Nissan's Super Ricer On Its Way
Nissan will finally unleash its upgraded GT-R. It will be available in Japan next month. NA and EU will be graced by it come February. It’s leitmotif: More power, less filling.
On the outside, the GT-R looks like any old GT-R. On the inside lurks a 530 horsepower engine, up from 485. Outside changes were only made to reduce drag. As a result, (Japanese standard) fuel economy has improved to 8.5km per liter, a whopping 0.2km increase.
In Japan, the rambunctious ricer will set you back $106,000 to $192,000 (at today’s dollars, who knows how much 15.75 million yen will be when the cars is released Nov. 17 in Japan.)
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I thought Pontiac design the most hideous, and was glad to see them leave the scene because of it. But when it comes to a complete lack of aesthetics, no one can seriously beat the Japanese.
"Ricer" is a perjorative term that pokes fun of the fact Japanese eat a lot of rice. If the car actually ran on rice ethanol, that would be a different story.
In the USA it will set you back around $80K. As such, you will see yourself coming and going just about every day. I do like to drive them, but they are even more ubiquitous than an Audi R8, or a stinkin' Gallardo. One needs to buy an X-Car if one wants more exclusivity....
An X6M, mayhaps? One of the few cars out there that's even more computer-driven than the GT-R. Ubiquituous or not... they're only common in comparison to other "supercars/super-coupes/sportscars/whatever-the-heck-you-classify-it-as"... they're still expensive performance machines.