MEGA THREAD : PORSCHE VS. NISSAN : New GTR : 7:15 around the Nurburgring? | Page 6 | FerrariChat

MEGA THREAD : PORSCHE VS. NISSAN : New GTR : 7:15 around the Nurburgring?

Discussion in 'General Automotive Discussion' started by Akira, May 10, 2007.

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  1. Mbutner

    Mbutner Formula 3

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    Still wiping the tears out of my eyes after laughing at all the chest thumping going on in every GTR thread.

    It is what it is and a Ferrari is what it is. Both FANTASTIC cars in their own right. I for one am a huge fan of the GTR and the fact that it is so effing fast regardless of price.

    Did anyone notice the monster brakes on this car? Those are carbon ceramic my friends. This car will be making over 600hp at the flywheel (has been estimated that the current GTR is making 550) and be lighter, lower, and more agressively tuned than the already mighty standard GTR. Nay sayers gripe all you want but this car is bloody EPIC.
     
  2. Rory J

    Rory J Formula 3

    May 30, 2006
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    Agree strongly. It's hilarious how threatened people here feel about the GT-R.
     
  3. 3604u

    3604u F1 Veteran
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    wow.. any idea how much more the Vspec would be?
     
  4. SS2012

    SS2012 Formula Junior

    Jun 4, 2006
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    You know, that's not a bad idea. Maybe I should invest into coach building a GT-R that actually looks sexy instead of buying an used F-car that's actually slower on the track...... hmmmmmm






    Nah~ :D

    (I wonder what Pininfarina designers would say if some billionaire rolls in the factory with a Nissan GT-R and say "Make it beautiful)
     
  5. jimmyb

    jimmyb Formula 3

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    +1
     
  6. LightGuy

    LightGuy Four Time F1 World Champ
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    Nissan claimed about 480 hp when these cars were announced.
    Then they set the times at Nurburgring.
    I think they bumped the HP to back those times up .
    The car is supposed to have electronic nannies to stop more HP gains being done by tuners.
    All I'm saying is that you can squeeze lots of HP out of turbo cars if you can hold the engine together mechanically and burn fuel to cool it.
    Norwoods is getting 1000 HP out of stock block 4's.
    Yes the GTR is phenomenal for the $ just as the Toyota Turbo Supra and the twin turbo RX-7 were in their days.
    The Japanese makers are good at taking exotic technology and mass producing it. But at a cost and the cost with this car is weight. I prefer the RX-7 direction..
     
  7. waltk88

    waltk88 Formula Junior

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    The tradeoff with the RX-7 was reliability. Chasing lightness and compactness resulted in heat issues, mainly due to the underhood rats' nest of turbo piping. As the 13B rotary engine was inherently intolerant to overheating, it's rare to find a motor surviving much more than 80k miles in the stock set up. I've owned two FD-generation RX-7's, a '93 R1 and a '93 Touring.
     
  8. Pantera

    Pantera F1 Rookie

    Nov 6, 2004
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    Z-tune to me is basicly the Roush Mustang here cause its somewhat factory and yet its modified. V-Spec II I highly doubt will be any diffrent from the base V-Spec unless overtime there needs to be an update of somekind.
     
  9. Mbutner

    Mbutner Formula 3

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    What you said regarding turbo cars is true but I will rebut this argument until proven otherwise. There have been cars dino'ed by customers that are making much more than what Nissan claimed. The Japanese have been underrating their engines for years and I see no reason that they stop now. 480 on paper is impressive, but what its doing on the street or track is amazing.
     
  10. Auraraptor

    Auraraptor F1 World Champ
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    DB9. Maser GT.
     
  11. Mbutner

    Mbutner Formula 3

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    From EVO.co.uk - Nothing earth shattering, but confirms a couple of my earlier points: ;)

    The visible changes are certainly subtle, but changes are more to be found under the hood. Nissan has also set a sub-7 minute 25 second Nurburgring goal for the GT-R V-Spec, which is 18 seconds faster than the current car. The GT-R V-Spec's turbocharged engine will see an increase in boost, raising output to at least 550 horsepower – up from the standard GT-R's 480 horsepower. This test car gets a revised front splitter, which sports some additional air intake slits, presumably to feed more cooling air to the brakes.

    New six-spoke wheels also house what appear to be a revised braking system. The golden Brembo brake callipers were an ever-present feature even on the first GT-R prototypes, but they're a no-show on this tester. A closer look at the prototype's brakes reveal that the road-going GT-R V-Spec will likely use a carbon-ceramic setup.

    The standard GT-R is no featherweight. And while it obviously overcomes any weight penalty in heroic fashion, it's compelling to imagine a GT-R that's some 150 kilos lighter. The V-Spec is rumoured to shave at least that much weight thanks to the use of carbon fibre body panels, and other assorted techniques. The prototype photographed has a portion of its rear wing blacked-out, suggesting it is one of the carbon fibre pieces that will make up the V-Spec package.

    http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evospyshots/220200/nissan_gtr_vspec.html
     
  12. RussianM3_dude

    RussianM3_dude F1 Rookie
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    Plus rear seats, plus sound proofing + bodywork.
     
