Porsche Accuses Nissan of Cheating on GT-R Nurburgring 'Record' Lap Run

As it was in the olden back alleys of the world’s classic cities, that arguments among men were settled with two pairs of fists, slugging it out until only one was left standing. Now, today, it seems this arena has become the Nurburgring racetrack and auto makers are the men. We all heard about Nissan GT-R’s magnificent times posted on this track, even saw what was said to be the video of the real thing. Videos don’t lie. Unedited videos anyway. Nissan’s rival at GT-R level, Porsche, has no problem with video evidence. What it has a problem with is Nissan’s claim of a standard car crushing its own contender, the 911 Turbo, on this legendary track with a blistering time of 7 minutes and 29 seconds back in April 2008.

August Achleitner, the 911 product chief, spoke to the CARSguide at the Australian press preview of the latest 911 Cabriolet.
"This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car," he said. "For us, it's not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tyres."

To put credit to their suspicions, Achleitner’s team went and bought a GT-R in the US and took it on a back to back to back run against its 911 Turbo as well as the manic GT2, just in case. The tests were done under the same conditions using standard Michelin Sport Cup rubber.

"The Nissan is a good car. I don't want to make anything bad with my words," Achleitner was quoted as saying. "It's a very consistent car. But this car is about 20 kilos heavier than the Turbo . . ."

For this reason alone it can be seriously questioned whether GT-R really did achieve its feat as a standard car. The other reasons are the so-called “minor tweaks” that were performed on it before its run at Nordschleife.

For the record here are the times (in brackets) that Porsche achieved with all three cars in standard garb.
Nissan GT-R (7:54)
Porsche 911 Turbo (7:38)
Porsche GT2 (7:34)