Oh man, this is getting ugly. After Porsche’s Turbo and GT2 lost their fastest ’round the ‘Ring record to the Nissan GT-R, the German automaker was… skeptical. So they bought a GT-R in the U.S. and ran the Nürburgring to verify their Japanese rival’s claim. And so they didn’t, failing to get within 25 seconds of GT-R’s ‘Ring highly hyped lap time. Porsche attributed the GT-R’s triumph to non-standard tires, which would nullify the Nissan’s “fastest production car” lap record. Cornered at the Paris Auto Show, Nissan’s European spokesman Neil Reeve said “Quite simply we’re not going to get into a war of words with Porsche.” And then did exactly that. “The final word from us is that it was done on absolutely standard tyres which are available to customers in the showroom. They’re not trick tyres – absolutely standard tyres, normal road tyres. The GT-R comes with Bridgestone and Goodyear (Dunlop). One tyre gives slightly better times around the ‘Ring. We did it on Dunlop. They’re available with the car.” When car.com.au‘s Andrew Heasley pushed him for an explanation, well, read between the lines. “We absolutely maintain (that) Tochio Suzuki – the chief test driver on the GT-R program pounded thousands of laps – he got to know every inch of Nurburgring (circuit) and how the car performs on the Nurburgring and hence set that fabulous lap. More than that, I can’t speculate. I can’t explain why they couldn’t match the time.”
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In Nissan’s defense, I wonder if the GT-R was fully broken in before Porsche attempted their laps?
Still, here’s a great solution: Porsche should invite the GT-R development driver to drive the Nissan that Porsche bought. See what lap time he can get out of that car and compare!
Then, just for sh*ts and giggles why not put him in a Porsche Turbo or GT2 and see how well he does… I’d like to see THAT on YouTube.
Nissan must be having a party right about now. All of this hysteria from Porsche is giving Nissan lots and lots of free advertising.
Not only is this getting ugly, but it’s just plain silly.
But Nissan will certainly benefit from the free advertising courtesy of Porsche.
Porsche should give me a GT-R to take around the track.
I bet I’d do an even slower lap. No matter what tires they put on it.
Awww snap! You got served. Now it’s on!
Hey, Porsche: if you give me a shiny new GTR and Nurburging access, I can probably post numbers several clicks South of Nissan’s claims, thus bolstering your case. Care to give it a whirl? The Stig I ain’t, I promise. But I can lie about that bit in your inevitable press releases.
Wow…this is getting ugly.
Ugly? nahhh, FUNNY…
Let me get the popcorn.
Still, where is my ZR-1?
LEAVE PORSCHE ALOOONE!!!!!
Anyhow, isn’t it an unwritten rule of business that you don’t draw attention to your competitors? Or something like this will happen, free press for Nissan with the upshot being Porsche looking like an internet troll.
I remember hearing that somewhere.
Hey Blunozer and DETmktingprof, I’ll go you one better. If Porsche gave me the GT-R to lap the ‘ring with, I bet I can put up a DNF!
I agree with Nissan on this one. For a high-horsepower car with complicated all-wheel-drive like the GT-R which requires a special technique to run fast, you need to run hundreds of laps before you can fully exploit the car. And that’s if you’re a pro. The rest of us will never approach those times.
I raced front-wheel-drive Hondas and Acuras in the SCCA IT classes for a decade. I am 100% sure that if I was given the opportunity to run a hundred laps at the ‘Ring, I could set some sort of FWD record in my old race prepped Integra GS-R. I’m also 100% sure that if I was handed the keys to the GT-R, I could probably NOT get it below an 8-minute lap because I am just so unfamiliar with that car.
See my point?
Dear Porsche,
By engaging Nissan in this fashion, all you are doing is acknowledging the GT-R, and admitting it is a (more than) ligitimate competitor to your 911 Turbo – or even 911 GT2.
That notwithstanding, there will be GT-R people, and there will be 911 people, nothing will change that. All your bitching manages to accomplish is make the GT-R crowd that much more resolut about which car they want to own.
In other words: I am even more excited to soon own a car that scares the crap out of Porsche.
Oh god, what a bunch of cry babies we have in Germany of lately! For the love of Christ get over yourselves already and get back to work IF you want to remain on top.
More to the point maybe, just maybe the GT-R simply has better balance than your “ass-engined Nazi-slot-car”.
Porsche, you only look bad sticking your own test driver into someone else’s car and than coming up with results that do not come close to any of the other result put up by the many organizations that have tested the GT-R.
You guys at Porsche are starting to look rather jealous and scared of a little ole Nissan!
Nissan must be having a party right about now. All of this hysteria from Porsche is giving Nissan lots and lots of free advertising.
The only people who will hear about this are gearheads like us who read blogs like this. We already know about the GT-R. We already know about the GT-R’s smokin’ hot ring time. We already know about the pissing match. Porsche calling out Nissan is a ho-hum chapter in this little car-nut soap opera and won’t net a + or – in either brand’s camp. If you are a Nissan guy, you are laughing at how pissy Porsche is being while Porsche guys are basically calling BS on Nissan. The band goes on.
Maybe Porsche will come out with a GT2 Cayman to improve their lap times. Its just a suggestion.
Still waiting for them to take a Corvette ZR-1 around the track.
Still waiting for them to take a Corvette ZR-1 around the track.
They did, and it pulled a 7:26.4 lap time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordschleife_fastest_lap_times
SAAB95JD : I thought the exact same thing.
I say hand both cars over to Sabine and let her rip both cars around the track on the same day.
None of them (Nissan or Porsche) talk about the ZR-1 Corvette…..
Like the last poster stated, why the hell hasn’t Porsche challenged the current production car record? Either Porsche is way behind the times or they’re obviously not seeing eye to eye between the GT-R and the ZR-1.