The Truth About The Nurburgring
Published: November 24th, 2008
Share
The Porsche vs. Nissan catfight over Nurburgring lap times has done more to publicize both company’s products than anything else. Besides, as Chris Harris of Driver’s Republic puts it, “Nurburing lap times… say far more about the conditions of the track and (fortitude) of the driver… than they do the vehicle in question.” Still, Harris was drawn to recreate the battle, pitting Porsche GT2 against Nissan GTR on the Nordschleife. Driver’s Republic presents the experiment in its online-magazine format, which brings high-quality photos, video, words and telemetric data together in one highly entertaining read. Check it out.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
Comments
Join the conversation
The Mistress is the dominant partner, with the slave being subordinate. Thus, the analogy to Posrche's dominance, especially in light of brake fade on the Nissan's part, is an apt one (at least in my brain). I understand, and agree completely, with your notion of competing in racing to realy test both cars out fully. I'd love to see a Dakar prepped verson of each head out across the desert too, but I already know who would win that as well. My reasoning for handing both the GT-R and the 911 Turbo to Sabine would simply be to add another level of comparability and consistentcy to the 'ring equation. Not that lapping the 'ring is a good inicator of the car's overall competitiveness. I would think that she could get a better level of consistent performance from each car, due to her intimate familiarity with the track, and at the end of the day we could put this silly thing to rest. Mind you, I'm sure that even after she wrung the best out of each, there would still be argument from both sides.
Does anyone understand that Nissan has already won by having the GT-R in the same sentence as the 997 GT2 arguably the best 911 ever made? Brakes: For the price difference you could have a $100K racing braking system installed on the GT-R and still come-in under the GT2. Racing reliability: Maybe with the GT1 block (996 & 997 Turbo, GT2 & GT3) but the M96 block in the price comparable GT-R vs. 1999-2008 911, is no Honda.
Rant over