There’s a disclosure at the bottom of this article; read it if you are interested in disclosures — JB
The Nissan GT-R is very fast. The Switzer P800 variant of the GT-R is even faster. On Ohio-style 93 octane fuel, the car will spin the rollers of an AWD dyno for well over seven hundred wheel horsepower. It so happened that a Switzer customer was willing to let me drive his car for a few days. What follows is sure to upset those who are easily upset, so if you think your tummy might not be able to handle stories of outrageous acceleration and on-road speeds, now’s the time to not click the jump.
As I make a left turn out onto the, er, closed course, I am doing ten miles per hour. My friend is holding a Flip camera — not to show anyone the video, but for timing purposes. I floor the throttle. For a moment, there’s no exhaust noise, only a “whoosh” from the spooling turbos. Then the sound starts. It’s like no street motor you have heard. Imagine putting your head into a hornet’s and hearing it agitate at an ever-increasing pitch. Think Senna-era McLaren TAG. It’s simply a head-swallowing angry buzz. Three times there is a shift, an instant drop of revs accompanied by a brief pressure-relief from the turbos that vibrates in my chest. Nine seconds later, the in-dash Polyphony Digital readout passes one hundred and twenty miles per hour. That’s fast enough. From a “dig”, the car would be even faster, since it would have a chance to build boost and pressure before launching past the timing beam and eventually clearing the quarter-mile mark in slightly over ten seconds.
In all other ways besides the engine tuning, this GT-R is completely stock. Still, it has the attitude of a “tuner car”, from the astoundingly poor ride to the herky-jerky motion with which the clutches engage at a stoplight. This ain’t no Volkswagen DSG. Nor is it the Ford Fiesta’s PowerShift, which almost perfectly imitates a torque-converter transmission. No, this car requires practice and delicacy to leave a light without bucking away. It’s noisy in the cockpit and although the comprehensive electronic gauges indicate that the transmission temperature isn’t even on the scale yet, there’s heat radiating from the center console.
My favorite CD of the moment, Linda Dachtyl’s “For Hep Cats”, doesn’t shine on this sound system. Take any comment ever made by some smug, tweed-jacketed audiophile about the Lexus LS “Mark Levinson” installation, reverse its meaning, and you will have an accurate criticism. “The imaging is surprisingly un-reminiscent of the best medieval churches’ sound stages, adjusted with a tasteful placement of acoustic tiling.” I just made that up, but it’s true.
Once again, the Japanese have mistaken steering weight for steering feel. The GT-R’s steering is heavier than that of a Porsche GT2 but doesn’t provide anything like the same information. Most annoyingly, the shifter paddles are fixed to the column. This is THE WRONG WAY and there can be no argument about it. Drag racers won’t care, and neither will the shuffle-steering hacks who make up the ranks of most “time attacks” both here and overseas, but it will cost a true racer somewhere critical tenths of a second. Those tenths, and more, can be made up with the insane tenacity of the Nissan’s all-wheel-drive system. It’s simply impossible to upset the car without resorting to come-and-show-me stupidity. Full-throttle before the midcorner? Happy to do it! Allow me to cut torque, grind the outside wheel, then throw power to the back while you flail away at the helm!
The same shifter motion takes the transmission in and out of automatic mode, but it doesn’t really matter. Look for the “A” or the “M” on the retro-charming dashboard gear indicator. Even in manual mode, the GT-R will sneak gearchanges in on you. It won’t let you sit at a light in fourth gear, and if you floor it from idle in fifth there will be a quick, helpful downshift before the boost hits and catapults you into Slovenia.
I’d expected the bigger turbos, fuel injectors, and ECU tuning to kill fuel economy, but the GT-R recorded a rolling 30.5mpg doing a cruise-controlled 67mph on I-71. Pull the left-side paddle three times, grab third, and floor the throttle. There will be a cloud of smoke behind you as the computer dumps fuel to keep up with the boost. This is Hayabusa-style pull, minus the aerodynamic difficulties faced by a sportbike in triple digits. When you finally cut throttle, five-foot flames will burst from the titanium exhaust, scorching the bumper and terrifying any traffic that wasn’t already paralyzed by the wake-creating discrepancy in speed between you and everybody else.
