My experience with the original Switzer P800 GT-R was so impressive that I ended up working with the company briefly in 2010 before the 246-mile daily commute started to get a bit tiresome. Naturally, they waited until I was out of the building before completing a GT-R with a staggering one thousand horsepower measured at the wheels.

That previous milestone now looks, shall we say, conservative.

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Nissan appears to be preparing for another go at Germany’s Nürburgring. The time around the Nürburgring Nordschleife, the northern loop of the iconic Nürburgring racecourse is widely regarded as benchmark for speed and handling of a sports car. Nissan is emboldened by the performance of the new GT-R sports car, which its Chief Engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno showed TTAC last weekend on a track behind a Nissan factory in Oppama, Japan. (Read More…)

Nissan announced a refresh of its GT-R supercar today.  Engine response in the mid- and upper-rpm ranges was improved using  high-output injectors and changes in the  turbocharger. The car’s center of gravity has been lowered, body rigidity has been enhanced, shock absorbers, springs and front stabilizer have been tweaked.  Racers can now use Motul Competition Oil. (Read More…)

Your humble author was charmed by the regular Juke when it debuted, but the Juke-R is a very different animal and it costs about twenty-five times what the standard Juke does. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any customers…

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Sajeev,

Great analysis of the GT-R.  Slow day at work, so I decided to cut a few inches out of the middle as you suggested (maybe more than just 2″…).  Please excuse the crappy “MS Paint” editing and my poor editing skills… but I still think the profile looks so much better.  Like a real super car.  And it eliminates the fake fender vent! (Read More…)

Circa 1998, I was mentally ready to move from the (lower-middle class) suburbs of Houston to the College for Creative Studies’ (CCS) dorm in the heart of Metro Detroit. Oddly my big surprise came not from Detroit itself, but from the dorm’s many Sony PlayStations…and something called “Gran Turismo”.  I knew about the Nissan GT-R, but I was like every other kid playing this amazing game: absolutely blown away by the GT-R’s prowess.

That said, I raced all CCS’ contenders in “arcade mode,” in the big block ’67 Corvette.  With the most power and the easiest to rotate chassis, I wasted most of my Japanese car loving dorm mates. The GT-R was/is rarely my weapon of choice in Gran Turismo. Which kinda explains my general apathy to the GT-R in the flesh. (Read More…)

I’d like to lend you a car for the weekend. It’s going to be sunny, and you can head off early before the crowds get out. Take a nice road-trip: maybe, as I just did, blast up the Sea-to-Sky and into the rolling foothills beyond the Pemberton Valley.

Your choice, take anything below.
Car A: 0-60mph in 5.3 seconds
Car B: 0-60mph in 5.7 seconds
Car C: 0-60mph in 5.3 seconds
Car D: 0-60mph in 5.7 seconds
Car E: 0-60mph in 5.6 seconds

So, what did you pick? Click the jump to find out.
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Not to have another stab at the best “production, street-legal” Nordschleife lap time.  That’s not why they are trading the chilly Eifel for balmy Yokohama. Allegedly, Nissan does not want to work on the 7:24:22 lap time.

Instead, says GT-R program director Kazutaka Mizuno: (Read More…)

Yesterday, the new 2012 Nissan GT-R landed on rank 10 of the fastest Nordschleife lap times. The only problem is: Nissan knows absolutely nothing about this record run. As far as Nissan is concerned, it doesn’t exist, and there is nothing to say. (Read More…)

Nissan today released the 2012 model of its super car that is not only for the super rich, the GT-R. This is not a pre-announcement of what will be shown at the Tokyo Motor Show a few weeks from now. According to Nissan, the car “goes on sale in Japan on November 24 at Nissan dealers nationwide.”

The 2012 model has more power (550 hp, nominal), more torque (632 Nm), and uses a bit less gas (8.6 km/liter or 20 mpg, definitely non-EPA).

Unofficial acceleration times, measured on Sendai Highland Raceway, November 3:

• 0-100km/h: 2.8 sec. 
• 0-60mph: 2.7 sec.

With the 2012 GT-R, Nissan most likely will have another go at the Nordschleife. Nissan certainly dropped ample hints during the launch. (Read More…)

Today, I drove all 530 hp (more or less) of the 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged 24-valve V6 engined Nissan GT-R down their test track in Oppama, not too  far from the U.S. Yokosuka Navy base, home of the 7^th Fleet. In a way, car, neighborhood and situation reminded me of the nuclear weaponry: Have it, but don’t use it. (Read More…)

You may not care very much when U.S. News ranks the $84,060 Nissan GT-R “2 out of 8 Super Luxury Sports Cars.” The thought might cross your mind that with a paltry $84K price, it can hardly qualify as a Super Luxury Sports Car. But you will take note when Top Gear runs the car around its airport-cum-testtrack and … (Read More…)

Nissan does not condone the comments made by this particular employee. While seemingly well-intentioned, many of the remarks are regrettable and do not represent the company’s views. Nissan’s policy regarding internet commentary is that an employee’s personal opinion must be preceded by a disclaimer that identifies their remarks as such and not necessarily the views of the company.

Ruh Roh!

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