Just how fast is 'fast' round Road Atlanta? Well the lap record is a 1-minute 6-second benchmark set by Stéphane Sarrazin in the mighty LMP1 Peugeot 908 back at Petit Le Mans in 2008.
APR 23rd 2017
Video: This 800bhp GTP Nissan is so fast it bends gravity
So to be within ten seconds of that in a car that's 20 years older than the Peugeot was at the time it set its record is no mean feat. That's exactly what Theo Bean did in his Nissan ZX-T GTP car while racing at The Mitty this weekend.
The 800bhp Nissan isn't running quite as many horsepower as it did when it went toe-to-toe with the rest of the GTP monsters of the later 1980s today, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's become a slouch. The car is still running the astonishing aero package it ran in period, and round the sweeping bends of Road Atlanta that means just one thing – speed.
So planted to the ground is the big Nissan that as Bean guides his steed through the almost unbelievable elevation changes that make the Georgia track so iconic, his straps seem to defy the laws of gravity. Rising and falling sometimes against the changes in direction and showcasing the incredible forces that the car is putting Bean under. It goes to show just how brilliant the GTP series had become by 1988.
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