Nissan GT-R SpecV Revealed

Nissan GT-R specV

Exclusive performance and style

By Michael Gauthier
January 8, 2009 11:20 AM
Filed Under: Japanese, Nissan, Supercars

Nissan has officially revealed the highly anticipated limited-production GT-R SpecV that will go on sale next month at several Nissan retailers in Japan for 15,750,000 yen (equivalent to $171,797.33 USD and €126,512.34).

Built as a street legal racer, the SpecV takes the already supercar performance of the standard GT-R to the next level thanks to several enhancements by Nissan engineers. The biggest change is the addition of a new high gear boost control device that allows for a momentarily increase in boost, resulting in greater torque during intermediate-to-high speed driving. This creates a car that is both faster and more fuel-efficient because during this process the engine is allowed to operate at a lower speed. Other performance goodies include a titanium-coated exhaust system and carbon-ceramic brakes for unparalleled stopping ability.

The GT-R SpecV's will only be offered in an exclusive Ultimate Black Opal body color while several of the car's key body panels are constructed from carbon fiber including the grille, rear spoiler, and brake ducts. Lightweight racing-style forged aluminum wheels help to reduce unsprung weight, while a new suspension and high-grip tires help to further improve the GT-R's already legendary handling.

High performance modifications also carry over to the SpecV's interior where the standard four-seating arrangement of the GT-R is replaced by two carbon fiber Recaro bucket seats. Elsewhere in the interior carbon fiber inserts are applied to the rear center storage box and the instrument panel, making drivers and passengers alike remember that they are in one truly special sports car.

Source: Nissan

Press Release (Click to expand)

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today announced a new limited-production Nissan GT-R SpecV model, which goes on sale at seven specially selected Nissan dealers throughout Japan on February 2, 2009. The GT-R SpecV is targeted specifically at enthusiast drivers who desire race car-level performance in a street-legal vehicle.

Developed around the multi-dimensional Nissan GT-R sports car, which was introduced just more than one year ago to universal global acclaim, the new SpecV model builds on the original's "ultimate supercar that anyone can enjoy driving anywhere, at anytime" philosophy - taking it to an entirely new level of "oneness between man and machine." The SpecV model includes unique body, interior and performance equipment and modifications, raising the GT-R's unmatched performance to even higher levels.

The GT-R SpecV's new exterior features include a carbon fiber rear spoiler, a carbon fiber grille, and carbon fiber brake ducts. The SpecV is available exclusively in Ultimate Black Opal (RP) body color. Inside, the SpecV's unique two-seat interior (non-SpecV GT-R models also include a two-place rear seat) offers special Recaro carbon fiber bucket seats, while carbon fiber insets embellish the rear center storage box, instrument panel and other trim areas.

Performance is enhanced with a new high gear boost control device, which momentarily increases boost of the engine's twin turbochargers for greater torque in the intermediate-to-high speed ranges to provide a more powerful feeling of acceleration, while also allowing the engine to operate at a lower speed for improved fuel economy. Other modifications include a titanium-coated exhaust system and carbon-ceramic brakes that provide powerful stopping performance.

The GT-R SpecV is also equipped with lightweight, racing-style forged aluminum wheels that were developed for this model and have been sold by Nissan Motorsports International (NISMO) since September 2008. The lighter unsprung weight provided by the new wheels, together with the enhanced braking capability, an exclusive suspension and high-grip tires, combine to deliver the SpecV's exceptional performance.

The SpecV will be sold at the following seven dealer outlets, each of which is staffed by mechanics with special GT-R SpecV training and who are knowledgeable of racing circuit driving.

Dealer outlets selling the SpecV

Ibaraki Nissan Sales Co., Ltd. Mito Sennami Outlet
Nissan Prince Tokyo Sales Co., Ltd. Kamedo Outlet
Nissan Prince Nagoya Sales Co., Ltd. Fukiage Outlet
Nissan Prince Osaka Sales Co., Ltd. Horie Kawaguchi Outlet
Nissan Prince Hyogo Sales Co., Ltd. Nada Outlet
Nissan Prince Kagawa Sales Co., Ltd. Takamatsu Outlet
Yamaguchi Nissan Sales Co., Ltd. Ogori Interchange Outlet

Suggested nationwide retail price (including consumption tax) 15,750,000 yen

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Comments

mortz

January 8, 2009 11:27 AM

Yes its finally here, but where are the performance figures??