  13. RussianM3_dude

    RussianM3_dude F1 Rookie
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    Yes, but when one fantasting car is twice as expensive as the other fantastic car... questions will be asked.
     
  14. Mbutner

    Mbutner Formula 3

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    Don't understand your point.

    I agree that questions will be asked... I merely was refering the snippity dismisal of the car by some owners here since it's "only" a Nissan.
     
  15. CCarlisi

    CCarlisi Karting

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    http://www.autospies.com/news/Nissan-GT-R-V-Spec-to-have-close-to-510kW-that-s-693bhp-28661/
     
  16. LamboLover

    LamboLover F1 Rookie

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    700Hp?

    Man, I thought the Japanese liked beating the competition by just using advanced suspension & braking technology, not with raw power. Oh well, times change.
     
  17. LightGuy

    LightGuy Four Time F1 World Champ
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    996 Turbos with X-50 package are stock 456 HP
    With just a bit of breathing on can get 700 HP. Reliable
    Porsche knows this but I don't think they would sell a car with these specs to the public in this configuration.
    May have to in order to keep up with the Jonses.
    Nissan is not inventing the wheel just making it affordable.
    Hope they have good attorneys.
    I do like the GT-R tranny.
     
  18. SWB

    SWB Formula Junior

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    Totally forgot about those 2. Like I said, give the drivetrain to a proper coachbuilder! :)
     
  19. DriveAfterDark

    DriveAfterDark F1 Veteran

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    Give the car credit where it deserves. It's a firebreathing japanese creation that's tired of europeans getting all the attention.

    I can't believe I'm saying this... But except from Carrera GT (and RUFs), Porsche is more boring than the new GT-R.


    Can't wait for Top Gear powerlap.




    You see, the thing is, japanese have this BIG honour thing about getting beaten by other japanese companies. You can bet safe that if V-spec does 7.25, the Lexus will do a better time and Honda will come along with their supercar in a few years and beat that too.

    This is nothing but good news for us.
     
  20. monaroCountry

    monaroCountry Karting

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    So whats new? Other manufacturers have been at this game for a very long time.
     
  21. monaroCountry

    monaroCountry Karting

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  22. Akira

    Akira Formula Junior

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    693HP?? That is insane for a car priced around 100K to 150K. (If its true)
     
  23. DriveAfterDark

    DriveAfterDark F1 Veteran

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    Not much, just saying that with Nissan setting the standard higher others will do all they can to set a new standard regarding the performance (among the japanese).
     
  24. Cicada

    Cicada Formula 3

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    VROOM VROOM!@!!!!!!
     
  25. Cicada

    Cicada Formula 3

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    RUMBLE SEAT: 2009 Nissan GT-R - By Dan Lyon - LA Times 4/16/2008

    A marvel of power and speed, the all-wheel-drive GT-R coupe is so safe and serene that it's curiously lacking in thrills.
    I know what you want from me. You think I'm just your little word slut, that I'm here just to arouse you with steamy descriptions of the new and instantly legendary Nissan GT-R. You want me to parade around in frilly verbiage, like: "The acceleration of the twin-turbo, all-wheel-drive, 480-hp GT-R is much like a 50-yard field goal in the NFL, wherein your butt is the football." Sigh. I feel so used.

    But I'm not going to do that, see? I'm not going to say that Nissan's appallingly fast, superbly balanced GT-R sports car is a Ferrari killer, though it easily manhandles Maranello's F430 in 0-60 mph performance, quarter-mile time and lateral grip, and for a fraction of the price (an MSRP of around $70,000, though dealers can charge what they want, and will). I refuse to be drawn into comparisons between the Porsche GT2 -- a $200,000 street racer with suspension settings by Torquemada -- and this serene, effortlessly livable, all-weather coupe that, inconveniently for the top-line Porsche, matches it step for step. It matters a little, but not a lot, that the GT-R is within a second or two (7.38 seconds) of the production-car lap record at Germany's fabled Nürburgring. After all, most Americans think the Nürburgring is a lobster dish.

    FOR THE RECORD:
    Car review: A story on the Nissan GT-R in the April 16 edition of Highway 1incorrectly stated the vehicle's lap time at Germany's Nürburgring track as 7.38 seconds. The correct time is 7 minutes, 38 seconds. The review also referred to Yamamoto, a Japanese battleship. The correct spelling is Yamato. Some editions incorrectly referred to Reys Enginnering. The company's name is Rays Engineering.


    Why? Because, for all its pants-ripping performance, the GT-R is surprisingly -- amazingly -- not all that exciting to drive. Oh yeah, there's epic velocity here, and yet, because there is so much assurance, so many layers of electronic self-preservation, there isn't much frisson or fear. Without fear, there is no fun, which anyone who's had sex in a public place can tell you.

    Nissan doesn't even blush. Here's a direct quote from the product briefing: "GT-R offers supercar performance to a broad range of customers for the first time without intimidation."

    Despite the GT-R's official nickname, "Godzilla," it's more like 2 tons of fluffy kitten.

