It’s less than a year since Jann Mardenborough stepped into a racing car for the very first time, and yet from the very first practice session on Thursday he looking in contention for a front row starting position.

This is also the first pole position for the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 car, which will also be taking part in tomorrow’s Nürburgring 24 hour race on the Nordschliefe (North Loop circuit).

Jann’s performance was even more spectacular when you consider the fact that this is the first time he has been to the Nürburgring. As the newest recruit to Nissan’s roster of GT Academy graduates, Jann has a lot to live up to and results like this are concrete proof of the success of the programme.

“Jann’s performance today was exemplary,” said GT Academy Team RJN boss, Bob Neville. “He did exactly what I would have expected from a seasoned professional. We waited a moment or two at the start of the season then sent him and he was straight on the pace. To take pole with time to spare just shows the level Jann is at now.”

“I’m feeling pretty good at the moment,” said Jann. “That’s my first ‘proper’ pole position as a professional racing driver. I had to work hard for it though. We tried a few things during free practice and going into qualifying we thought we would be okay but the car felt better than ever so I went for it!”

“The results speak for themselves,” said Darren Cox, General Manager of Nissan in Europe. “Pole position means you are the fastest amongst your peers. End of story. I think we’ve proved, yet again, that GT Academy isn’t just a marketing activity or a reality show. It’s the real thing and it finds real talent.”

The race starts later today at 1630hrs CET and you can follow Jann’s progress on Nissan Motorsport’s official Twitter account – @Nissan_OnTrack.

The Juke-R was originally intended as a one-off concept, featuring a Nissan Juke crossover powered by a 2010 GT-R engine, drivetrain and chassis. Since its debut in January, Nissan has received three firm orders with many more serious enquiries in the pipeline. The build of these customer cars is now underway, with deliveries expected to their new owners in late summer.

Whilst the original Juke-R concept was based on a 2010 donor, the customer cars will receive the 545bhp 3.8-litre six cylinder engine and drivetrain from the very latest 2012 GT-R.

Gareth Dunsmore, Marketing Product Manager for the Juke, said: “The Juke-R was originally intended as a one-off concept to marry two of Nissan’s most innovative models. But the reaction we had to the car in Dubai was amazing – people were making offers for the original on the street!

“With such a strong reaction, and with three genuine offers on the table, we decided we had to make the car a reality. We can’t let down enthusiasts who are this keen to add to their collection of cars. The Juke-R has become something of a phenomenon and I’m enormously proud of the impact it has had. There will be more news to come on Juke later in the year.”

Naturally, the Juke-R will not be cheap – two of the orders have come from a high-profile and well-respected member of Dubai society. The exact price will only be revealed to serious buyers, partly because the cost could significantly differ depending on individual market requirements.

But if you’re looking for a ballpark figure, Nissan has confirmed to us that you should expect to set aside a significant six-figure sum (Euros) and the equivalent of several GT-Rs. Perhaps it’s time to remortgage your house. But make sure it’s a big one..

Anyone wishing to register an interest in purchasing a Juke-R Crossover yet should contact Juke-R@Nissan.co.uk.

Desert Nemesis – The Movie

To coincide with the announcement of Juke-R production, Nissan is also launching a cinematic online movie today at http://www.facebook.com/NissanJukeOfficial, in which the Juke-R stars.

Desert Nemesis follows Nissan’s inaugural GT Academy winner, Lucas Ordonez, as he takes on the world’s best supercars in a thrilling street race, reminiscent of the ‘Need for Speed’ movies.

In Desert Nemesis, award-winning film director, Rob Kaplan, captured the noise and excitement generated by the muscular Juke-R and a street race against its loudest, most acclaimed adversaries.

Weaving together the cinematic scenes of a high-production movie and raw footage of the gamer-turned-professional racer taking on the world’s most exciting, road-legal cars through the roads of Dubai’s exclusive International Marina Club, Kaplan gives us the opportunity to see the Juke-R find its place amongst some of the world’s fastest cars – including the Lamborghini Gallardo, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and Ferrari 458 Italia.

Spaniard, Ordonez, became a professional racing driver thanks to Nissan’s GT Academy partnership with Sony in 2008. He made his debut at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Nissan in 2011 and will return to La Sarthe on June 16/17 with class-winning Nissan-powered team, Greaves Motorsport.

In the run-up to the film’s launch today, several teaser trailers have been released through Nissan’s Facebook and YouTube channels, offering ‘behind-the-scenes’ footage of the film production and the role played by its boldest production model.

