Nissan GT-R SpecV First Independent Tsukuba Circuit Laptimes Reported

Nissan GT-R SpecV / gtrblog.com

By Thami Masemola
February 25, 2009 10:17 am
Filed Under: Japanese, Nissan, Special Editions, Supercars

The following news will either disappoint or delight some Nissan GT-R fans. The new GT-R SpecV is slower than the standard GT-R. In fact, it's slower than both the MY08 and MY09 cars. Good news for standard car owners, bad news for those who have or are planning to shell out the equivalent of ¥15,750,000 for a SpecV.

Japan's Best Motoring publication has gotten a hold of the mighty SpecV and they wasted no time in heading for the Tsukuba Circuit to test Nissan's claims for themselves. To make matters interesting they put legendary racer Keiichi "The Drift King" Tshuchiya behind the wheel. Even he could not beat the MY08 and MY09 times of 1:01.888 and 1:01.343 respectively. The car could only manage a best time of 1:02.4. Best Motoring says the conditions under which all three cars were tested were similar.

The SpecV weighs 60kg less than the factory car. It's powered by a 3.8-litre twin turbo V6 with 480hp (353kW) and 434 ft-lb of torque. No explanation is forthcoming on this pressing issue yet, suffice to say perhaps the upcoming issue of Best Motoring in which the car was tested will provide some answers.

Source: gtrblog.com

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Tags: Nissan GT-R, Nissan GT-R SpecV

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Comments (page 1 of 2)

Sedaer

February 25, 2009 3:24 pm

WHAT THE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!......................

Joe_Limon

February 25, 2009 3:26 pm

was the drift king drifting the car and getting lap times of 1:02.4?

super_car_muscle_man

March 1, 2009 10:26 am

lol

trinity

February 25, 2009 4:03 pm

Are the MY08 and MY09 times puplished by nissan? cause they seem to have a messed up stopwatch... i mean, it gave them a 7:29 for the nuerburgring :P

dbehmoaras

February 25, 2009 4:24 pm

The Nurburgring is not a drift track. It's a race track where real drivers go to do some real driving. However fun drifting may be, it will never appear on the Nurburgring for very good reason. On that note, what is the Nurburgring lap time for the Spec-V? The 'Ring time is the only one that really matters because it is the only track that tests every single aspect of performance of a car.

As for the reason why these lap times are slower, I think it's because Nissan decided to build a car that goes forward, not sideways.

sub39h

February 25, 2009 6:51 pm

just because they used someone called "The Drift King" doesn't mean he drifted around the track.

i think i agree with trinity. Nissan tend to exaggerate their times or use non production tyres and the like so they come out with faster times than others would. i find it hard to believe that a competent driver would be significantly worse than a Nissan test driver just because they "know the car better".

lucifa

February 26, 2009 4:38 am

I'd have to agree with trinity and sub39h - this guy isn't exactly a poor driver, the conditions were similar and I can't see him taking it easy because the engine hasn't been worked in or anything. I dunno, this raises interesting questions of Nissan for me...

jko2001

February 25, 2009 4:07 pm

Isn't each engine handmade, allowing for some differences in power output for each individual vehicle? Maybe they tested some "more powerful than average" MY08 and MY09 cars and a "less powerful than average" SpecV. I'm not sure what the standard deviations on the HP and torque in these cars are..just speculating

Edited by user on February 25, 2009 at 4:07 pm

Iconic

February 25, 2009 4:25 pm

Handmade or not, it shouldn't be slower than the base version. this should make for some fun arguments. interesting.

kimbo

February 25, 2009 4:23 pm

the only explanation for this I can think of is that the car wasn't run in and had very low mileage. This can make HUGE difference.

vilivo

February 25, 2009 4:41 pm

Well, I don't know what every1 is complaining about, he obviously drove the car with his best Drift King ability, so a result of 1.02.4 sideways when the MY08 & MY09 did it with test-drivers who knew the car well, and had months spent doing laps in it, ONLY did 1.01 going forward... Besides, it looks a bit like...

Edited by user on February 25, 2009 at 4:42 pm

350Zed

February 25, 2009 4:41 pm

This article has been up for over an hour, and still no sign of 'Vette-Trolls? WTF?

