TTAC's Wilkinson to Review Nissan GT-R
In early April, Nissan is blessing me with a GT-R for five days for my Conde Nast Traveler “Great Drive” articles, and a review on this website. My hotshoe daughter (also a Traveler editor) and I will be departing Lake Tahoe after the car's press introduction, bound for Lost Wages and, if possible, some empty desert roads. The press event will include some serious track time. In their initial e-mail invitation, Nissan said– politely enough– that they realized writers like me weren’t buff-book semipros. Yet they're so confident that the GT-R is the world's safest and most controllable supercar that they're letting us loose on a closed ciruit. (I immediately got on my high horse and told them Brook and I run a well-modified 911SC track car, so there.) I asked the Nissan press rep if we should bring our helmets. She said no, not needed. Porsche is the only other automaker I know that allows the press to tackle a track sans helmet. The German automaker believe that helmets bring on "the red haze;" that drivers are safer without them. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see if the GT-R's electronics make travel-magazine editors, beauty-and-fashion writers, movie reviewers and other can’t-drive-a-stick scribes from the non-automotive press into track demons…
I'm the automotive editor of Conde Nast Traveler and a freelancer for a variety of other magazines as well. Go to amazon.com and read more about me than you ever wanted to know if you do a search for either of my current books, "The Gold-Plated Porsche" and "Man and Machine." Been a pilot since 1967 (single- and multi-engine land, single-engine sea, glider, instrument, Cessna Citation 500 type rating all on a commercial license) and I use the gold-plated Porsche, a much-modified and -lightened '83 911SC, as a track car.
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I actually hope it only sells in adequate quantities. I'd like it to depreciate like a normal car so I have a chance at owning one that isn't 5 years old.
Where is this press event in Tahoe being held? South Lake Tahoe or north shore? I'm in Sacramento and would love to check it out in the flesh.
To echo most of the other posters, YOU LUCKY SOB. You may be even luckier than Sajeev Mehta because he only had the Ferrari 430 for a short time, whereas you get the GTR for five whole days and with track time. Don't hold back in the review. If it doesn't have adequate hp or torque, please let us all know; so, we won't waste oru time finding and buying one. :-)
Need someone to see if the back seats fit adults on long trips? I promise not to ask "are we there yet" except I might ask "is it my turn yet".