RobERob

January 8, 2009 8:19 PM

Yes, that data would be nice!

lucifa

January 8, 2009 12:39 PM

still not a fan, but respect for what is undoubtedly a superb track weapon. just hope this time we actually hear a proper Ring time, instead of the fiasco with porsche last time...

justbored

January 8, 2009 12:49 PM

The fiasco where Nissan offered Porsche a driver training ?

swifthead

January 8, 2009 1:03 PM

Yes maybe now it will properly win over 911 Turbo...but remember this year also comes NEW 911 Turbo with at least 500hp...yes and we are back there ;)

But still I think that 911 GT2 is not endangered!

tootall

January 9, 2009 5:39 AM

Not endangered, my friend.... It's a one off. An anomaly.

350Zed

January 8, 2009 1:54 PM

"...to the next level..."

Didn't we use that cliche enough in 2008?

ShinyG

January 8, 2009 1:56 PM

Wow, pretty expensive for what it provides :( Importing one to Europe/US will make it more expensive than a 911 GT2...

Motor_Yakuza

January 8, 2009 3:04 PM

But it will kick the crap out of the 911 GT2.

radmeister

January 8, 2009 3:06 PM

The GT2 would eat this thing alive, the GT-R was over hyped quite a bit when it was first released, now after much testing and a few racing events where people took their own cars i have seen results where the GT-R has been beaten by a 997 GT3-RS, a bunch where it was beaten by the 996 GT2, and i won't even mention how many times it got beat by a Carrera GT. The entire thing was #1 It wasn't a production vehicle #2 It had a Bridgestone tire that is a semi-slick. Also they didn't do a full lap, cut out the 6 seconds where the pits are, Porsche does a full lap including the pit portion. Semi-slicks+6 seconds is about 16 seconds on the ring, which is 9:44 which is surprisingly is what the head engineer said the car should be able to do. The Porsches come with pretty crappy "racing" tires they come with sport road Micheline Pilot Sports, which in no way is close to the GT-R tires. Give the Porsche Turbo the same tires and it will spank the GT-R every time. Either way both are amazing cars regardless of which is faster, but this is too expensive IMO with dealer markups you will be looking at over 200k for this, not worth it IMO, get a GT2 or hold out for the R8-V10.

phobos

January 8, 2009 3:12 PM

swifthead..what do you mean with " properly win over 911 turbo "....the gt - r kick the crap out of 911 turbo..and this spec v is going to be much more than a standard gt-r

phobos

January 8, 2009 3:24 PM

radmeister..the gt2 would eat the spec v alive ? think again..the standard gt-r itself almost eat the crap out of gt2..and cut the bullsh*t about tires, ask porsche to put the same tires as the gt-r,it is not that hard, right..you have seen results where the gt-r has been beaten by 997 gt-3 rs ?the 997 gt3 rs is the hardcore of 997, you can't compare it with the gt-r, beaten by a 996 gt2? i have seen 996 gt2 beaten by gt-r a lot more..the gt-r is an awesome car and it already beaten the 911 turbo, but some people still crying out loud saying it wasn't a stock car...

radmeister

January 8, 2009 3:38 PM

The GT2 beat the GT-R already with the michelins on, like i said they count their laps differently, GM and Porsche do a full lap which ads 6sec, watch the videos and you can see in the GT-R video as it goes past the pits the time stops, on the ZR-1 and GT2 videos it does not. I can't believe you thing that the GT-R has some godly power to defy the laws of physics, the car is good but it's in now way even close to the GT3-RS or GT2 or Carrera GT.

radmeister

January 8, 2009 3:49 PM

On another note, do you think Porsche is stupid? I mean they have experience on the ring since it was first opened. Ontop of that they have some of the best LM and GT drivers at their disposal that have done 1000s of laps around that track. I will bet $ that Porsche went out and bought a few GT-Rs and ran them on the ring before making that statement. Also the GT-R beats the 911 turbo to 60mph by 0.2 sec, and that's again with the semi-slicks. Have you read any articles about what happened to people that tried repeatedly to get that 3.5sec to 60? Their tranny and diffs blew, 24,000$ gone. You would get 3.5sec if not better if u had semi-slicks on a Turbo and locked your diffs, but then you would blow them just like in the GT-R.

