2009 Nissan GT-R - Zero tolerance for asshattery

[Cap'n Jack]

I doubt it will irritate anyone, V8 supercars rounds are full of support races and exibitions with various imports from around the world.

There should be one other GTR in the Murray Walker's Extreme Machines show at this weeks Clipsal 500, actually. But I don't doubt that there's still a few idiots upset about the 1992 Bathurst incident, some of them are bad enough when another Australian make wins a race.

 

[Philly]

How long until Nissan tries to get the FIA to use it in F1?

 

[Max_DC]

The GT-R was tested by Germany's most reputable print magazine for sports cars : SPORT.AUTO in the "Super.test " :

The Supertest exists for about 20 years now and every month one car is tested. Of course every car has to fight the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Results : 7.38 min on Dunlop SP Sport 600 DSST tires

( compare : 911 Gt2 : 7.33, Koenigsegg CCR : 7.34, RUF RT 12 : 7.37, F 430 Scuderia : 7.39, 911 GT3 7.40, 911 turbo 7.52 )


Hockenheimring race course : GT-R : 1.10.7 min

( compare : RT 12 : 1.10.2, 430 scud : 1.10.3, GT3 : 1.10.4, Zonda F : 1.10.8, Gallardo Superleg. : 1.10.9, 911 turbo : 1.11.9 )

Total points : 74/80*
driving pleasure / fun : 9/10

( compare : 911 GT3 : 79, Murciélago LP 640 : 76, Koenigsegg CCR : 74,
RUF RT 12 : 74, 911 turbo : 72, Gallardo Superleg. 71 )

* 8 disciplines worth 10 points each : Nordschleife 10/10, Hockenheimring 10/10, 0-200/200-0 km/h 9/10, aerodynamics ( downforce etc ) 10/10, max. G-force 9/10, 36 m slalom 10/10, 110m emergency maneuver 9/10, wet handling course 7/10 )

They are positively surprised by the GT-R. The review is 9(7) pages long, to much to summarize in detail. Overall they love it, some negative details ( driver position a little to high, thirsty engine, little too noisy transmission in automatic mode ) can't harm the overall fascination for this machine.
They state that European car makers have to over think their concepts.

 

[Leonidae]

My my.. It seems that Porsche has made a bunch of fools out of themselves since they couldn't get better than what, 7'54 out of the GT-R?

 

[homeforsummer]

This is why I like small cars and unusual stuff. People don't bang on and on and on about lap times. A car is simply fun, or it isn't, which is all that matters really unless your penis is really tiny and you need bragging rights to compensate.

If I see another GT-R lap time I might just die.

 

[Joey D]

This is why I like small cars and unusual stuff. People don't bang on and on and on about lap times. A car is simply fun, or it isn't, which is all that matters really unless your penis is really tiny and you need bragging rights to compensate.

If I see another GT-R lap time I might just die.

Word.

+ invisible rep!

 

[Rotary Junkie]

My my.. It seems that Porsche has made a bunch of fools out of themselves since they couldn't get better than what, 7'54 out of the GT-R?

Porsche still ran quicker though.

 

[Jim Prower]

Well, a GT2 and a Blackbird Ruf. The Turbo (target model) finished behind by a fair bit...

But, meh, at this point, you either LOVE the GT-R or HATE it, an opinion primarily formed if you're already a fan of another popular car currently in production or not.

Porschephiles will hate it. Corvette fans will hate it. Audi R8 fans will get banned from forums over it. This because the GT-R is the "enemy."

I think that's justification enough for the automobile, don't you? not necessarily that people loathe it, but that fans of other sports cars get worried about it.

 

[niky]

Porsche still ran quicker though.

The GT2. Which, from other tests, we already knew was quicker.

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Nice to see Auto Motor Und Sport clarify which tires they used.

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RE: Porsche's 7:52... Chris Harris already made their time a joke by doing almost the exact same time... with the slower tires (the Bridgestones) in the wet. Porsche's "laptime" has been an embarrasment almost from the time they printed it.

Really... the only ones really gung-ho about the times are Nissan and Porsche... but that's still a very good time for such a heavy car... good tires or not.

 

[Max_DC]

 

[homeforsummer]

I think that's justification enough for the automobile, don't you? not necessarily that people loathe it, but that fans of other sports cars get worried about it.

Or bored to death of hearing about it. I still think the GT-R is a very impressive machine and the one in my local Nissan dealership in black looks great, but it seems to most people like laptimes are it's defining feature, which turns me off it.

When magazines have tested it against the new Focus RS and say that the Focus is more fun, more of the time, and equally as quick on the roads where you'd have to be driving like a criminal to go quicker in the Nissan, then the laptimes seem irrelevant.

(You could go further, with Autocar recently comparing the RS against a Clio Sport 200 at Millbrook, declaring the Clio almost as fast and even more fun, yet only costs £16k. Hence my comment about fun. Most of the time sheer pace is irrelevant unles you're a racing driver, but fun isn't. And even then, pace must be put into context. I wonder which would be quicker around an autocross track - a £16k Renault or a £60+k Nissan?).

 

[killanite]

Or bored to death of hearing about it. I still think the GT-R is a very impressive machine and the one in my local Nissan dealership in black looks great, but it seems to most people like laptimes are it's defining feature, which turns me off it.