This, then, is the classic “ten-second car” of Fast and Furious fame. It generates well over 1G of accelerative force (according to the helpful dashboard display) and makes any back-road pass child’s play. Nothing can catch you, nothing can touch you. With the Toyo R888 tires fitted by Switzer’s more aggressive customers, you can even eviscerate Miatas in the midcorner before lighting their windshields with flame and disappearing from view like the Millennium Freaking Falcon. Over a standing mile, it will destroy the Ruf Yellowbird, and around a road course it can toy with NASA American Iron racers.
I stepped out of the GT-R and back into my Boxster. It felt like a toy; light, insubstantial, easy to steer, easy-riding, quiet, cheerful. And slow. Oh, how slow. I now understand why recovered heroin addicts still yearn for the needle. Give me that ultimate power. Give me the hornet buzz and the instant shift. And damn everything else.
Disclosure: The question I am asked most often by readers, after “Who the **** do you think you are?” is “What do you do for a living?” Does it really matter? Isn’t it enough that I am passionate about cars and discussing them with you, the reader? Does it matter if I’m a janitor (which I’ve been) or a hereditary Saxon Baron? In this case, however, I am forced to tell you, because there’s an ethical issue at stake. I am currently employed in a sales capacity by Switzer Performance in Oberlin, Ohio. For that reason, I’m not totally impartial about this car, any more than the guys from AutoWeek would be impartial about the Mercedes SLS after being all but fluffed by Mercedes-Benz PR people during the Chicago Auto Show.
Oh, and thanks to my son, JCB III, for being the model driver!
Shorter version – Jack is ready to ride the needle for the power rush despite pointing out a lot of livability issues – transmission, shifting ergonomics, sound system, steering feedback.
You should do a review of a Hefner Gallardo, although I’ll bet it lacks the supercomputer levels of overriding control of response documented in Godzilla reviews.
Uh, why, no, I can’t stump one up for you.
Love your style Jack!
But seriously, what is the point of this car on a public street? And if you want to go fast on a race track, isn’t something like a Formula Ford a better way to spend money?
On a racetrack, there are many ways to go faster for less money, with more involvement.
On the street, this is about the fastest all-weather device money can buy. Whether that’s a useful thing is open for debate. :)
Jack, is that actually you in your avatar? I used to see these commercials for accelerometers that would measure 0-60, wheel hp, cornering, etc, and they always had this super-serious badass dude, with the quintessential “I’m paid to drive fast, and I look it” long hair and goatee, looking purposefully at the device and standing impressively next to his car.
I always saw those and thought, “Man, nobody actually looks like that in real life” – but perhaps I must now stand corrected.
For what it’s worth, my avatar is not me. Just to clear it up.
The GT-R is unquestionably a technological tour-de-force. But does all this applied technology leave the car with a soul? “Soul” meaning that hard to define relationship between driver and machine that just feels right, in all situations, for year and years on end?
Would a GT-R owner end up tired of all the electronic wizardry, or could this car engender a life-long feeling of respect and passion for driving?
Heh heh… Millennium Falcon. Nice.
I saw this video recently and it strikes me that SOME folks should not be driving the GT-R on track. The driver in this video is one of them. Why, because he either wasn’t looking ahead far enough to be driving a car capable of the GT-R’s closing speeds or because he is too eager to pass three cars at once (Thinks he is racing at an HPDE?). Just because you have all of the power necessary to attempt asshatery on track does not give license to do so. I’m pretty sure he drops two wheels at ~114mph then doesn’t pit-in, I don’t think he was even flagged for it (crappy flagging).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ3BRRRbM2M
I’ve also seen a GT-R being driven in a timid manner by an intermediate student.
So we’ve had a CTS-V and a GT-R review within roughly the same day. I’m sure it was fun reviewing cars most of us will never be able to afford in our wildest/wettest dreams, but how about throwing us lowly, common folk a bone?