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One of our YouTube viewers, ShizoluckyShizostar, expressed his doubts in a typically forthright manner, “So let’s leave this PR bull* to those who don’t follow racing. DW [DeltaWing] is supposed to achieve great economy by sticking a modest – in racing terms – engine into a chassis that has the aerodynamic properties of a space shuttle, and would have similar practicality on the road as a space shuttle. They achieved very low drag by sacrificing all the road relevance and losing any resemblance to a car. So, don’t tell me it’s a testbed for Nissan’s future road car developments.”

Fair point. But before we judge how successful the DeltaWing will be in meeting Nissan’s R&D objectives, it must first succeed in the environment for which it was built. The track.

So just a few days after its launch, it made its first few tentative steps in public at the venue of last weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship opener in Sebring.

Darren Cox, from Nissan Europe, said during the team’s visit to Sebring, “We did a fan forum today and it was brilliant. I love racing in the US because it is a completely different atmosphere. The fans have shown a huge amount of interest in this car. We had lots and lots of people standing in the hot sun and nobody left – they just soaked up all the information we could give them.

“The reaction from the fans has been brilliant. When I said we were running the car tomorrow morning just before the race, all the fans gave us a round of applause.”

Marino Franchitti turned the first few laps in the 1.6 litre turbo-charged race car, followed by Michael Krumm last Saturday, however a broken driveshaft ended proceedings prematurely.

In his limited time with the car, Krumm came away impressed from the experience and looking forward to Le Mans, “It’s difficult to describe, but it was quite stable. It turns well, and it feels far more like a regular car than you’d guess from its appearance.”

‘Quite stable’ is clearly not good enough, especially when you’ve got 24 hours of flat-out driving to contend with, but the team still have 3 months to improve the DeltaWing. Thereafter the big question will be, “what happens next?”

Development of the DeltaWing has thus far been funded by Don Panoz (founder of Panoz cars and the ALMS series) together with the Highcroft Racing team, but with Nissan and Michelin on board, the additional cash and resources should move the project along more swiftly.

But what is the future of this slightly awkward-looking race car? Well Panoz is hopeful of selling cars to privateer teams competing in both the WEC and Le Mans, but this will only happen once it’s notched up some competitive outings.

The DeltaWing continues testing at Sebring during this week, then crosses the pond back to Europe as it builds up to its first race at the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours on 16th – 17th June. At the moment there is only one DeltaWing in existence, so clearly the team must build a few spares for those inevitable moments when its drivers exceed the limit.

It’s encouraging to see brands such as Nissan and Michelin choosing to get their hands dirty with such unique projects. Although whether the DeltaWing has a lifespan beyond Le Mans, will depend on how fast it is and whether it survives long enough to nurture the confidence of other race teams.

Even so, there will be some valuable lessons to learn from the unique way it drives, which at the very least will hopefully find their way onto other race cars.

You can keep an eye on the team’s progress by visiting their Facebook page.

Photo credits: Highcroft Racing, Michael Krumm

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While Nissan DeltaWing will be un-classified in the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours and run the number “0″, the company is looking to showcase its pioneering technology and show one potential direction for the future of motorsport.

Earlier this morning, speaking to John Hindhaugh on Radio Le Mans, Nissan Europe’s Darren Cox spoke about the relevance of the DeltaWing project to ordinary road cars, accusing Formula 1 technology of being too far removed from what people in the street can relate to.

A race-prepared 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine, featuring direct petrol injection and a turbocharger, will power Nissan DeltaWing, which is half the weight and has half the aerodynamic drag of a conventional racer.

The engine, badged DIG-T (Direct Injection Gasoline – Turbocharged), is expected to produce around 300hp, sufficient to give Nissan DeltaWing lap times between LMP1 and LMP2 machines at Le Mans, despite having only half the power of those conventional prototypes. It features the same technology found in Nissan road cars, such as the range-topping Nissan Juke DIG-T.

Nissan’s drive for efficiency will see car use half the fuel of its conventional counterparts, bringing Nissan “PureDrive” principles to the track.

“As motor racing rulebooks have become tighter over time, racing cars look more and more similar and the technology used has had less and less relevance to road car development.

Nissan DeltaWing aims to change that and we were an obvious choice to become part of the project,” said Andy Palmer, Executive Vice President, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

“But this is just the start of our involvement. Nissan DeltaWing embodies a vast number of highly-innovative ideas that we can learn from. At the same time, our engineering resources and commitment to fuel efficiency leadership via our PureDrive strategy will help develop DeltaWing into a testbed of innovation for Nissan.”