When magazines have tested it against the new Focus RS and say that the Focus is more fun, more of the time, and equally as quick on the roads where you'd have to be driving like a criminal to go quicker in the Nissan, then the laptimes seem irrelevant.

(You could go further, with Autocar recently comparing the RS against a Clio Sport 200 at Millbrook, declaring the Clio almost as fast and even more fun, yet only costs £16k. Hence my comment about fun. Most of the time sheer pace is irrelevant unles you're a racing driver, but fun isn't. And even then, pace must be put into context. I wonder which would be quicker around an autocross track - a £16k Renault or a £60+k Nissan?).

The GT-R wasn't made to be ur ordinary fun around the town car, it was made for performance, and one way in which to find the total combination of a car's performance (power, breaking, turning etc) is through laptimes, I think the laptimes are relevent, espcailly when it's main competitors are using laptimes to justify their performance figures.

I mean the major focus of this car is performance (it's obviously not looks or fuel efficiency lol) and to show a cars true performance level, rather than running independant tests of braking, acceleration, skidpad etc is through a laptime that can be compared to other production cars.
Which is where the nurburg ring comes into play, since its been a testing track for many european supercars and GT-R rivals its the perfect place for nissan to stake its claim that the GT-R can hold its own with the rest of them.

 

[homeforsummer]

Which is where the nurburg ring comes into play, since its been a testing track for many european supercars and GT-R rivals its the perfect place for nissan to stake its claim that the GT-R can hold its own with the rest of them.

It was Nissan who started all this irritating 'Ring benchmarking business in the first place when they bigged up the R33 and R34 times. It was all a bit lower-key until then, and now every man and his dog takes cars to the 'Ring.

Unless you spend your life doing track days then lap times are worthless because probably 99% of even car enthusiasts' driving is done on the road. Fun is much more important than outright speed unless you actually plan to drive competitively in one form or another.

Which is why the Porsche/Nissan laptime battle is utterly pointless and very childish, and it's why umpteen magazines trying to replicate the laps gets very boring.

 

[Leonidae]

here we go again..

 

[CodeRedR51]

Looks like he was dealing with some under-steer. Plus, with some of his lines and he braked a bit early in some corners, the car is definitely faster than a 7:26.

 

[Ardius]

It was Nissan who started all this irritating 'Ring benchmarking business in the first place when they bigged up the R33 and R34 times. It was all a bit lower-key until then, and now every man and his dog takes cars to the 'Ring.

Unless you spend your life doing track days then lap times are worthless because probably 99% of even car enthusiasts' driving is done on the road. Fun is much more important than outright speed unless you actually plan to drive competitively in one form or another.

Which is why the Porsche/Nissan laptime battle is utterly pointless and very childish, and it's why umpteen magazines trying to replicate the laps gets very boring.

Isn't it just the same as the quest for top speed? Except now the top speeds of cars aren't going anywhere without being rediculously expensive, they don't bother and go with laptimes to prove their worth?
Its just another statistic to go alongside 0-60 times, torque levels and so on. Who said its particularly relevant for normal road-use? Its just a prestige thing really. If you were buying such a car, you wouldn't be buying it to mess about on the average road, or at least not if you had any sense.

I think really you're seeing the pointless-ness of owning such cars, rather than the idea of stating laptimes being annoying. Its not like they designed the car to go around the Nurburgring first (though most of these cars are basically race cars anyway).

 

[Jim Prower]

Dear god, what have I done....

 

[Keef]

Looks like he was dealing with some under-steer.

Haven't you seen racing video of it? The thing understeers like a 480 horsepower Civic DX.

 

[MarinaDiamandis]

Looks like he was dealing with some under-steer. Plus, with some of his lines and he braked a bit early in some corners, the car is definitely faster than a 7:26.

Does it matter? Coronel missed a couple of gears and got a bit untidy in places when hotlapping the ACR Viper.

I think doing many laps just to bring the cars time down is pointless. Coronel hadn't driven the ACR before, did 5 laps and then hotlapped. He was clearly not used to the car. That is what makes the time he did impressive, not setting a time, then coming back a few months of tinkering later.

 

[Jim Prower]

Y'know, I can kind of see where you're coming from, HomeForSummer. I'll be honest...I can't stand anything from VAG (save for lamborghinis) made in the past 10 years, thanks to Forza2.0. I'll never be the same.

Especially the rebodied Gallardo.

So, I'll agree that having a certain car stuffed down your craw over and over will make one sick of it.

 

[niky]

Blaming Nissan for the Nurburgring arms race is like blaming Volkswagen... through Bugatti... for the ridiculous top speed fixation. or even blaming McLaren F1... since Jaguar was marketing the XJ220 based on top speed right before the Macca came out.

If there were no benchmarks for them to put themselves up against... then they wouldn't have tried it... now, would they?

Saying your new GT-R/Porsche/Radical/whatever is faster than a Porsche/GT-R/Caterham/whatever on your private test track in your backyard means nothing much to buyers.

But saying your new GT-R is faster than a Porsche on a world-famous racetrack holds some meaning. Of course, you wouldn't be able to say that if people didn't know how fast that Porsche went around in the first place... right? Right?