    Right about now legions of fanboys are throwing down their Sony PlayStation controllers to fire off strongly worded, if badly spelled, e-mails of outrage and dissent. The GT-R's cult status comes courtesy of the video game Gran Turismo, which introduced American audiences to Japan's only true super car. (Previously known as the Skyline GT-R, several generations of the car have appeared over the past 20 years.) In that it started life as an ordinary coupe and was then invested with such insane amounts of raciness (some Skylines had as much as 600 factory horsepower under the hood), the Skyline GT-R had that certain something, that deep perversion of purpose, that Asian import tuners dearly love. It was so wrong it was right.

    The new model -- which in the past few years has been repeatedly sighted in prototype testing around the Nürburgring like some 193-mph Brigadoon -- now has its own distinct sheet metal, so the Skyline part of the name has been dropped. It is the first GT-R model to come to the United States. What's fascinating about the GT-R project is just how much Japanese national pride it has come to represent. Nissan's chief creative officer and GT-R guru Shiro Nakamura insisted that the design reflect Japanese culture and avoid aping the razor-cut European exoticism of Ferrari and Lamborghini. And so the GT-R's bluff, blocky masses and angular lines, inspired by the robots -- oh, excuse me -- mecha mobile suits in the "Gundam" anime series. Words cannot describe how awesome this is, if you are 11.

    About as pretty as a meat mallet, the GT-R sure does look menacing in person. Its most distinctive features are the dramatic "aero-blade" air extractors aft of the front wheel wells and the fierce glowering headlamps drawn back in a scowl like a Kabuki mask (or Cindy McCain). The underbody is fared in to reduce lift -- the car has significant aero downforce at speed. And coefficient of drag is only .27.

    Another surprise: This is a big car, 183.3 inches long (almost 10 inches longer than a Corvette). And it's heavy: 3,836 pounds.

    And why not? This is a lot of automobile. Beginning with the engine: a hand-built and blueprinted 3.8-liter, twin-turbocharged V6 putting out 480 hp at 6,400 rpm and 430 pound-feet of torque between 3,200 and 5,200 rpm. At a minimum. Motor Trend's resident skeptic Frank Markus, puzzled that the GT-R was outperforming lighter and more powerful cars like the Porsche 911 Turbo, recently put a GT-R on a borrowed dynamometer. He concluded the engine is producing at least 507 hp and likely a lot more. I don't have access to a dyno, but given the gear ratios and quarter-mile trap speed (the poor man's dyno) of 120.0 mph, I estimate the engine is putting out more like 530 hp.

    The big crank is connected to a six-speed, dual-clutch gearbox in a rear transaxle/all-wheel-drive transfer case. Typically, 100% of engine torque is directed at the rear wheels. If the AWD system's cybernetics detect wheel slip, big yaw moments or other kinds of slipping and sliding, it will step in, rerouting up to 50% of engine torque to the front wheels while coordinating with the angels of the stability control system. You can turn off stability control, but it's plain the car's dynamics have been developed with the system ciphering away in the background. Which is to say, the car's faster around a racetrack with stability control on.

    The powertrain ends with four gorgeous 20-inch Rays Engineering wheels, with bead knurling on the wheel lip (to prevent the tires from twisting on the rim), wrapped in spec-built, nitrogen-filled Bridgestones.

    It all gets pretty nerdy from here, so let me button it up a bit. Computer-controlled adaptive suspension. Race-threshold settings for transmission, traction and stability control. And a launch-control system that allows the mother of all torque-brake takeoffs: There's a brief moan as the highly excited gear packs sluice torque fore and aft, but there's no drama, no wheel spin, no choking incense of clutch. The GT-R simply begins moving like some pneumatically powered experiment in a physics lab. Your guts and wits catch up a beat or two later. On the day I drove the car at Fernley Raceway, near Reno, testers were getting 0-60 mph launches in the 3.1-second range. That's as quick as any car I've ever driven.

    By the way, the car is built like the freakin' Yamamoto. I mean, it's solid.

    So, what's the problem? It's not really a problem, just a matter of character. This car has been engineered to produce astonishing performance numbers, specifically around the Nürburgring, when driven by the finest drivers in the world. Driven by something less than the finest drivers in the world -- and that would include me -- the margins of safety and control are so broad that it actually makes the car uninvolving. Say what you want about the Porsche GT2: when you drive that car hard, you're in the fight for your existential soul. You are hanging on for a life made ever more dear by the peril.

    Around the track in the GT-R, at first I thought, "Oh, wow, I'm driving my butt off. I'm a genius behind the wheel." Soon, though, I realized the car was doing most of the work, saving me from mistakes. The GT-R is the ultimate self-correcting mechanism. No matter how wrong you get your line or how bad you fumble your braking, simply turn the wheel where you want to go and mat the throttle. In an instant, the computers and AWD riddle out a solution and off you go. That doesn't happen in a Ferrari.

    And so, the paradox of the Japanese super car that does everything better but is still somehow less fun. As for the engineering, you cannot question that some of the smartest car guys in the world nailed the GT-R together. But when it comes to the thrill of driving, they still have something to learn.

    http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/la-hy-neil16apr16,0,1179971.story
     

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