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Until Nissan announced the R35 GTR, all GTRs before it have been the JDM Holy Grail. With the exception of a couple of people with the chutzpah to pull it off, importing an R32, R33, or R34 has been no easy task.
Lucky for you, someone over at Nissan Infinity Car Owners did a serious amount of homework and distilled it into six pages of material for your restroom enjoyment.
Eric Hsu of Cosworth/Apex'i infamy posts some pictures and details of an R35 they're ripping up over at M-Workz. After peeping the built transaxle up close and seeing all the design details that went into the GTR, you quickly realize how much of a bargain $70k for this car truly is.
The powerplant itself does look pretty Nissan-pedestrian if you ask me. Yes, its one of the most advanced automotive powertrains ever devised by man. Yes, it will propel all 3800lbs of GTR down the 1/4 mile in the 11 second range. The VR38, however, doesn't look the part. It looks like it would be more at home in the engine bay of a 350Z or G35. What does everyone think?
Road and Track has a comprehensive head to head comparison between the GTR, Z06, and 911 turbo on U.S. soil. The bottom line? The GTR runs Buttonwillow configuration 13 a full five seconds faster than the two other cars.
Take a look at some of these pictures over at socalevo depicting an R35 parked right behind an R34. I don't know if my eyes deceive me, but the new Godzilla is outright massive - wider stance, longer wheel base. The 3800lb quoted curb weight doesn't seem so bad considering its size.
Now, once you do a double take on that image and your brain starts to tell you its an optical illusion, realize that the R34 is CLOSER, and should appear larger than the R35 behind it - yet its absolutely dwarfed by its newer sibling.
There's also a bazillion new GTR images on that thread.
I'm announcing a caption contest for the pic on the left. Post your suggestions in the comments area.
Not one to dilly-dally, those crazy track monkeys at BMI (Best Motoring International) have managed to get some intimate track time with a production Nissan GTR. Three part video courtesy of youtube.
SocalEvo user Boosted posts scans of what appears to be one of the aftermarket's first attempts at wrangling some additional fortitude from that Japanese supercar that can.
After fitting on a prototype catback exhaust, the GTR registered over 500hp at the hubs - measured on a dynapack. The decrease in backpressure increased boost almost 1.5psi and as a result netted an additional 22hp over stock - not a bad indicator that Nissan has indeed left some ponies on the table.
Well THAT didn't take long. Autoblog has pictures of what appears the be the first totaled (or at least near-totaled) production Nissan GTR. We wonder how the insurance adjuster will deal with this considering replacement parts may not be available just yet.
Josh Jacquot over at Edmunds Inside Line managed to get his paws on a privately owned JDM GTR. We're unaware that the fabled Nissan has even begun shipping, but we guess they hold journalists in high regard in Japan.
With launch control, the 3800lb beast hits 60mph from a dead stop in 3.3 seconds. The quarter mile is blizted in 11.6 seconds at 120mph.
For reference, the Porsche 911 matches the quarter mile but at 118mph. The Chevrolet Corvette z06 will do 12 flat at almost 122 mph. Bottom line - don't race one off the line. Based on those trap speeds, the GTR should just barely pull on a 911 from highway speeds - the Z06 should slowly walk away from both.
A 60-0 distance of 104ft and a slalom speed of 72.9mph round out the numbers.
Just in case you're tired of the pedestrian gunmetal-gray color - yes, other GTR paint flavors do exist.
More pics after the jump.
ChicagoZ user n8b has sent back several pics from the Nissan GTR unveiling at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. Of particular interest are several cutaway views of the chassis and drivetrain. Our curiosity about the GTR's inner workings are almost overwhelmed by the sight of so many dissected GTRs.. almost.
Nissan's highly anticipated ultra-bang-for-the-buck supercar slayer hasn't even rolled off the trucks and fanboys everywhere are doing what they do best - staging an all out hide-behind-your-computer pissing contest. With 470+ hp and a price tag sitting right between the Z06 and the 911, Nissan has clearly defined its targets.
However, until these cars make their way into the hands of enterprising individuals to perform their own benchmarking, this conundrum will devolve into a veritable blood feud - speculation and preliminary magazine reviews be-damned.
Whet the appetite of your inner fanboy, and take a gander at what they're saying. (Choice snippets and links after the jump).
At GTRForums.com, they've got their panties in a bunch...
Meanwhile, the good ol' boys at corvetteforums have relegated themselves to making disparaging remarks about the GTR's appearance and dishing out choice rhetoric like the following:i have a hot news flash for corvetteforums:
a 5 year R&D program, rumoured to have an international team of engineers assembled, is not a thrown-together car.
next point: the GT-R ethos is to be a race car first and foremost, as it is homologated for street use for this very purpose to comply with regional and international sanctioning requirements for GT racing.
next point: the memories of many are evidently very short as only 3 years ago Nissan reissued the R34 in a limited edition road-going form called the Z-Tune. do you know what that car did? it became the fastest production car built at the time, destroying McLaren F1.
what do you think the Z-Tune was built to prove? it was created to foreshadow what direction the next generation of GT-R would take. why would Nissan R&D the GT-R for as long as they have to not beat the old-news Z06 benchmarks? or worse, "barely hang" with Porsche? such an ethos is not whatsoever what the GT-R is about --the GT-R is about domination and total victory to the extent of overkill.
next point: Corvette is a relative newcomer to international motorsports compared to Nissan and definitely compared to Porsche. why would Nissan overlook Corvette and only focus on Porsche, particularly when Corvette has been beating Porsche? the fact is that Nissan cannot be taken out to the cleaners by ---> an "American" car. that would be a total and absolute failure of mission for the GT-R ----- to beat Porsche but lose to a Corvette! the symbolic consequences of Corvette dominating the GT-R would be tantamount to death for Nissan's image and reputation on the world stage.
realistic is that the GT-R will outperform not only Porsche 997tt and Z06, but as well beat Porsche GT3 and possibly Carrera GT. the GT-R is an exotic-level performance car and is engineered for the long-haul warfare that is being fought as we speak in the new-era-reanaissance of horsepower and performance battles.I suspect most of the fanboy nation across the US will not be buying one as it's way out of their price range. However, be prepared for the massive swelling of their collective (bird) chests as they proclaim "their GTR" as the be all, do all, of past/present/future automative engineering
Porsche owners, (especially the ones over at 6speedonline) who generally like to keep the piss off their hands at a minimum, had some jabs at the GTR's portliness..
I already experience this: GTR Kook was telling me how the GTR was going to wipe the street with my Z06 - I simply said "well, when YOU get one to race against the Z06 that I actually OWN, I will conceed it's better if you win". I'm assuming the 2020 model years will be available when this actually happens...
The New GT-R weighs 3800 + lbs and likely will have under 500 hp. It's the usual overhype, I dont see why people wont just let the car establish itself before they go around blabbing about it killing corvettes and 911's. Let it do something first. You couldnt tell the fanboys it wasnt going to beat the CGT at the ring (it was difficult to tell them not possible for the 7:15 rumor), then when the weight specs came out there was a wave of silence. Then back to the usual "it doesnt matter" when it comes to specs.
Overall, I like the car, but some of the fanboys make it hard to enjoy with the "godzilla" killing everything etc etc etc. If the specs motortrend released are accurate (because they had interior and engine shots never released before, so it's very possible), 0-60 in 3.5, 11.7 1/4 mile and 192 top speed @ 38000 lbs they'd better be coming with a sequel.
So what do you guys think? Which cuisine...er..supercar, will reign supreme?