“This announcement gives Nissan the opportunity to become part of a ground-breaking motorsport project and one which could shape the future of the sport,” he added.

The DeltaWing race car

Nissan DeltaWing is unlike any other racing car currently on track. The driver sits well back in the car, almost over the rear axle and looks ahead down a long, narrow fuselage to narrow twin front tyres, specially created for the car by tyre partner Michelin.

With a rear-mounted engine, the car has a strong rearward weight bias, which makes it highly manoeuvrable, while its light weight and slippery shape make it far more efficient.

Scottish racer Marino Franchitti will be joined by FIA GT1 World Champion Michael Krumm in the first DeltaWing car at Le Mans.

Its innovative design and forward-looking technology have encouraged the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), the organisers of the famous Le Mans 24 Hours, to invite the car to run in this year’s race from ‘Garage 56’, the spot in the pitlane reserved for experimental cars. As it doesn’t conform to any existing championship regulations, Nissan DeltaWing will not be eligible to challenge for silverware and will carry the race number ‘0’.

Nissan’s expertise has been applied to the development of the engine, in order to make it light and efficient enough to prove the philosophy behind the concept can work in ‘real-world’ motor racing.

The Company, always among the first to embrace such radical ideas and surprising new performance innovations, has promised to apply key learnings from the experience to inform strategies for its PureDrive aerodynamics and efficiency package for road cars, as well as its overall research & development programmes.

The first two Nissan DeltaWing drivers to be confirmed are British Sportscar racer Marino Franchitti and Nissan’s reigning FIA GT1 World Champion Michael Krumm. The car will make its first public demo laps at Sebring, Florida, at 12.30pm local time on Thursday, March 15.

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According to the DeltaWing project spec sheet, the engine is a 4-cylinder 1600cc liquid intercooled turbocharged engine that will produce approximately 300 horsepower at 8,000 rpm and weigh just 70kg.

The announcement made yesterday was short and suitably elusive, merely saying that “Nissan will be launching an exciting breakthrough in motorsports innovation on 13/03/2012″.

At the same time Highcroft Racing posted a message on Twitter yesterday;

“London calling. Big news coming out of the UK tomorrow. #lm24 #deltawing”

and followed up this morning with;

“More to be revealed today. Very exciting news ahead. #lm24 #deltawing”

accompanied by the following image:

Perhaps we’re jumping ahead of ourselves, however the timing of both teasers look more than just coincidence.

Scottish driver, Marino Franchitti was announced last month as the first DeltaWing driver for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, and said in a recent interview, “It is so different from everything I have ever seen and everything that I have known a racing car to be – my initial reaction was “what is this?” – it really takes your breath away.”

It kind of feels like when the first rear engine F1 car hit the track, or the first car with a wing, or the first ground effects car

“When you look at the people behind the program like Ben Bowlby, Don Panoz, Duncan Dayton and somebody like Dan Gurney who is a hero of mine – if they have faith in this program, then that gives me a lot of confidence.

“I am so excited about getting the opportunity to drive the car. I have no doubt in my mind that it is going to turn, but I am really looking forward to finding out how it is going to feel and how it will work as a package.

“I have nothing to compare this against. Like the car itself, I will be going in with a clean sheet of paper and will start exploring the limits.”

“It is not something that has been done before and it kind of feels like when the first rear engine F1 car hit the track, or the first car with a wing, or the first ground effects car – the DeltaWing will be so new and unique and I am really honored to be given this opportunity,” Franchitti said.

To hear the nig news first-hand, tune into Radio Le Mans TODAY at 10:50am (UK time) – 5:50am (US Eastern).

Combining Nissan’s advanced engine technology, lightweight platform and an aerodynamically efficient body INVITATION is said to achieve class-leading levels of fuel economy and emissions. Nissan is aiming for an ultra-low CO2 emission target of under 100g/km for the most frugal model and with all versions eligible to wear Nissan’s Pure Drive badge.

At the same time, Nissan have designed the INVITATION Concept to offer responsive agile handling on a par with top performers in its segment.

But Nissan’s new concept is not just a good looking car, it’s also packed with some of their most advanced technology such as Around View Monitor (AVM) safety technology, which makes reversing and parallel parking as stress-free as possible, plus Nissan Safety Shield Technologies, which interacts with the driving environment keeping the driver aware of what is happening around the car.