_M7_

January 8, 2009 4:07 PM

O!! M!! G!! its expensive but if it have more than 500hp ufff....and it looks very cool too

phobos

January 8, 2009 4:10 PM

..nope i don't want to call porche stupid at all..but nissan also bought a few 911 turbo as their benchmark..and gt-r engineer also have a lot of experience on the ring..do you think that was their first attempt on the ring ?and yes, they can't deny the law of physics, but they use it..they use the weight of the car ( surprise ), they use 0.28 cd, they use 20 inch rims, they use rear diferential..where did you have that semi slick comment ? they didn't use semi slick.. and for that tranny thing, wow a lot of porsche enthusiast saying that again and again and again.. but gt-r is not about 3.5 sec to 60, and the tranny CAN stand those immense power for a few shot..no one will use the traction control mode in every freakin green light...

radmeister

January 8, 2009 8:28 PM

What do 20" rims have to do with a lap time around the ring? Can you tell me what 0.28cd means? Like do you even realize thats not CdA? The Cd value means nothing unless you know the cross sectional area of the car at it's largest point. And i guess RE070Rs are regular street tires in your books. You can believe whatever you want, I for one am very skeptical of the lap time they posted. For one most magazines have disqualified that time as a "stock" car lap time, I will wait until an independent test is done, and they fit the GT-R with the same tires as the 911 turbo. Until that day the 911 and C-GT are still king.

phobos

January 8, 2009 4:12 PM

..and yes i have seen the youtube video about blowing up the tranny..too much sugar to his head

Decypha

January 8, 2009 5:20 PM

The GT2 comes standard with semi-slicks...

lucifa

January 8, 2009 5:55 PM

i'm not really a fan of the porsche OR the gt-r, so i could possibly be one of the few truly unbiased people to comment on this article, and my 2 cents is this:

this argument is pointless.

the fact is, nobody who buys either of these cars will notice the difference in the 0-62 time, let alone the Ring time. this is just another argument of the germany-ophiles against the japan-fanboys, another excuse for us all to say "german cars are pointlessly expensive just cos of the badge" or "japanese cars have no style, soul or charisma they're just machines". it's down to your own opinion about what you like so being nitpicky about the track times is rather pointless.

i will say this, though - amazing the GT-R may be, but the figures just don't add up; the nissan-posted time just seems a bit far-fetched, perhaps mainly because of the weight issue. you could counter this by saying that the GT-R's superb technology compensates for this, but there's only so much technology can do - give an SUV 900hp and the most sophisticated suspension in the world mated to enormous brembo ceramics and 350mm tires, it's still an SUV, it's still 2 tons and it still won't touch a mid engined supercar around the Ring.

and as for porsche being sore losers, maybe they just were. but it isn't often that an official ring time is disputed, and porsche must have known they'd take a lot of flak from the press, and the world's most successful sportscar maker doesn't just take risks like that unless they have the evidence to base it on.

phew, that took a while. thanks for reading! =)

plasma_cluster

January 8, 2009 7:26 PM

at the end of the day one is a nissan and one is a Porsche

WildMaverick1200

January 8, 2009 7:36 PM

Hot!!! can't wait to see it on Top gear...

RobERob

January 8, 2009 8:15 PM

I finally got to see a GT-R while passing threw Oakland this past weekend. And while I'm wasn't particularly fond of it's styling after only seeing it only online, I must say that I was impressed when I finally got to see it in person. I pulled directly in back of the driver hoping to get a better glimpse of the front but he ended up going the other direction at the 580 split. Surprisingly, it looks slightly larger/wider in person; I'm going to have to say it was almost beautiful.

Iconic

January 8, 2009 9:18 PM

Why are people slamming this car for it's 'weak' tranny? Aren't supercars supposed to break and cost ridiculous amounts of money to fix? I mean how pictures of ferraris have you guys seen lately with the engine on fire... brand new ferraris at that. Place a GT2 in that hands of an stupid driver and I think we can expect similar results. when it comes down to it, this car is outrageous.. as are the Porsche turbos.

Xanavi23

January 8, 2009 9:35 PM

Over twice the price for a car that isn't anywhere near twice the car. This car won't beat a GT2 with a PDK installed. Remember GT2s until now have had a conventional manual transmission.

Porsche has been using PDK in race cars since 1985 so their system is fool proof too.

I like the GT-R but this car is a waste of money and not really much faster. You buy a GT-R with a comp reflash, 20inch rims and some carbon fibre if it matters to you and you save almost 100k easily.

This is so stupid its incredible. Its a nice car but VERY VERY VERY over-priced. Killing the original point of the GT-R. A cheap highly competitive sports car. This car isn't cheap and at its price point its not very competitive.

Iconic

January 8, 2009 10:02 PM

Ya man I can't till the PDK is strapped on to this badboy and when that happens, I think this little competition will end. Nissan unfortunately will never be able to match PDK.

This version can easily be sold for and worth less, but Nissan is obviously trying to position this car next the GT2 and as stupid and ridiculous as that may sound, they'll make some $$ because of it.

