Just in case you haven't been paying attention, there is a war going on here. A showdown between the American King and Japanese Godzilla on the famous public racetrack in Germany, the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
The Nordschleife or northern loop, nicknamed The Green Hell by Jackie Stewart, is widely considered the most difficult, most demanding and most treacherous purpose-built race track in the world. As a result, it has become the standard de facto for which auto manufacturers use to compare the performance of their cars.
Recently, Nissan and GM have released press statements (here and here) and videos boasting of their amazing lap times around the Nordschleife with their GT-R and ZR1 high performance cars, respectively. With the denial or gloating of enthusiasts loyal to either side, much debate and speculation into the authenticity of each vehicles “ring runs” has exploded.
Adding fuel to the fire, GM released the video footage of their ZR1's ring run yesterday, and the intrepid crew at Garage419.com have edited together both video clips of the Corvette ZR1 and Nissan GT-R in a split screen comparison of their highly controversial Nurburgring runs. Hardly scientific, but it's an interesting piece of video which helps put the debate into perspective.
Garage419 points our the timer displays for both vehicles do not use the same starting and end point so they added their own timer for comparison. Clearly there is one vehicle that is faster, but we will leave the analysis and final decision up to you!
VIDEO Split-Screen: Nissan GT-R vs. Corvette ZR1 on the Nurburgring
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Comments
I can't wait for the Ultima GTR to blast those 2 by a good 30 seconds.
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by Monkey | July 11, 2008 2:28 PM
You can't compared those two cars. Ultimate GTR is only a proton type. Let see you drive this car down the road. Way too ugly, and undriveable for normal every day use.
by American-Rules | July 11, 2008 5:04 PM
you can't compare the GT-R with the ZR1 either... I can't understand why is WCF trying so hard to put them in comparisson, despite the fact that they are completely different cars, and that the Vette has much more power than the Nissan
by loyo | July 11, 2008 9:04 PM
i like the interoir in the nissan more thn da corvette
by BabyMilo | July 11, 2008 2:40 PM
yea i'd take leather over plastic anyday :P
by carcrazy1234 | July 12, 2008 2:59 AM
regardless of which vehicle turns out to be fastest, we should all be stoked that these manufacturers are pushing the envelope at the top end.
by tdroesch | July 11, 2008 6:04 PM
i like both cars for what they are and how they're different at being fast. tho i gotta say it's only fair to compare the zr1 to the v-spec when it comes out. and interestingly the gtr seems like a bit of a handful compared to the zr1 in the video...
by scuderia7 | July 11, 2008 6:23 PM
this is like the 6th version that chevi come up with for the corvette, and its hardly competing with the GT-R, lets see what happens when nissan come with with next version
by Bakrione | July 11, 2008 7:17 PM
The Vette has been in production since 1953, the skyline since 1957, both cars have been through many different styles, the GTR didn't just magically appear when you first heard of it.
by joe_limon | July 11, 2008 11:18 PM
Both cars were totally different back then. Nissan was using a 4 door platform up until the r34 in 2000 and it was still beating the vette and ferrari's on the track. This is the only GTR that has a 2 door platform specifically designed for it.
by pzigly | July 12, 2008 12:23 AM
Funny how people are going to try and compare the Ultima GTR to a Corvette, because the 'Vette beat the GTR. Get over it. The ZR1 beat the GTR, like they said they would. I personally don't like either car ($70k+ for a Nissan? No thanks. And over $100 for a 'Vette? Definitely not)
Each car has it's pros and its cons. The ZR1 won this battle.
by Xenicide | July 11, 2008 8:03 PM
the ZR-1 hasn't won anything yet buddy... wait til the V-spec and then u can say whatever you want
by carcrazy1234 | July 12, 2008 3:00 AM
Why are people still comparing these 2 cars? It is not a correct comparison. Its exactly like comparing a regular sentra to a Civic Si. If you want to compare the Civic Si to something, you have to compare it to the Sentra SE-R otherwise you know the Si will win if it was compared with the regular sentra.
by pzigly | July 11, 2008 8:24 PM
Did anybody noticed that both cars did't complete a full timed lap? That doesn't change the outcome of this battle but just might affect the Ring's classification and on Zonda vid is the same cheating. They all didn't timed the pit's straigh, some more some less. Hope the Ultima will.On my stop watch the Vette clocked 7:29:9 and GT-R did 7:33:03!
by UREK | July 11, 2008 8:48 PM
It's standard to stop timing at the final corner and not include the final straight for safety reasons.
by kengoh | July 11, 2008 10:40 PM
The regular ZO6 power to weight is 6.20 pounds per hp and it ran a 7:49 on The Ring. The GTR has a pound per hp of 7.91 and ran a 7:29 on the Ring. In order for the ZR1 to finally beat the GTR it has 5.21 pound per hp. That is HUGE. This means that the ZR1 engine has to carry 2.7lbs less per horse power than the GTR.
by pzigly | July 11, 2008 9:04 PM
who cares, Nissan chose to make their car awd so that it could apply all of its hp sooner in the corner, that leads to faster exit speeds and thus faster straight away speeds.
