Watch Out, Nordschleife: Nissan Launches 2012 GT-R

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: November 7th, 2011

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.

watch out nordschleife nissan launches 2012 gt r

“We have a car that has the potential to go from 0-100 km/h (0-62mph) in under 3 seconds, lap the Nurburgring in less than 7 minutes 20 seconds, and cruise at speeds of 300 kilometers per hour,” said Chief Vehicle Engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno.

And just in case you missed the subtle hint, Nissan will also sell you a “For TRACK PACK” (get it?) that was jointly developed with the NordRing (get it?) company in Japan. The pack ditches the rear seats, lightens the weight further with lighter aluminum-alloy wheels and gives the car a stiffer suspension.

The current Nordschleife lap time of the GT-R stands at 7:24.22. At “less than 7 minutes 20 seconds,” the GT-R would have to hustle to upset the Nordschleife production model ranking. Discounting the barely street legal and not quite production cheater models by Radical and Gumpert (read race cars with blinkers attached), there is ample competition amongst the bona-fide production cars, notably the Dodge Viper ACR at 7:12.13, the “Nürburgring Package” Lexus LFA at 7:14.64, the Porsche 911 GT2 RS at 7:18, and the Chevrolet Corvette at 7:19.63 – just to name a few.

Once the weather at the Ring gets halfway predictable again, look forward to a high intensity race, of which most manufacturers claim that it doesn’t exist.

#BertelSchmitt #GT-R #Japan #Nissan

Bertel Schmitt

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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3 of 13 comments

RRocket on Nov 07, 2011

Whether you like this car or not, you really have to hand it to Nissan for the continuous improvement on this model. While other sports car makers "changes" are colors or different option packages, Nissan is really driven to make this car better and better with each model year. Bravo Nissan!

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TonyJZX on Nov 07, 2011

i also wonder how much nissan are spending on this and if they actually make any money... i get the feeling this ia a giant money sink for Carlos Ghosn and they only do it because they can and its a 50yr tradition all the while Toyota try to snow us under with teasers like the LFA/FT86 etc. Nissan just make it happen

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- Bumpy ii on Nov 07, 2011
  
  Nissan sold the old GT-Rs below cost, one of the reasons why Carlos Ghosn is running the company now.
  
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