Where's the "See, a ZR1 will eat this jap-crap!!!!!!!111oneone" in a whiney voice we've all grown to enjoy?

NauAudiS4

February 25, 2009 8:09 pm

Winnar!!!elevnty BTW, you wouldn't happen to be Der Kimbo from AWOT and FOT, would you?

Bremen_Koenigsegg

February 25, 2009 6:23 pm

So the SpecV is different from the standard GT-R in what important way? Weighing sixty kilograms less and employing ceramic brakes but producing the same amount of power is not what I would consider a "hotted up GT-R." Depending on how much (or how little) braking is done on the circuit, it does not seem like this car should be decidedly faster than the standard version. After all, what is 60kg in a 2+2 coupe? While I don't agree it is in reality slower than the standard version, I certainly don't believe it is worth the premium. They didn't even have the sense to up the power! I'm sure there is a good reason for this... does anybody know why?

pzigly

February 26, 2009 1:14 am

I dont think they are 100% confident with the engine yet. Its brand new, so they dont know how it will react to more hp. A tuner adds hp and can consider if they choose to, to look at long term effects. Nissan has to look at long term wear and tear so they dont look bad if things go wrong. This is why they choose to put a v8 in the GT-R race car. I hope they correct this and have NISMO take over the plans for this.

Did NISMO tune this or did Nissan?

hussaint

February 25, 2009 7:19 pm

**** the GT-r get a ZR-1 and sleep tight

mortz

February 26, 2009 3:48 am

I'm sure Nissan tuned the spec-v, the v-spec models from the skyline gt-rs r32, r33 and r34 were never much faster than the standard model just had body enhancements and some better components, nissan might have plans to bring out another model maybe even a nur edition with some help from NISMO?? but for the extra price to pay for a spec-v one would imagine they would have it faster than the base model?? who knows time will tell, its a shame Nissan isn't going to publish anymore nurburgring times thanks to Porsche.

Edited by user on February 26, 2009 at 4:08 am

mortz

February 25, 2009 8:15 pm

We will have to wait for more test for better reference and comparisons, I'm sure they wouldn't have the spec-v slower than the standard gt-r, still early days yet.

GT-RunSPECtacularV

February 25, 2009 10:22 pm

But, huh, wha, but, waaaaaaaa! Say it ain't so, yo. It's funny how the GT-R kiddies had to wait for the ZR1 trolls to show up for over an hour when you know dam well the GT-R trolls would of been here faster! Well kiddies, you do have that and only that with which to claim superiority over the ZR1! HA!!!

The "Being Faster Trolls" trophy awaits you in the trunk of your brand new $161,000USD ($46,000 more than a loaded ZR1!) GT-R unSPECtacularV.

I already see a lot of excuses, but not to many of you will admit to being shamed by Nissan and all the false reports that were started by the GT-R kiddies all over Blogs everywhere. 7:25 at the ring by track side hand held stop watches which was a made up time through the blogs anyways, and never happened!

The GT-R is still a terrific car, but like every manufacturer around the world they go to far at times and come up with an over-priced version of the original! Then there are companies like Chevrolet that get it right with cars like the ZR1 that when you look at it now is a very reasonably priced Super Car compared to the GT-R SpecV's $161,000USD and the fact that the SpecV's performance is not even up to the standard GT-R's puts it in the "Not for that price" category.

Stop making excuses and live with it. The GT-R SpecV was not designed to out due the GT-R on the track, but to give it the "looks" of a Super Car the GT-R falls short of....The black anthracite wheels, more Carbon Fiber and Ceramic rotors all do the job but leave the car short on performance. I read someone here say Nissan needed to work things out and it's to early to go by these marks......um, no. This car has been run around the Ring more than the standard GT-R and has had more R&D done on it than anything Nissan has produced since the Datsun days!

Joe_Limon

February 25, 2009 11:09 pm

This shows one thing very well. Driver skill and experience with the car is perhaps the single most powerful aspect when putting down awesome lap times. No wonder why Porsche drivers couldn't just hop in and get a perfect ring lap.

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