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boosted to 404 kW of power, up from 390 kW at 6,400 rpm, and an increase in maximum torque to 628 Nm from 612 Nm, which comes in between 3,200 and 5,800 rpm. While there’s an obvious bias to performance to save fuel around town, it cycles through its six gears before it gets to 55 kilometres per hour, which means it barely gets above 1,500 rpm. It’s almost as if it’s sleepwalking.
Nissan’s GT-R is mind-blowingly quick off the mark and astonishingly agile, yet it has four seats and a big boot. By Peter Arnold
T
he Nissan GT-R has been taught some manners. It no longer behaves like a neurotic pit bull when you try to park it—straining at the leash, and jumping at the slightest touch of the accelerator. But make no mistake, it’s still one of the most brutal production cars on the planet. It will break your neck and mince your kidneys if you let it—and you will come back for more. It’s just that the new model will smack you about more politely.
It is an all-wheel-drive suburban supercar that will fit your golf clubs and your shopping, then take you home with neck-snapping acceleration and mix up your innards on our appalling roads. Nevertheless, you’ll be able to spot a GT-R owner a mile off. He’ll be the one with the stupid Joker grin. He knows he can get in his car, go for a blast that will set his pulse racing, and come out the other end singing an operatic aria. Motorcycle riders get it—that sense of exhilaration that comes with blistering speed and outrageous handling.
Motorcycle riders get it—that sense of exhilaration that comes with blistering speed and outrageous handling.
“All people have the right to enjoy a supercar and supercar performance,” says GT-R developer Kazutoshi Mizuno. “All people, anywhere, any time. Before, the supercar was a very closed market. I wanted to open the market up. Big boot. Accessible performance. You can drive my car at 186 miles per hour with your wife. Before GT-R, it was a dream. After GT-R, the dream was real.” But there is a view that the GT-R is ‘just a Nissan’, and that it lacks the obvious passion and the finesse of the European supercars—which flatter the driver with a big dose of ego stroking—but Mizuno has the answer for that. “GT-R is a car that represents Japanese culture,” he says. “There is nothing else like it, nothing to
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Understand that and you understand this car. Mizuno has been on a mission to improve the GT-R, not just tweaking the cosmetics, but genuinely making it better with each iteration. And he has succeeded each time. “For GT-R, one person builds the entire engine,” he says. “One person builds the entire transmission. On each hand-built engine, there is a plaque with its builder’s name, so our customers know who pieced it together. By only using one person, the GT-R’s engine is built within much finer tolerances than by using traditional workstation methods of construction. GT-R is unique.”
The GT-R has been developed with outstanding handling
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In other words, the GT-R is not modelled on a European fancypants exotic that’s sent out the door with one or two big blunders; it’s an expression of the precise and uncompromising Japanese character.
It ain’t sexy, it ain’t cute, it ain’t even pretty. In fact, it’s dripping with testosterone and looks like it has anger issues. From the massive exhaust pipes to the huge brake calipers tucked behind the massive 20-inch wheels shod in tyres specially formulated for the car by Dunlop, this is a vehicle that looks as if it could take on the entire union movement and not take a punch.
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touch it, and its evolution is a slow and deliberate one.”
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The GT-R is not modelled on a European fancy-pants exotic that’s sent out the door with one or two big blunders; it’s an expression of the precise and uncompromising Japanese character.
characteristics and blisteringly fast performance that, surprisingly, always feels safe; and the 2013 model is definitely the best yet. Put aside for a moment the fact that it gets from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in an eye-popping 2.8 seconds from the 3 seconds of the previous model and consider how it has been made better. It’s still almost race-car rigid, but that’s what it needs to be called a supercar, which can be defined as a sports car whose performance is dramatically superior to its contemporaries. In fact, it is so well balanced you can be one of Mizuno’s ordinary human beings and drive it like you are Mark Webber. Ironically, the jarring has been tempered by changes to the chassis, steering assembly, centre of gravity, and body rigidity that supposedly make it handle even better at supersonic speeds. How that has made it a nicer suburban car is a bit of a mystery, but it has. And the need for speed has brought changes to the 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V6, which has been
That’s until you sink the slipper and it’s like you’ve woken the kraken. Inside, it has four seats, the rear two of which can fit adults, but they would be uncomfortable over any distance; a really nice Bose sound system; and a carbon-fibrefinished centre console. The main touch screen has navigation, sound, reversing camera, phone, and a host of readouts of everything from turbo boost to cornering, acceleration, and braking G forces in a format created by the designers of the Gran Turismo video game. The front-seat occupants get really nice leathercovered Recaro seats with heating. For the first time, Nissan is offering a black version, with carbon-fibre rear spoiler, red and black interior treatment, and super-lightweight, six-spoke black racing wheels for an extra $10,000 or so. If you still don’t understand what makes this car so wild, check out the YouTube videos of people experiencing the GT-R launch control for the first time.
The Car Nissan GT-R: $172,000 Luxury pack, which includes amber-red leather seats, interior colour coordination, and black roof trim: $5,000 Prestige paint finish: $1,750 Total: $178,750 (excludes on-road costs)
The CEO Magazine - August 2013
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