François Bancon, Deputy Divisional General Manager of Product Strategy and Planning, said: “The name we have given to this concept is self-explanatory. It is designed to be inviting thanks to its sensuous exterior design and generous and comfortable interior space, cleverly packaged within compact overall dimensions.”

Due to be unveiled at next month’s Geneva Motor Show, the INVITATION Concept is due to be launched in the UK from 2013.

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Rather than base our Top-10 listing purely on video views and social shares, I thought it would be interesting to look a little closer at how well each campaign contributed to the ‘equity’ of each brand – the assets a brand is then able to use across its entire marketing mix.

In today’s highly networked business environment, the old adage “what get’s measured, gets done” is becoming something of a liability as marketing teams seek to justify their actions through quantitative analysis and attribution modelling, whilst often ignoring the factors which drive those results.

When something can’t be measured, does that make it not worth doing? Of course not. But in the rapidly evolving digital environment, that’s precisely what happens. We struggle to keep up with all the tools, platforms and new methods far less accurately measure them, so just like performance, lightweight construction or efficiency, automotive marketers sometimes need the intelligence to realise where taking the right action is equally as important as being able to justify it thereafter.

Ultimately, intelligence boils down to using the assets at your disposal in the most effective ways to achieve your objectives. Let’s see how well they did:

Top 10 Most Shared Automotive Ads of 2011 (not all released in 2011)

1. Volkswagen: The Force: Volkswagen Commercial  – 47.5 million views, 4,813,984 shares (32,618 comments)
2. DC Shoes: Ken Block’s Gymkhana Four; The Hollywood Megamercial – 13.1 million views, 2,111,150 shares (19,115 comments)
3. Kia: Party Rock Anthem-Kia Soul Hamster Commercial – 10.7 million views, 1,556,221 shares (12,748 comments)
4. Nissan: Pôneis Malditos – 13.9 million views, 968,124 shares (25,827 comments)
5. DC Shoes: Ken Block’s Gymkhana Three; The Ultimate Playground – 733,112 shares
6. Chrysler Eminem Super Bowl Commercial – Imported From Detroit – 15.4 million views, 436,016 shares (28,241 comments)
7. BMW 1M – Walls – MPowered Performance Part 1 – 3.0 million views, 407,505 shares (1,922 comments)
8. DC Shoes: Ken Block’s Gymkhana Two; The Infomercial – 341,980 shares
9. Team Hot Wheels – The Yellow Driver’s World Record Jump – 8.1 million views, 294,046 shares (4,177 comments)
10. Volkswagen: Black Beetle – 6.3 million views, 212,290 shares (2,371 comments)

Source: The data was compiled from Unruly Media’s Viral Video Chart at 15:00 (GMT) on 15 December 2011. The Viral Video Chart is the world’s largest, most comprehensive database of online social videos, and measures views and social shares based on a count of the embedded videos and links on approximately 2 million blogs, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

I could wax lyrically about the high-quality production values in our Top 10, their clever use of aspirational memes and how effective they are in conveying the personality of the brands they represent, but there’s an elephant in the room.

Nissan Brazil’s ad for the Frontier pickup, Pôneis Malditos, is not like other video ads. According to the Portuguese Blog the ad uses a play on words ‘do you have horse-power or ponies?’ A song then taunts the presumably-macho target customer with a chorus line that I’ll leave you to translate for yourself, ‘pônei maldito, pônei maldito’, since it’s definitely NSFW.

There’s a twist at the end where the cute little pony tells you not to close the video, followed by its evil twin who tells you that if you don’t share the video with 10 people, you’ll get the pony’s song stuck in your head forever. So it is basically the advertising equivalent of chain-mail spam. Such questionable tactics are unlikely to succeed more than once, so we’ll treat it as an anomaly in our 2011 list.

The remaining ads in our Top 10 illustrate the trend towards creating re-usable memes, enabling their brands to reuse the characters and storylines in other media campaigns and thereby reinforce the identity to which customers establish a relationship with. In last week’s interview with Ken Block of DC Shoes, he spoke about the value of building ‘personality’ into a viral video and we can see this type of character-based ad dominating the charts.

Top 5 Automotive Brands in 2011

If you’re anything like me, then you’ll not be satisfied with a Top 10 list of the most shared social media ads, you’ll want to know which car maker has really grasped the nettle and made social video a mainstay in their marketing plans.

Last year we singled out MINI, Ford and Kia for consistently performing above the pack, producing videos that were funny, entertaining and highly shareable.

