Nürburgring Rapid Response Nissan GT-R: World's fastest fire engine
Nürburgring Rapid Response Nissan GT-R - click above for high-res gallery
If there's one performance metric that's pure marketing hype, it has to be a vehicle's Nürburgring time. Our good pal Jack Baruth brilliantly debunked this ever-growing myth. In case you missed Jack's article, here's the gist:
"Sorry. There's no "Nürburgring lap time record" for a simple reason: Real lap time records are set by real race cars, using real timing and scoring equipment, during actual competition or sanctioned practice sessions. They aren't "self-reported" for the same reason the World's Strongest Man Contest isn't held by having everyone mail in their "results" because people can, and do, lie and cheat."All that truth spoken to power, it's still accurate to say that certain cars generally tend to get around Green Hell faster than others. The big players lately have been the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, Dodge Viper ACR, Porsche GT2 and Godzilla, better known as the Nissan GT-R. All four of these cars can scoot around the Nürburgring in 7:30, maybe a squidge faster. Again – it really doesn't matter. But one of the reasons why automakers play up these 'Ring times so much is that the Nürburgring is regarded as one of the most difficult and challenging strips of macadam anywhere – for both car and driver. To rephrase that, there are lots of accidents.
Meet the Nürburgring Rapid Response GT-R. The back seat has been removed to make way for a tank full of fire-retarding foam. The firehose itself is in the trunk, along with other flame-fightin' gear. And because the Rapid Response GT-R will be hustling round the 'Ring nearly as fast as Toshio Suzuki would flog it, there's a roll cage and carbon fiber Recaro race seats. Almost makes us wish we were German firemen. Almost.
Gallery: Nurburgring Rapid Response GT-R
[Source: Nissan Sportz via GT-R Blog]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Aki 8:14PM (8/03/2009)
Why would you even quote some po-dunk, unknown site? Who the heck is this e-dweeb Jack Baruth? His basic pretentious rant is "Edmunds got it all wrong, I'm right! RAWWRR!" Why should we take some nobody on some unknown site's word as being truth? So while he trumps himself up as being somehow above "journalistic stupidity," he makes himself look like a 14-year old buffoon. Gimme a break.
Oh wait, Jonny Lieberman posted this story, figures. I don't know if Baruth is your bedroom buddy, but try quoting something a bit more noteworthy than some random site claiming it's better than all the "real journalists."
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TimO 8:39PM (8/03/2009)
Why not try evaluating the logic of someone's argument on its own grounds?
The irony of pretentious rant of a comment complaining about what you see as a pretentious rant of an article is rich like whole milk and Oreos.
Aki 9:08PM (8/03/2009)
I don't esteem myself to be better than Edmunds or "real journalism" like Jack does, so I don't see how my comment is pretentious at all.
If you want to evaluate logic of his rhetorical diatribe, here goes:
"Nissan’s stroke of marketing genius in 1996 was to realize that they could attack those “official times” using a completely different methodology." ...But Nissan ran 'ring lap times since the inception of the R32 in 1989. Whoops, Mr. Nobody should do some research.
"Porsche happens to have all of the above, so it’s not really a surprise that they have, at long last, decided to enter the Nurburgring publicity game with a bang. [in context to ZR1, ACR lap times]"
At "long last" Porsche entered the Nuburgring publicity game... in 2009? You serious Mr. Porsche fanboy Jack? Gee, that'd be true except Porsche had been bragging about its 'ring times for a lot longer. "It’s important to note that Porsche rarely, if ever, publicized its lap times"--yeah, never publicized their times or anything.
1997: Porsche 911 8:28
1999: Porsche 911 GT3 8:02
1999: Porsche Boxter S 8:32
2004: Porsche Carrera GT 7:28
And so on and so on. They didn't "at long last" enter the race, they entered it a long freakin time ago. Not to mention all the factual inconsistencies/errors, there's also countless logical fallacies and flubs throughout the article.
I don't care that these kinda of trash op-eds exist. But don't bring them into Autoblog. Stop doing your "buddy" favors.