Xanavi23

January 8, 2009 10:16 PM

Iconic, thats the funny thing. The car WILL sell, specifically to Japanese customers who want to stand out.

Like you said though, it could have been sold for at least 40K less and they would still make very decent profit. They just wanted to compete with the GT2 in all ways. Just one problem, the GT-2 PDK hasn't been released and that will probably end this competition.

The Carerra S alone with PDK, is said to be 8 seconds faster around the ring which does make alot of true sense. I can only imagine the GT2.

Xanavi23

January 8, 2009 10:18 PM

*Edit*- Nissan not matching isn't a bad thing but Porsche PIONEERED the dual clutch manual transmission. It would be hard for any body to compete with someone who designed, engineered and Perfected the transmission so long ago.

Iconic

January 8, 2009 11:00 PM

Totally agree with ya buddy. Maybe matching might have been the wrong word, that will never happen. I was trying to make the point that they wont be able to duplicate PDK's robustness. I doubt PDK will fall apart after consecutively using launch control (which it can do). I'm pretty stoked about the fact that they offer it on the targa models now.

tootall

January 9, 2009 3:47 PM

Good Point.

mortz

January 8, 2009 11:22 PM

I think everyone should wait and see what the performance figures are before making any argument about Porsche and the gt-r, stop crying about the pdk gearbox who really cares this is a gt-r article and for the gt2 being faster, well we will just have to wait and see wont we.

Xanavi23

January 9, 2009 2:01 AM

Theres nothing to cry about the PDK. The PDK was designed a LONG time ago so its superior. No crying involved when you have superior tech. Unless Nissan is lying about power output, this car will get handed its rear end just a bit by the PDK GT2.

ck314

January 9, 2009 2:32 AM

I don't think anyone would be fool enough to believe Nissan's aim is to ridicule or overthrow Porsche's aura and heritage. The GT-R should be appreciated for what it is: an awesome and fairly priced sportscar, and Nissan should be cheered and saluted for having the balls to make and sell this kind of car, while Honda's being a pussy and focussing on soccer mom and tree huggers' crapboxes.

mortz

January 9, 2009 2:40 AM

Yes and I'm a huge fan of Porsche but this is an article about the gt-r not Porsche, go look up the nurburgring records and any other track records track and road tests and time after time the gt-r is faster than most of the all the Porsche's, i cant see how you can make such claims when you don't even know the performance specs of the v-spec! didn't you read the wcf new rules i'm sure your brand bashing. Time will tell, And how much more is a gt2 buyer going to pay extra for the pdk gearbox??

Meeshka

January 9, 2009 3:26 AM

I don't believe that you need to spend over $100k just to shed a second of your 1/4 mile time by upgrading a car. It's "street legal" for a reason. The current base model GT-R is MORE than enough for any street.

Xanavi23

January 9, 2009 3:33 AM

Nissan aimed the GT-R at the 911, so since its a direct competitor, its only fair to openly discuss both cars and their respective performance.

NISMO

January 9, 2009 3:58 AM

I'm all for Nissan (obviously), but I gotta say someone should teach Nissan the definition of shedding weight. I read somewhere (let the flaming begin for not citing) that this is just over 100 lbs. lighter than the standard GT-R. Much like all the hype over the Z having shed some weight and the base comes in 95 lbs. lighter than the outgoing model, and speculation is that the touring model will actually be heavier. With only minimal HP increases and that price tag, this car should have carbon fiber everything IMO. Additionally it would have made my little day if the spec v had an optional 3rd pedal. I loved BMW once...they burst my bubble...I moved onto Nissan...it seems they will do the same...any suggestions anyone?

marcdevon

January 9, 2009 11:44 AM

The following site states that the Spec V is 60 kg (132 lbs) lighter than the standard GT-R:

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/Nissan-GT-R/236836/

Iconic

January 9, 2009 4:23 AM

Doppelkupplung!!!

marcdevon

January 9, 2009 4:41 AM

http://magazines.drivers-republic.com/driversrepublic/thetruth030/

_M7_

January 9, 2009 5:16 AM

WHI SO MUCH POST AVERYONE KNOWS PORSCHE LOOSE AGAINS NISSAN!!! ...THE GTR HAVE 600HP ON THE WEELS!!! not at the engine try to cath it at curves...you must have an MC12 to try it

mortz

January 13, 2009 8:14 AM

There was an official test done on a dyno designed to test loss of power in the drive line and gave an more accurate reading of the gt-rs power at the wheels and it was what the factory rated it at but the torque was up by 40nm

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