But while humour is useful in generating strong viewing figures, like the sugary high of a Pina Colada the positive sentiment can quickly decline. Brands are now moving towards more epic ads, as spoken about recently by Unruly COO Sarah Wood, “More brands are realizing the potential of social video to build a high-impact, long-term emotional connection with their audience.”

This move towards a more sustainable level of engagement has raised the bar for what it takes to capture the audience’s interest, but in turn, people are sharing more videos with others in their social groups. In 2011, the top 20 ads across all sectors generated 25 million shares, a near five-fold increase from 2010 levels. However, the ratio of views to shares from 2011 to 2010 is even more interesting: In 2010, one in 39 people who viewed video content went on to share it online. In 2011, the ratio rose to 10 to one.

In comparing the Top 5 Automotive Brands we’ve yet again used data provided by Unruly Media’s Viral Video Chart, and we’ve then selected from campaigns within the Top 200 that ran during 2011.

There are several conclusions that spring to mind when looking through the above list. Firstly we know that the position of the first 3 brands is heavily influenced by big-impact campaigns which already feature strongly in our overall Top 10. However that should in no way detract from their significance, even if it does raise questions about their repeatability.

The one exception is Kia, which truly owns the Hamster meme, in much the same way as comparethemarket.com built a successful connection with its audience using a bunch of Meerkats. Kia’s ‘Black Sheep’ ad was the most successful automotive ad of 2010 and they’ve shown the ability to sustain the character’s impact.

Nielsen Automotive Advertising Awards voted the campaign the “Automotive Ad of the Year” in 2010, attributing a sales increase of 10% purely due to the halo effect it brought the brand.

Audi and BMW delivered the highest number of campaigns within our overall Top 200, although none reached the giddy heights of those from Kia and Nissan.

Audi’s top campaign was for the A8 (Big Game Commercial: Release the Hounds), which as with Volkswagen, benefitted from the Super Bowl TV viewing figures during February.

BMW’s strongest performance came from an unlikely source; a pair of ads produced by BMW Canada to promote the 1 Series M Coupe – both generated millions of views (3.0 million for Part 1 and 1.7 million for Part 2) and together generated more than half a million social shares.

They were certainly epic and ticked all the boxes for what makes a successful automotive ad. As an added bonus, not a single child or small cuddly animal was exploited to achieve their success, so perhaps there we should recognise them as a moral victor in the category of ‘Purist Car Ads’.

We would also like to acknowledge BMW’s success in maintaining a consistently high level of performance throughout the year, they were the only brand to reach 1 million views in 7 separate videos, with Volkswagen and Kia being next most consistent with 4 videos each.

Volkswagen were in a different league to the others during 2011. Principally because of their record breaking Mini Darth Vader ad (The Force), but they also achieved the highest overall shares per view of 8.63%, narrowly beating Kia with 8.43%. To add some context, before all this success goes to Volkswagen’s head, Gymkhana 4 achieved a shares per view performing of 16.7% making it by far the most effective automotive ad in terms of engagement.

We were in two minds whether to attribute any credit to Ford for Ken Block’s Gymkhana 4 video. Whilst Gymkhana 4′s primary goal is to promote DC Shoes’ clothing and apparel, Ford are a key partner in the campaign and have cleverly used Ken and his Hybrid Function Hoon Vehicle (H.F.H.V) to increase adoption of the Ford Fiesta through the parallel campaign, 43 Fiestas Challenge.

But if we stand back and take stock of the most effective Automotive social video campaigns of 2011, we see top-quality production values, the use of engaging characters and increasingly dramatic storylines.

One consequence of these attributes is that successful video ads are no longer cut down versions of their TV counterparts, but instead bespoke short films lasting anywhere between 2 and 9 minutes – the feature ad. The sales message, if there is one, is firmly hidden away and replaced by entertaining content and a viewing experience that encourages sharing and social conversation.

For 2012, this trend is set to continue, with the most successful brands being those who best understand their audience and embrace their role as entertainers and content providers. Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments below, or on Twitter.

With the build complete, engineers were checking that all systems work correctly before heading to Silverstone to push the car’s limits on a proper track. It looks like a Juke but sounds like a GT-R, and judging by the way it lifts its skirts and explodes towards the horizon it performs a lot like a GT-R – albeit with noticeably more body roll.

The shakedown and testing programme will allow the engineers to fine-tune the Juke-R chassis, as well as check the workmanship of the joint RML/Nissan Europe engineering team prior to registering both cars (one LHD and the other RHD) for use on the public road.

