Autoblog

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.

Lightning McQueen came home 13th in his first race in the Japanese Super GT-300 Championship, one place ahead of new rival, Speed Racer Mach Go Go Go.

The rookie, who looks suspiciously like last year's Team Toy Story APR Toyota MR-S, has apparently been lured away from The Piston Cup by a company that makes products under license of Pixar and Disney. No matter, my three-year-old was beside himself with joy when he saw number 95 hit the track, and I suspect he was not alone.

14th pace finisher, the Mach Go VEMAC 320R (below), is far from new to Super GT's 300hp class, but may get a little more attention internationally once Speed Racer is released Stateside.

click above image to view more high-res pics of the 2008 Nissan GT-R

During the live unveiling of the Nissan GT-R, CEO Carlos Ghosn made hints at Nissan running the GT-R in Japan's Super GT series. While it was pretty inevitable the GT-R would eventually be unleashed on the racetrack, it was unknown how long it would take before cars were constructed and tested. Today Nissan announced the NISMO entry of a GT-R in the GT500 class for the upcoming 2008 season. It has been four years since Nissan last ran a GT-R in this series. They have since been running V8 powered 350Zs. The Super GT GT-R's technical details will be released during a NISMO press conference in February. Since the 350Z underwent an incredible transformation when built for Super G it will be very interesting to see how the new GT-R will appear with some added diffusers and canards. Follow the jump for the official press release.

[Source: Nissan]

Click the image above for a high res image.

If you haven't had the opportunity to check out the Japanese Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), or as it's now referred to, the Super GT series, you're missing out. Supras battle NSXs, Zs and Imprezas. Lamborghinis take on Ferraris, Porsches and GT-Rs.

There are two classes GT300, for vehicles producing 300 HP, and GT500 for vehicles that are making, you guessed it, 500 HP. Both groups attack the same course at the same time, which makes for some of the greatest wheel-to-wheel touring car action in the world. Back in December of 2004, GTLIVE convinced the organizers of the JGTC to head east for an exhibition run at California Speedway in order to gauge interest in the sport Stateside. It was one Hell of a show, but at the end of the day, the sanctioning body of the JGTC didn't feel it was worth the effort to come back the following year.

Follow the jump, for more on the V8-powerd NISMO 350Z, a pic of the engine and the full press release.