Autoblog

Photo by Mary Seelhorst

Slightly over shadowed by all the drama surrounding the Vanishing Point Dodge Challenger, Car and Driver competed in the 2008 One Lap of America event behind the wheel of a stock Nissan GT-R. Typically a magazine editor going for an extended joy ride in a pre-production sports car isn't expected to severely push the vehicle's limits, which is why Tony Swan cruised to a decent 11th place overall finish in the event. Not a bad placement, but also apparently not good enough for some, as interested internet anti-fanboys have taken the opportunity to criticize the car based on its performance in the vent. However, the negative commentators neglected to take into account the seriousness of the top vehicles and their veteran drivers.

After spending one-on-one quality time with the GT-R, Mr. Swan also sings a slightly different song than some. He agrees that it is blistering quick, but maybe not as easy to drive as some have lead you to believe. The wide open track at Road America let Nissan's lovechild stretch its legs, but scaling down the venue did not directly translate. The Bridgestone run flat tires and inherent low speed understeer were a handful in wet and tight corner conditions. Perhaps it might have behaved the same way at the autocross venue, but lack of cone dodging experience (or more likely the lack of cones to dodge) led to a DNF for the car in the parking lot event. The drag strip also unveiled the GT-R electrical system's lack of launch control intuitiveness, as quarter mile staging methods interfered with the system's engagement. Despite a few difficulties, in the end the car was praised for its comfort level and ample luggage capacity for the week long journey. Thanks for the tip, Rexhavoc!

[Source: Car and Driver]

Click above for a huge, high-res gallery of Rd. 3 of the '08 SuperGT season.

After previous incarnations of the Nissan GT-R ran away with successive JGTC titles, Japan's GT Association decided to inflict "success ballast" on race winners in an attempt to level the playing field (i.e give Toyota and Honda a chance).

As the current GT-R race car is built to 2009 Super GT specifications, the GT-A handed it a weight penalty of 50kgs added right from the start of the season. After winning Round 1 in Suzuka car number 23 had to carry an additional 50kgs at Round 2 in Sugo, which it promptly won anyway. Then thanks to also setting numerous fastest laps and other speeding offenses it was deemed that Benoit Treluyer and Satoshi Motoyama's ride would have to port an massive 200ks (440lbs) of ballast at this weekend's race at Fuji Speedway.

That presents a couple of problems. Firstly, where the heck do you safely stow 200kgs of lead? And would the car meet GT-A regulations even if Nissan found a way to do it? The ruling body's compromise was to give the car a 115kg penalty and fit a stifling restrictor to the GT-R's air intake. That knocked 30kph off the GT-R's maximum velocity at the end of Fuji's 1.5km straight, and in the words of Benoit, "Gives us no chance at all."

Follow through the jump to find out if he was right, and to find out how Lightning McQueen faired in GT300 after qualifying on pole yesterday.

The Nissan GT-R's 7:29 lap record won't stand for long if Chevrolet has anything to say about it. Speaking with InsideLine, Corvette Chief Engineer, Tadge Jeuchter, says that the ZR1, "will be able to take the production-car track record at any racetrack," and that although Chevy doesn't have a production version of the uber-Vette at the Nurburgring yet, they're expecting a lap time of "seven minutes, twenty-something seconds." That sounds like smack-talk to us. But while the ZR1 might have the potential to best the GT-R's 'Ring time, the 550-600 hp elephant in the room is the forthcoming GT-R V-Spec, which is already putting down (roughly-timed) laps around the North Loop in the 7:25 realm. Let the battle begin. We're making popcorn now.



[Source: InsideLine]

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Nissan GT-R in action.

While sitting through what felt like the longest press conference ever before we got some seat time in the Nissan GT-R, one of the engineers on hand mentioned that Godzilla's suspension would be tweaked for the U.S. market. When asked why, the response wasn't entirely clear, so we assumed that the changes would be made to adapt the GT-R to our less-than-perfect road surface. Apparently, that's not the case.

The suspension revisions, which involved modifying the spring rate by 0.1kg/mm to make the GT-R's coils a bit stiffer, will be accompanied by three harder engine mounts and a firmer transaxle mount that limits movement of the engine and gearbox under cornering forces. However, these changes aren't just for vehicles bound for Stateside consumption. The tweaks have also been implemented on the latest batch of JDM vehicles and are going to be ported over to the UK models when they arrive next year. While the changes are minimal, it's proof that Nissan's engineers are dedicated to improving every facet of the GT-R to ensure that it remains on top. Or, to quote the GT-R's chief vehicle engineer, Kazutoshi Mizuno, who spoke with Car, "The GT-R is my son... a son grows up and it's my duty as father to keep improving it."