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You may remember us mentioning that a ‘track focused’ version was on its way, when we introduced the new 542bhp 2012 GT-R last month. What we didn’t know at the time was exactly how focused Nissan planned on making the GT-R, given it lacks very little apart from carrying a little too much weight.

But much as I’d like to tell you than Nissan had lopped 100kg off the GT-R in a move to match Porsche’s 911 GT3 RS, that’s unfortunately not the case (and I do realise that even 100kg would not be enough to out-RS Porsche’s GT3). What they have done is beefed up the brakes, tightened the suspension’s springs and dampers and fitted some nice Spec V-like Recaro front seats.

All right, maybe I was fibbing slightly about the weight-loss, the ‘Track Pack’ results in the rear-seats being removed and lightweight six-spoke RAYS alloy wheels being fitted (again, much like the Spec V), so it may be lighter, although perhaps not noticeable enough for Nissan to confirm a specific amount in their press release.

Nissan describe the upgrades as being “..for drivers who want an extra edge on the race track” and yet despite the changes, the GT-R remains fully road legal.

Externally the Track Pack is easily identified by those six-spoke RAYS alloys with gloss black painted centres, whilst the brakes behind these are cooled by additional cooling ducts built into the front bumper. These reduce the operating temperature of the front brake discs by as much as 100 degrees during track use, improving the stopping performance. Similar ducts, hidden behind the rear wheels, channel cooling air over the rear discs.

To reflect this GT-R’s harder edge, the suspension’s spring rates have been revised to be optimal for track use. Like all GT-Rs though, the dampers are adjustable to offer more comfort when the car is being used on the road.

Engine power remains the same as the regular 2012 model GT-R, which means 542bhp of power, 632Nm of torque and a 0-60 mph time of just 2.7 seconds.

Inside, the Recaro front seats are trimmed with blue bolsters and a new high-grip material to keep the driver in place during hard cornering and braking ( I thought that’s what the seat belts were for..). A ‘Track Pack’ emblem on the centre console identifies the model as a special GT-R, as does the additional £10,000 withdrawn from your bank account taking the price of the GT-R (with Track Pack) up to £84,450.

Orders are being accepted now at any one of the 21 Nissan High Performance Centres around the UK, with first deliveries expected from March 2012.

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The deal sees Brundle senior reunited with Nissan, after the Englishman spearheaded its official works effort at the world’s oldest and most celebrated endurance race in 1997 with the R390 GT1.

Nissan’s R390 GT1 driven by Martin Brundle at Le Mans in 1987.

For 2012, the father and son combination will pilot the race-winning Greaves Motorsport Zytek Z11SN-Nissan sports prototype. Not only did the car take the LMP2 class win at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans (in the hands of Karim Ojjeh, Olivier Lombard and Tom Kimber-Smith) on its way to finishing eighth overall, but victories at Le Castellet, Imola and Silverstone also saw the Nissan-engined LMP2 car capture both the 2011 Le Mans Series drivers’ and team titles.

After enjoying a successful Formula One career spanning 13 years (1984-96), Martin Brundle has remained in the sport as a highly-regarded and multi award-winning commentator.

Martin Brundle winning at Le Mans in 1990 with Tom Walkinshaw’s Silk Cut Jaguar team.

Joining him in the driver’s line-up for the 80th running of the race will be his 21-year old son Alex.

As the leading British driver in this year’s Formula Two Championship, he will join Greaves Motorsport in 2012 to race the Nissan-powered prototype as the team defends its Le Mans Series crown.

The Brundles will follow in the footsteps of a small number of father-son combinations to have competed at the illustrious race together, including Mario Andretti, with son Michael, and Nigel Mansell with sons Leo and Greg.

Martin Brundle, 52, said: “I’m very much looking forward to returning to the Le Mans 24 Hour race with Nissan and the Greaves Motorsport LMP2 team. This is an unexpected pleasure, heightened by the fact I will be team-mates with my son. I’m eagerly anticipating a very special feeling when handing the car over to Alex during one of the world’s greatest motor races. Class victory in front of the fanatical Le Mans spectators is the goal.”

Alex Brundle testing the Zytek Z11SN Nissan in April this year.

Alex Brundle, 21, added: “I loved driving the Le Mans circuit at this year’s official test day and a chance to compete in the full Le Mans Series, as well as the Le Mans 24 Hours, along with my single-seater activities in 2012 is brilliant for my career.

At Le Mans, my father has been on pole position, led many times and been part of the winning team; this can fast-track my learning process. My thanks go to Nissan and Greaves Motorsport for creating this important opportunity, which I will seize and maximise.”