Last week we told you about Nissan’s plans to break some novel world records at the world-famous 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Unlike some of the other competitors there who sought the fastest time driving forwards up the twisty 1.16 mile course, Nissan had planned to have British stunt driver Terry Grant attempt the course in reverse at the wheel of a 2011 Nissan Leaf.
But while the Leaf’s thoroughbred racing sibling - the all-electric Leaf Nismo RC - completed the course in the conventional manner with a time of 69.57 seconds, Goodwood’s event team decided to postpone the reverse record attempt.
A spokesperson for Nissan Europe told us the attempt was cancelled after track officials and Nissan decided that a lack of testing prior to the event made the backwards run too risky from a health and safety perspective.
2011 Nissan Leaf
“We still want to break records with the Leaf,” a spokesperson for the automaker said. “The fact it can travel at speeds up to 90mph backwards is too good an opportunity not to exploit. The car does have to be modified for this to be possible though, so there are safety issues we need to overcome first.”
Nissan has told us that it plans to attempt the record at the next opportunity, although we’re not sure when that will be.
Nissan’s participation at the Goodwood Festival of Speed wasn’t all in vain, however.
Grant’s second record attempt - to drive the entire course on two wheels in a 2011 Nissan Juke - was successful.
[Nissan]
