gp900

As far as i know COTF has no specified capacity limitation but they have proposed a parity development system for a range of capacities. The only requirement is that it be a naturally aspirated V8. The aim was to open the field up to the Euro marques selling hipo V8 sedans. The race car must be 4dr body with RWD and have the external appearance of the street car. The chassis, floor pan, steering, suspension, brakes, gearbox, wheels, tires, aero, etc. are all control so the racing will remain very competitive. More importantly it will also remain very affordable and relevant, costing < $250,000 per car. Nissan currently run two very successful NA V8 racing powerplant programmes, one in partnership with Zytek. All the series they currently take part in use fairly aggresive intake restriction to limit power output, this means that V8SC will be the first time we see these powerplants opened up. From what I recall the Nissan/Zytek VK45 is capable of 580Nm and between 600 and 700hp (unrestricted) depending on race length. The VK56 obviously takes that further and you could run similar power at a reduced cost with increased durability. With Ford's involvement sitting precariously at the moment, the departure of one make (in a two make series) will sound the death knell for the series. COTF is their strategy for obtaining much needed diversity in their investor pool. There really is no other path to take without killing the series. I'm looking forward to the 2013 season. I suspect there will be some interesting reactions from the fans and one or two news making moments if Nissan makes it to the podium.

It's called providing context. Yes, it may be the case that that company is responsible. The majority of the GT-R's transmission woes stem from under-engineering not poor build quality. Ask the gents over at Willall about their experiences with the unit. That doesn't mean that the company doesn't know what it's doing. It's entirely plausible that they were working under a tight budget or time frame (which is likely given the price target for the GT-R) or that they had communication issues with Aichi. Remember these are the same folks that designed the MDCT unit for BMW and programmed the Veyrons gearbox. Both are projects which have turned out quite well.

If I'm not mistaken, the GT-R's gearbox was designed mostly in Australia, by a small Sydney based design house that is a subsidiary of Borg Warner. They were the ones who designed and patented the Dualtronic technology that BW now owns. They were also responsible for programming the Veyron's gearbox for Ricardo. The GR6 is built in Japan by a subsidiary of Nissan and apparently there was some degree of co-operation during the design. The 'new' Nissan corporation has adopted this distributed engineering model for most of it's new cars. It's purely a cost based decision. Manufacturers have had to change the way they do everything to survive in this market.

What's truly amazing here is that the GT-R is 1 whole second slower than the new PDK turbo over the 1/4 mile drag. That's one whole second !!! The GT-R is heavier, less powerful, has narrower tires and one less ratio. Going into a track comparison with those specs, you'd expect it to be slaughtered. And yet not only does it keep up, it goes on to win. Just mind bending !!!

I caught of an interesting tire setup i've not seen before on an R35.You get a good look at the wheels/tires from about 3:00. These seem different, yet again, from the latest Super Taikyu GT-R's wheel/tire setup. Can't find any info on the net though.

I got that too. He made a fairly good getaway down the straight only to almost run off the road at the end because he wasn't paying attention to what's in front. Apparently one of the GT-R punters comments that "he's going to kill himself". He's also using some fairly defensive lines and running wide on the exit. I get the feeling that there has been some fairly intense rivalry between these two drivers.

2800 lbs vs 3900 lbs through the corners at Mugello. Ferrari's finest vs a Nissan. Who will win? Both cars are stock.

V8 Supercars are genuine race cars. They have no relationship to the road car what so ever. The fact that they look similar is almost purely coincidental. Yes they do start out with a road car but the amount of chopping and custom fab that goes into them is genuinely staggering. The front ends are hacked and replaced with custom suspension geometry, as is the rear, and there is one monumental buttress fitted to the rear end to handle the massive power levels. Their floors are completely removed and replaced with custom built in house jobbies. The driver's seating position is moved almost to the middle of the car and the race engine is moved much further aft than the road car. On top of that, this years 888 falcon did not share a single external panel with the road car. The Ford and Holden stickers are there for little more than sponsorship. That Holden and Ford can claim victory for the hard work that each individual team undertakes is nothing short of a joke. Anyway, add slick tires and closed loop chassis tuning and there is no chance that any road car will ever keep up.

Them is some pretty hopeless lap times for an R35. Was it raining? You will remember that Luff ran a Bathurst lap time in a bog stock Aussie R35, wearing Bridgestones, on a damp track, requiring him to brake and lose 50km/h before entering the chase. He still ran a 2:25. What gives? I would expected better from a stock GT-R, let alone a race prepped one.

Both laps were driven by the mag editor, Horst von Saurma as is normal for most Supertest laps. Sportauto's numbers for the 911 turbo make the whole Porsche/Nissan debarcle even more interesting. Acceleration 0-100km/h: 3.8s 0-200km/h: 12.6s Nordschleife Straight Vmax: 282km/h Lap Time : 7:54 (!!!!!) and this particular 911T that Sportauto received was shod with Pilot Sport Cups and PCCBs

c/o nagtroc Results: ZR1 (GT-R) Acceleration 0-100km/h: 4.0s (4.1s) 0-200km/h: 11.4s (13.1s) Nordschleife Peak lateral g: 1.6g (1.45g) Straight Vmax: 288km/h (276km/h) Lap Time: 7:38 (7:38) Note: The GT-R is 10-12km/h faster than the ZR1 through difficult technical sections just not on the straight.

I've seen a very interesting pattern of results with GT-R reviews. Journos typically have no idea how to drive the car and are instantly deflated by the fact that you can't go fully sideways like you can with a VN commodore. On the other hand professional racers (particularly those from a rally background) thoroughly enjoy the GT-R's dynamics and actually find the car to be quite a handfull at the limit. Both Millen in the US and Ordynski here in Oz have produced faster laps in the GT-R than the GT2 and both found the GT-R to have a shitload of dynamic presence at the limit. It is a complete misconception that the GT-R drives itself or is easy to drive at the limit. That misconception comes to you courtesy of Journos who percieve tire smoke and sideways action to be an indication of real perfomance. Journos are simply not capable of taking the GT-R to 10/10ths. So don't expect great results or great reviews from them.

Pop quiz: Who was the Australian journalist that interviewed the Porsche 911 product chief, August Achtleiner, and subsequently published a scathing article which accused a certain other manufacturer of fabricating lap times and created one of the greatest shit storms in all of automotive history?

True dat! R32's broke plenty. It's just that very few were ever left in stock configuration long enough for people to remember. I'm willing to bet solidly that the vast majority of the R32's touring car success in Oz was due to Freddy Gibson's remarkable re-engineering of the GT-R rather than any inherent over-engineering. These are teething problems and the aftermarket (and hopefully Nissan) will soon develop ways to overcome them. Racing is the best way to discover a car's weaknesses.

I'm curious about this also. I know that the weight is near stock (!), wheels and tires (RFTs !!!) also definitely stock. The suspension was stock at previous events but not sure about this one. Brakes can't possibly be stock, can they??? Speed limiter obviously removed. The exhaust is definitely not stock, at Rally Tas it sounded like some sort of giant monster was trolling the Tassy woods, it's roars echoing through their valleys.