Jonny Lieberman 11:29PM (8/03/2009)
For the record, Jack and I sleep in separate beds
Boudu 1:04AM (8/04/2009)
Jack Baruth is a mouth-breathing troll. He's also well known to hate the GT-R because it trounced the Teutonic equivalents on the Ring. He also frequents a bunch of forums and generally trolls with pro-Germanic zeal.
The real issue with Ring times, is exactly people like Jack and Autoblog. Yes, they are marketing tools, and, yes there are a million variables that go into a track time; it may not be necessarily indicative of the relative performance of the car. But the internet and blogs have reduced every news piece about potentially multi-dimensional news like track times to be flattened and reduced (with snide remarkes) into one paragraph so it can be consumed by the short attention-span of net surfer.
gp900bj 1:50AM (8/04/2009)
Yeah, What gives? I don't see what JB's little tantrum has to do with an article about a Rapid Response vehicle. Did the fire crew claim to run a 7:2x lap time?
Seems like every Journo feels like they need to push their own agenda when it comes to the GT-R. I read Baruth's article a while back. I've never in in my life read a more bitter and hostile composition on uninformed nonsense.
I recall his claim that Horst von Saurma could only obtain a 7:50 lap time from a "real production GT-R" and that the major rags somehow failed to report it.
Which is interesting for two reasons:
1) Because the 7:50 lap time was set in September 2007, 3 months before JDM GT-Rs went on sale, 9 months before USDM GT-Rs went on sale and 1.5 years before Euro GT-Rs went on sale. So yeah, the innuendo was lost on anyone even remotely educated ...and ..
2) HVS has since run a 7:38 lap time in a Euro Spec GT-R (yes a real production spec Euro GT-R, in June 2009) and he believes there are a few seconds left in the car. Making the GT-R +16 seconds faster than HVS' time in the 911 turbo, despite being significantly slower than the 911 down the main straight.
The real irony here is that JB has "failed to report" HVS' new result himself.
Perhaps Liebermann could invite JB to take his place at Autoblog and give us a nice write up on HVS' Supertest?
Aki 4:00AM (8/04/2009)
That's the thing, JB's article has NOTHING to do with the posting itself. It's basically Jonny whoring out his GT-R-trolling buddy for additional exposure, which is ridiculous.
greenchile505 10:39AM (8/04/2009)
Thanks for the flesh-out folks.
Autoblog: -2
Adam Bruce 8:15PM (8/03/2009)
Very cool, very smart. Get the safety equipment to the accident faster before the situation degrades even worse. The bit about ring records is a a bit off subject though, would have preferred more information about the car instead.
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zamafir 9:43PM (8/03/2009)
x2
Josh 8:16PM (8/03/2009)
I wouldn't mind being a firefighter in godzilla...
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artandcolour 8:31PM (8/03/2009)
look! they've made selections in Photoshop!
that's what the dotted lines look like to me.
i'm liking black wheels more and more.
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TimO 8:33PM (8/03/2009)
Are they about to apply a filter to most of the car, or the inverse?
Personally, I'd copy/paste.
artandcolour 9:28PM (8/03/2009)
they better feather it if they want it to blend and look better.
helixdaunting 8:30PM (8/03/2009)
I can't wait to see what their ambulance looks like. :P
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RWD 1:11AM (8/04/2009)
If you took a Panamera Turbo and pulled out everything rear of the front seats, I bet you could fit a stretcher in there. That qualifies as an ambulance right?
Then you just need an extra set of emergency vehicles for when the first set crash because they are racing to see who can be first on the scene!
directjunkyard 8:34PM (8/03/2009)
That's a cool car. I wish there will be less accidents now. Junk Car
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Lemon 8:46PM (8/03/2009)
This reminds me of the movie scene where the kid pretends to drown so the hot lifeguard will give him mouth to mouth....I think I'm going to go to the 'ring and light myself on fire now...
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LesPaul1 8:53PM (8/03/2009)
So you can get mouth to mouth from the big strapping firefighter.
You're sick.
JSams4131 10:43PM (8/03/2009)
Sandlot..awesome movie!