[Source: Car]

Click above to watch Jay Leno enjoy his time with the Nissan GT-R

Autoblog is brimming with proof that Jay Leno is the luckiest car guy in the world. His legendary garage is only attainable in our wildest dreams, so when something like a Nissan finds its way (temporarily) into his stable, it deserves note.

The latest installment of Jay Leno's Garage is dedicated to the Nissan GT-R, with the late-night talk show host poring over the details and grilling Nissan's product planner, John Weiner, on what makes the GT-R special. The range of topics includes all the stats you've already memorized, Nissan's efforts to quell GT-R tuning and Leno's immeasurable joy that he can check the dipstick himself. Leno maintains that it's a vehicle he could get "emotionally involved with." We agree, so without further ado... Mr. Leno, the floor is yours.

Make the jump for the latest installment of Jay Leno's Garage.



[Source: Jay Leno's Garage]

With all the news surrounding the Nissan GT-R V-Spec, the progress on the Godzilla tuning front has been largely overlooked. According to a recent article in Japan's BestCar magazine, the Amuse team has broken the 600 hp mark (at the crank) with a combination of a high-flow exhaust and a tweaked ECU. There were no details on how the GT-R's computer was hacked, but Amuse was able to up the boost to 18 psi, resulting in an increase in output to 602.73 hp and 576.95 lb.-ft. of torque.

However, tuners are beginning to question how the stock gearbox will hold up under the strain of additional output. MCR, which brought out its GT-R for filming of Hot Version 93, has been exacting its own brand of punishment on its tuned GT-R and is worried how long the transmission will last. It's not clear if the tranny woes are due to the clutch plates or something else, but it's been all but confirmed that dual-clutch gearboxes have an issue with additional torque since the friction surface is much smaller than on a stock (read: single plate) clutch. MCR's best guesstimate is that the stock 'box might only be able to hold up to the additional power for 12 months before problems begin arise. Now, we're particularly interested in how Nissan is beefing up the tranny on the V-Spec to handle its rumored 600 hp.

[Sources: GTRBlog, NissanGTRProto]

Thankfully we can officially report that the humongously ugly rendering of a GT-R based SUV, which appeared in Best Car's early February edition, has no basis in reality. Reliable sources, both at Nissan's HQ in Tokyo and at the company's development center in Zama, who typically answer questions with non-committal "can neither confirm nor deny" statements, were adamant that no such project exists.

With the GT-R snatching the Porsche 911's crowns left, right and center, and the upcoming new hardcore Z rumoured to be a Cayman eater, Porsche can relax in the knowledge that the Cayenne, at least, is safe for now.

If we were in charge of Tokyo's inner city expressway we probably wouldn't use the Shutoko racer's favorite weapon of choice to promote safe driving. Scratch that, we probably would, but we're amazed that the owners of the Wangan got themselves a new GT-R to publicize their current Tokyo Smart Driver Campaign.

If the fact that this R35 will spend its life pootling along the highway at 80km/h doesn't make you sick to the bottom of your stomach, the Tokyo Smart Driver website certainly will. Truly vomit worthy.

Thanks to PLR of Le Blog Auto for the tip!

From the Mustang to the Viper and Veyron, Hennessey Performance has spread its abilities across the performance car spectrum. And with hi-po vehicles like the IS F, ZR1, and GT-R on their way to buyers' garages, John Hennessey says he is working on packages to make all of those cars even higher-po.

The IS F looks to be the first in line, with the experiment subject arriving at Hennessey's shop next week. The car will be a test bed for "headers, exhaust and air induction systems first. Then maybe a blower." He's also got his eye on the baddest boy Corvette ZR1, for which his website advertises "700+ HP coming soon!" The physics-defying GT-R is in the crosshairs as well, and if he can make it better than it already is, that would be among the best testaments for his services.

Coming down just a notch -- but still up there -- the Cadillac CTS-V and Camaro will get their chances for glory as well. While all of this sounds great, what we really hope is that none of this extra work causes Hennessey not to give us the Venom. That's the package we are truly dying to see.

[Source: Inside Line]

Click on image above for a high-res gallery from our GT-R First Drive!

Nearly 700 Brits plunked down pre-order deposits of £3,500 (about $7,000) within the first 48 hours of Nissan's hot GT-R going on sale, proving demand for the latest Japanese supercar doesn't seem to be diminishing. Customers in the UK don't seem to be deterred by the GT-R's base sales price of £52,900 (about $105,000), or the fact they won't see delivery until March 2009. After our "First Drive" in the GT-R, you won't see us ridiculing frenzied buyers...

[Source: Nissan UK]