this motor isn't one of those highly strung super light race engines that can only be used a few times. Instead development of the new GT-R motor will be "shortcut by going racing".

Bowlby says that the direct-injection V6 engine's "combustion technology, and integration of turbo and intake system within the head design, is all very interesting and highly applicable to the road".

In the GT-R LM Nismo (above), the 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 develops 410kW of power for the front wheels. It's assisted by a kinetic energy recovery system, with a maximum output of 559kW, that drives the rear wheels.

As it stands, the new motor generates around 6kW more than the current GT-R's 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6. Both engines share a redline around 6500rpm. Bowlby claims, though, that the new motor will "burn about a third of the fuel".

As we reported earlier, Shiro Nakamura, Nissan's chief creative officer, has confirmed that the next-generation GT-R will be a hybrid, although it's fair to expect a system that's less powerful than the LM Nismo's.

The all-new GT-R isn't expected to debut before 2018, and its styling will take “some elements from the front and rear” of the Nissan 2020 Vision Gran Turismo concept (above).