Hot Rod: “Hey Kup. Don’t you think we have better things to do than to sit around and tell old stories?”
Kup: “Like what?”
Hot Rod: “Like, figure out how to rescue our friends and then save Cybertron?”
Dinobots: “No! Quiet! Tell story!”
Every time I come to TTAC I hope there’s a review like this mixed in with the other articles.
Baruth, you did not disappoint!
Jack,
+1 on your disclosure. We’ll never be friends, but I enjoy your writing, I admire your chutzpah, and I’ve even learned something by reading your stuff. Please keep doing what you’re doing in your own idiosyncratic way. I’ll never own or drive a GT-R, a Boxster, or a Caprice bubble-wagon, but I still enjoy reading about your experiences with them.
More, please.
stuart
Like I am of many reviewers on TTAC, and many B&B, I feel humbled and awed by Jack’s lifestyle…and guts.
I’m full of envy!
Jack…I would love to be your friend but am not worthy.
Much too great a coward.
I could never even be a passenger in your car! Although I love to go fast, I avoid theme parks…and you live like that’s all life is!
I guess that’s why I got an MKS with ecoboost.
Steady, fast…but still not on the edge.
It seems once the kids came along, Good Time Charlie shaved his beard, threw away the stash box and became the cornerstone of the family.
Thank you for letting me live vicariously through your escapades and adventures.
@TrailerTrash
Don’t be so quick to envy. I live a different life than Jack, but similar in risk (financial/career/etc, not safety) and uncommonness. To give an example, tomorrow I’m going to get paid to fly to Spain for a week, and attend the Valencia GP in the Ferrari VIP area. But I would much rather stay home, hang out with my son, and work on some custom furniture for my home theater.
High-flying, exciting work is usually only high-flying and exciting from outside; travel and special treatment gets normal very rapidly. The career itself can still be rewarding, but it’s not the obvious things (driving crazy cars, or flying around the world and hanging out with GP drivers) that make it so. Often those things are the worst part.
I think I’m envious of PeriSoft now!
For the record, that *is* me in the avatar, but it’s meant to be ironic. Except for the G’n’F’n’Rs shirt. I take my admiration of Slash very seriously. :)
Good answer on the avatar – since I always found the aforementioned ads to be somewhat absurd, it seems you achieved your aim!
As for jealousy… well, my point exactly. I’ve got a 22-month-old son who learns 5 words a day. A week is a lifetime for him right now, so do I prefer watching the grand prix in person, alone, or watching it on TV with my son in my lap? You only get one guess.
It’s a conundrum, though. Taken as a whole, traveling like I’ve done is amazing. It’s given me a perspective on the world that very few people get, and I wouldn’t want it to all vanish. But it’s not without cost.
And then, of course, there’re the hidden costs – long hours, huge risks, plowing all your money back into your business. Everybody wants to be their own boss, but the invisible part of the iceberg is tough to handle. Just like everyone wants to be Michael Schumacher – but how many would be ready to be working out at 4am every day and do thousands of miles of grueling, boring test and development for every podium jump? Not many, I bet.
PeriSoft
It was really light hearted.
I do know fear, as I hate public speaking more than death itself…but it is/was part of my former career.
Once during an presentation, I actually hurt my lower back from muscle contraction!!!!
But again, that was doing something awful yet never really loving it.
Racing cars, going real, REAL fast has always been a secret thrill. But I have a built in limiter that seems to come on before the glory.
It’s part of my “Go For It…but be very, very careful!” make up.
Drinking has really helped…
No, this car requires practice and delicacy to leave a light without bucking away.
Like the 350Z, then.
i’M WAITING TO DRIVE THE cts-v COUPE.
Great writing Jack.
Someday I’ll have the means and proper car to look you up for a track lesson or five…
So who is it who gets taught to shuffle steer?
I think I had to for the British driving test thirty years ago, and then had to unlearn it at Lotus.
