Nismo GT-R Aims To Snatch The Burgerkingring Crown
If you haven’t read the first-ever Road & Track Performance Car of the Year story, I would highly recommend reading the Baruth-penned story, which gives any British buff book a run for its money, despite a dearth of derring-do heroics on Welsh backgrounds. Some of the most illuminating information comes not from the Disco Hoodied One himself, but from other R&T staffers. Take this choice quote about the Nissan GT-R for example:
There’s a lot of chuckling in the paddock over the blue seats and odd Track Edition badging on Nissans newest GT-R, but on the runway, it’s serious business. It’s also damn near the fastest car in the test. “It’s so good — and it used to be so terrible,” says Cammisa.
Wait — what?? The GT-R was terrible? If it was, I never heard about it in the press. At the time, it was hailed as the greatest thing on four-wheels, a Porsche 911 Turbo beater for half the price. Nobody truly figured out a way to use “the wobble” and tell you that the generous discount meant an utter lack of charm or drama, and that the GT-R was just a away for quantitatively-oriented Playstation nerds to extrapolate their video game experience into the real world. Or perhaps they did now, since the statute of limitations on criticizing a very important product launch has passed.
Now Nissan is introducing a “Nismo” version of the GT-R, which can supposedly hit 60 mph in 2.5 seconds and lap the Burgerkingring in 7:08 – figures that mean nothing outside of masturbatory bench racing, but make for great copy for the myriad automotive news aggregation sites that will breathlessly report on its mere existence.
More by Derek Kreindler
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My hunch about the GTR (never driven one) is the electronics can do a lot to create wonderful neutral handling when you're driving at 80 or 90% of the limit on a public road. Presumably by grabbing the inside rear brake to help turn-in. I'm sure this is an amazing system. But when you're driving at 99% of the limit at the track, the way this car looks on paper is going to much more closely match how it feels. It's a very heavy, and nose-heavy car with 55/45 weight distribution. There's just no way that isn't going to feel awfully understeery when you get the front tires working at their maximum.
The next GTR should be a remote control drone.
"but make for great copy for the myriad automotive news aggregation sites that will breathlessly report on its mere existence." Irony?
So many people fail to understand the meaning of the GT-R even now. It has NEVER been about being cool or fun to drive; it was never designed with the idea that it would win the undying devotion of anyone who ever sat in the cockpit and blasted off the line or into a corner. And it was never supposed to be the end-all, be-all of toyz 4 gamerz. The GT-R is a monument on wheels...that's all. It is a monument to human accomplishment via unbelievably efficient mechanical engineering. The biggest disappointment I've ever felt about the car was when its sticker price crossed the six-figure barrier...the idea being that a car that performs that well can be offered for less than $100.000.00 and will skin anything costing up to three times as much was the appeal. Any criticism for a "lack of soul" or "lack of human connection" is stereotypical auto journalistic crap that fails to appreciate the car for what it is while trying to assign fault to it for it being something it isn't.