by joe_limon | July 11, 2008 11:22 PM
Its still over a 200hp difference considering the weight just to achieve 5 seonds. You also have to look at the price difference. over 30K difference
by pzigly | July 12, 2008 12:18 AM
You suck horribly at math. 638-480=158. And then there is the fact that 638 is at the engine while 480 is at all four wheels. Lets give the vette 10% driveline inneficiencies and the GTR 15% since its awd. If we wanted to skew it the other way The vette would only have 574hp and the GTR would have 552hp. A difference of 22 hp. But thats crap so lets just compare at engine hp numbers, 638-552=86hp difference. There you go, 86 hp is far far less of a difference then "over a 200hp difference". As to the costs, you also have to bear in mind that the GTR is a losing venture for Nissan like the veyron, for every car you purchase you put Nissan further in the hole. So to compare costs is again unfair and biased. If the GTR were a break even venture like the ZR1, one would expect the base price to be around $105,000 and then you tag on all those other goodie charges for import/export/tax/markup etc. Since the ZR1 is made in North America the price would actually end up and is in many place cheaper then the GTR.
by joe_limon | July 12, 2008 2:00 AM
You dont understand my previous comment. I said if you incorporate weight it would be a 200+ difference. Also the GTR would have less hp than 480 and not more HP. It is harder for the engine to get power to all 4 wheels than 2 wheels. So the GTR would be like 450.
by pzigly | July 12, 2008 4:52 AM
nope Nissan has traditionally rated their skylines at the wheel not at the engine to comply with the Japanese hp restrictions, this car is similar, expected Crank hp is well above 505hp.
by joe_limon | July 12, 2008 6:16 AM
431hp on a dyno. Which equates to 506 hp with a 15%loss. But the GTR weighs 500-600lbs more than the zo6 but it still beats it.
by pzigly | July 12, 2008 7:10 AM
Bakrione, how is this the 6th version for the vette, there's the base, Z06, and ZR1. Its the 6th generation, but that stupid to talk s**t about, that be be saying the GTR sucks because there's 6 generations. Both cars are awesome landmarks in automotive history as they have pushed the envelope of performance with each new generation.
by doublearon22 | July 11, 2008 10:19 PM
also check out another comparison video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etW4EXMQG5g
by grimlocked | July 11, 2008 11:04 PM
I'm not comparing any, I just want to see how far people can go in this crazy competition.
Hopefully no one will get hurt.
by Monkey | July 11, 2008 11:23 PM
I love both cars for what they are...., given the chance both cars would easily fit in my Garage as well as a 911GT2. All great cars, the caparable laptimes are for fun and bragging rights but as the video shows the track temperatures change, as does the weather meaning there are many variables. The Variables throw off just how much you can take from the laptimes, the same car can have much different laptimes on different days, let alone other cars.
by Xanavi23 | July 12, 2008 12:52 AM
The only real test, if you want to wet yourselves over is to put these two side by side at Nurburgerking. It could be a different story, at least the play pen will be level, conditions wise.
by Ash | July 12, 2008 1:42 AM
holy crap i just noticed sumthing haha... the corvette has really close gear ratios (dunno if its me but that things shifting very quickly)
by carcrazy1234 | July 12, 2008 3:02 AM
Conclusion: ZR1 beat GTR. RWD beat AWD. The Corvette is noticeably faster. Did you notice that there was a lot of twitching of the steering wheel by the GTR driver? He was having a hard time handling the torque of the front wheels!
Of course you can't blame GTR. ZR1 costs 100K vs GTR's 60K. I'm a Canadian, and i like the look of ZR1 beeter. It's sophisticated and exciting! The look of GTR reminds me of an uneducated beast! This contest also reminded me of the battle between Audi RS4 Quattro and CTS-V. And CTS-V won! RWD beat AWD, again. It's true. Just ask Jeremy Clarkson.
by ghent2008 | July 12, 2008 3:05 AM
The CTS-V will have to prove itself against the All-New RS6 which has the Gallardo V10. that will truly test how good the CTS-V is...the new RS6 is going to be VERY fast.
by Xanavi23 | July 12, 2008 3:55 AM
lol Jeremy Clarkson. Cause he has proven himself to be unbiased *eyesroll*
by joe_limon | July 12, 2008 6:23 AM
joe_limon dont bag on JC he is da best!
by BabyMilo | July 13, 2008 8:03 AM
He is not as good as Tiff though on a car review. Tiff is a better driver and gets to the point. JC is more entertainment and has interesting and/or controversial opinions.
by pzigly | July 14, 2008 7:05 AM
Looks like the GTR is closer to 80k than 60k, still less than 105k like the ZR1.
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/05/nissan-raises-gt-r-msrp-by-nearly-7-000/
by a12ozbottle | September 30, 2008 9:26 PM
You maybe on to something Ash.... I think that both cars should make another attempt on the same given day, under the same weather conditions.
by tootall | July 12, 2008 4:01 AM
for me its the GT-R
by anasbat | July 13, 2008 8:19 AM
ZR1 priced at 100K !! and it Has a 6.2 Supercharged V8 engine that pumps out more than 600HP compared to a 3.8 Twin Turbo charged V6 engine produces about 480HP .. beside, the GT-R is a 4WD car and so much heavier than the ZR1 I guess It'd be better to compare the ZR1 with the 550HP+ , 300 lbs lighter GTR-V Specs .. the prototype has already hit 7:25 time making the 2nd fastest Nurburgring run after the Lexus LF-A prototype (7:24) Japs own :P
by Kyuu | July 21, 2008 6:19 AM
For a production car I mean (stock)
by Kyuu | July 21, 2008 6:23 AM
And it did a 1.19.07 on the topgear power lap, Amazing!
by mortz | July 28, 2008 11:48 AM
Funny how no one notice that the GTR did his time in winter (notice that most trees in the video has no leaves), while the Vette was clearly in warmer temperature. The GTR was clearly at a disavantage as track temperature was not the same probably by a lot. I would wait to declare Vette a winner.
by habs_fan | August 30, 2008 6:24 AM
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