Nissan GT-R SpecV First Independent Tsukuba Circuit Laptimes Reported

Nissan GT-R SpecV / gtrblog.com

By Thami Masemola
February 25, 2009 8:17 PM
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

Sedaer

February 25, 2009 8:24 PM

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

Joe_Limon

February 25, 2009 8:26 PM

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

super_car_muscle_man

March 1, 2009 3:26 PM

lol

trinity

February 25, 2009 9:03 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 9:24 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 11:51 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 9:38 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 9:07 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 9:07 PM

Iconic

February 25, 2009 9:25 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 9:23 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 9:41 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 9:42 PM

350Zed

February 25, 2009 9:41 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 26, 2009 1:09 AM

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

Bremen_Koenigsegg

February 25, 2009 11:23 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 6:14 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 26, 2009 12:19 AM

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

mortz

February 26, 2009 8:48 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 9:08 AM

mortz

February 26, 2009 1:15 AM

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.

Joe_Limon

February 26, 2009 4:09 AM

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.

Schizo0223

February 26, 2009 4:16 AM

I watch Best Motoring every month and the magazines track times are based on normal style driving. They purpose is to record the fastest time...no there is no drifting. The "Drift King" happens to be a competent race car driver. He got the name "Drift King" because he would show off with his drifting as fan service at races.

mortz

April 11, 2009 12:40 PM

The spec-v was tested on a damp track

Aluraeo

February 26, 2009 5:18 AM

I've seen best motoring video of the my08 and my09 1:01.888 and 1:01.343 on that same track. Also in the Best Motoring test crew Keiichi is one hell of a driver. You should see the Sti vs Evo test they did (mind you its the Jap Sti not the Crappy euro spec one, the Japs engine may be only 2 litres but it revs to 8k rpm and is more powerful.) In Keiichi's hands he decimated the evo x's. I dont think the driver is the problem here. could it be that the V spec was not properly aligned when they tested it? Hmmm can't wait for the answer

tootall

February 26, 2009 5:27 AM

With this scenario I say the best out of 5. Because it's all a bit weird to me.

BavarianMS

February 26, 2009 9:38 AM

Thats what you get when you talk smack to Porsche lol. The nissan GTR is a great car but the spec v is a waste of time and money...

afterace2

February 26, 2009 11:11 AM

You see, the GTR is such an awesome car, that it is even better than it's top spec version !

BavarianMS

February 26, 2009 11:29 AM

afterace lol you got it right on the money ZING ZING ZING!!! lol

norther

February 26, 2009 10:36 PM

they said the spec v will have 520 bhp... now it's 480, in other words...stock? thats stupid...

pzigly

February 28, 2009 3:46 PM

THE BRAKES!!!!! I just remembered that the new Spec-V uses ceramic discs instead of the steel on the standard GT-R. Maybe the brakes weren't hot enough for the test. That is the only explination. Everything performance wise on here is the same except for the suspention and the brakes.

Ceramic brakes should stay on race cars!!

Go back to the steel and slot them if you want to upgrade them.

That will probably knock off $20k from the pricetag too!!

Edited by user on February 28, 2009 at 3:47 PM

GT-RunSPECtacularV-

March 10, 2009 2:05 PM

DOH!

GT-RunSPECtacularV-

March 10, 2009 2:08 PM

From pzigly;

THE BRAKES!!!!! I just remembered that the new Spec-V uses ceramic discs instead of the steel on the standard GT-R. Maybe the brakes weren't hot enough for the test. That is the only explanation. Everything performance wise on here is the same except for the suspension and the brakes. Ceramic brakes should stay on race cars!!

Go back to the steel and slot them if you want to upgrade them.

That will probably knock off $20k from the price tag too!!

Edited by user on February 28, 2009 at 3:47 PM

Reply | Report Abuse by pzigly | February 28, 2009 3:46 PM

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I love how pzigly has "THE BRAKES" capitalized then 5 exclamation marks like he just found out the entire reason why the Spec is such a dog! Funny stuff.

The words of a desperate man. Wow, the ZR1 has Carbon Ceramic brakes also and it seems to do just fine! You people are really "Grasping for anything" now, to bring life back into an over priced sports car that everyone of you have been praising because of it's imaginary performance that someone hand timed the car and it went blah blah blah! Why are the GT-R kiddies the only ones to take non-verified times and use them as what Nissan has in store for the worlds sports car lovers?

I just read someone say on a GT-R blog site that the SpecV he heard ran a sub 7:20 time at the Ring, but then I found out that this was a 14 year old kids first comment by looking at his profile. When I asked how he learned about this he replied "My Brothers friend works at a Nissan dealer and told him" Is this how you kiddies get all this screwed up info? Live with it, it's a car for the very rich who like their GT-R's with more "Bling" than "Zing"

I heard that the GT-R SpecV was carrying 4 sets of snow ski's on a roof rack, did a back flip, while crossing the finish line in 7:00 flat! The driver was also texting his girl friend about how he was coming out and would no longer need her........My sisters parole agents daughters sister told her. I swear!

mortz

March 27, 2009 10:39 PM

Actually the Spec-V is faster and has been proven by recent tests So it seems you just wasted your time writing a page long load of rubbish that you really have no idea about. It doesn't take a high IQ to figure that the spec-v will be faster than the base model, and i can guarantee it will be faster than the ZR1. gee isn't it funny the time gt-r haters spend bagging the gt-r where they could be writing something positive about a car they like.

Edited by user on April 10, 2009 at 12:38 PM

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