Nissan may take GT-R to go racing in Australia
The land Down Under hasn't been kind to Nissan when it comes to motorsports. The Skyline GT-R was banned in 1993 from the country's touring car series after three consecutive wins in 1990, 1991 and 1992, and Nissan hasn't returned since.
That might change in the 2008 season, as Nissan is considering campaigning the GT-R in the Targa Tasmania rally, according to Ross Booth, marketing manager for Nissan in Australia. The automaker is looking into the Bathurst 12-hour race as well, not to mention the Grand Am series and a possible campaign in the 24-hours of LeMans.
The sourced Drive.com.au interview is rife with great quotes from Booth and Jim Richards, driver of the 1992 Bathurst 1000 GT-R driver. But one line from Booth referring to the V8 supercar series cars as "taxis" is worth clicking through for.
[Source: Drive.com.au]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JonX 10:22AM (12/08/2007)
So, Toyota makes a robot that can play violin and Nissan makes a 473 horspower GTR.
Winner: Nissan :)
Jon
http://www.sportscardriven.com
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David(Postal) 6:41PM (12/07/2007)
Please race this around the world. It will only improve the Nissan brand image
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AltairDusk 7:37PM (12/07/2007)
Why was the Skyline banned?
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Sean Morris 7:49PM (12/07/2007)
It wasn't as much "banned" as the rules were changed.
If you can't win , change the rules.
why not the LS2/LS7? 10:34PM (12/07/2007)
It wasn't banned any more than the Wankel was banned at Le Mans.
Sometimes it is determined the rules aren't equalizing cars properly. So they change the rules.
All such series already have restrictions on the other cars in the series anyway.
nagmashot 4:33AM (12/08/2007)
@why no LS2/LS7
The Wankelengine was never banned from LeMans! That is a mythos. Befor Mazda has won the 1991 with its rotary engine it was known that the engine ruls were changed for the next season.
That engine rule change was not the single success of the Mazda rotary. It was the stupid idea of Berni Eccelstone to race the Group C with Formula 1 sourced 3.5 liter engines... and nothing other than that... this killed the rotary from Mazda and the 5.0l twinturbo from Mercedes that has dominate the compelte 1989 and1990season.
This new rule was the end of the Group C .. which was during the high time in the late 1980´s and early 1990´s as popular as Formula1. Berni Eccestone the boss of F1 had a huge interest to kill that competition ... with his impact at the FIA he was able to order that engine rule change.. two years later the Group C was dead... the manufactor like Mercedes switched completely to F1.
Today F1 is by far the most watched motorsport event world wide.. and there Berni needs no international competition by a interesting to watch race series like Group C was..
Grain 8:26PM (12/07/2007)
3 Consecutive wins in that series, yet some still think that the GTR is nothing but an "over-hyped, playstation generation loving" automobile.
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nagmashot 4:04AM (12/08/2007)
ATCC Australian Touring Car Championship NOT a important championship in the global world of motorsport. No big manufactor goes down under for serious competition.. nearly all race teams in the 1990´s were private race teams using cheap US V8 technic for motorsport offering for low costs fun to watch races for the fans.
From 1990 to 1992 Nissan raced in ATCC only private race teams using cheap to buy technic... wow that is a big challenge for a manufactor to win..
In 1992 the German DTM team AC Schnitzer send some e30 DTM BMW M3 to the ATCC. They were raced by Team Tony Longhurst racing, they needed only 2 races to get into the BMW e30 M3(small light 4 banger n/a / coming from heavy V8) at season round 5 they beat the "famous" R32 GT-R Godzzila with their small RWD n/a 4 banger BMW M3 with little bit more than 300hp vs a AWD 500plus hp "monster" Nissan GT-R... at the end of the season the M3 finished 3th overall beating one of the R32 GT-R and that with no long season preperation.
If the manufactors racing at the same time the DTM would have send their cars to the ATCC they would have completely destroyed the Godzilla and it would have never become any sort of a famous car.
Racing the ATCC is a cheap way to look like a dominating manufactor..
Instamatique 12:12AM (12/08/2007)
It appears that the GT-R is already gunna be at Targa Tasmania: http://jpcnews.blogspot.com/2007/11/r35-gt-r-to-compete-at-targa-tasmania.html
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Risk 6:12AM (12/09/2007)
It was only banned when they brought in the "Australia only" policy, where cars had to be built (and developed) in Australia.
Another factor in the removal was the wide spread dislike by fans, as they preferred to watch the "traditional" Australian brands of Ford and Holden (GM to Americans) racing.
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EMC 8:07PM (12/09/2007)
unfortunately for all us Australians who arent interested in V8 taxi racing :(