See, I don’t get that. It didn’t occur to me that people got taught to steer at all – it seems fairly self-evident. With a street car it’s not so much -whether- you shuffle steer; in most cars sharp turns would require joint-separating contortions. So, it’s about what your trigger point is – for me that’s when I get to about +/-70 degrees if I’m just lallygagging around, +/-90 otherwise. But even then I’ll keep one hand at 3 or 9 so I retain physical continuity.
I never really considered that people might do it differently. Are there people out there who start shuffling at 20 degrees, or something? You’d think that would be exhausting…
Greg, it’s a dig at Toshio Suzuki. I planted a seed of doubt in Jack’s mind and now he’s going to try and slay this dragon in every review.
I know nothing about racing technique. However, being old enough to have driven full-sized American cars without power steering (muscle power steering is what me and my friends called it) — in fact, having learned to drive on an International Harvester pickup truck — I can say that the engineering technique used to make these vehicles driveable by anyone other than a gorilla was to greatly increase the number of steering wheel turns lock-to-lock. The mechanical advantage of such “low-gear” steering reduced the level of effort required to something within the capabilities of the average woman.
As a result, being able to turn the steering wheel within a 70 degree arc — without taking your hands off the wheel — was simply inadequate for normal driving, leave alone parallel parking. People were taught the shuffle technique to avoid getting their arms crossed up or otherwise confused about which hand to reposition on the wheel at what time while making — say — a 90 degree right or left turn.
If I recall correctly, only certain lightweight sports cars — the Triumph TR4 and the Fiat 124 Spyder — had fairly quick non-power assisted steering. Also, all of the rear-engined VW products and, of course, the rear-engined Porsche. Of course, the relatively quick steering ratio, light front end, the jacking effect of the swing axle and the relative high center of gravity meant that a lot of rookie VW Beetle drivers rolled their cars at surprisingly low speeds and not while hooning around either.
Apparently, the technique lives on, even though the need for it has long since passed.
As an aside, my own personal experience is that the non-assisted steering in the Porsche 356 was about as sweet as it gets in terms of being “right” in every sense of the word.
You haven’t lived until you’ve driven a 10-ton truck without power steering.
Nice “impartial” review, Jack.
And this is from the guy who was left a bit cold by the very same car the last time he drove it…
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/review-switzer-performance-p800-nissan-gt-r/
But then, I guess absolute power corrupts absolutely. Who cares about steering feel when the steering wheel is only there to keep you from falling out of the car through the rear window at full speed? I assume with an unbuckled belt and 1g of acceleration that’s possible? ;)
Again, excellent fun, Jack. Will Switzer send you racing in their car? Time Attacks (with some suspension work)?
A bit of a different take?
http://www.speedsportlife.com/2009/04/20/avoidable-contact-26-eight-hundred-horsepower-and-one-little-question/
Interestingly enough, it was that initial on-track exposure to their car that led to me starting with work with Switzer a few months ago. Speaking personally, I prefer the P800 Porsche GT2 :)
This has been an interesting transitional year for TTAC. The mission seems the same, just on a different course. BTW, my avatar is not me, either.
This sounds like a rich Tuners’ or collectors dream car, ideal for the Nurburgring, autobahn, racing on closed tracks, desert sheik highways, etc.
But, our Oregon roads would destroy this car in a week. Fanboys would use jaws of life on my garage to ogle it. Driving in parts of our fair city, Portland, and stopping for very long would entice swarms of human cockroaches from alleyways, tools in hand for a quick disassembly and parts resale.
Lately, I’ve been watching youtube videos of rich russian oligarchs racing their P800 down sparsely trafficked stretches of highway. The P800 will apparently walk a Hayabusa and a ZR1 ‘vette, while giving a Veyron some trouble. Power at a price point that isn’t unobtainable!
About the shift-paddles being fixed on the column, aren’t they also the same way on Ferraris, and other exotica? It seems like Germans will fix them to the back of the steering wheel, so I’m not sure what drives the decision on where to place them.
Another great story Jack! Although it’s unlikely I’ll own a GT-R of any stripe, I do like the imagery of bathing people’s windshields with flame… the closest I’ll get to that at the moment is to stick a spark plug in the tailpipe of the Jeep…
I was at a HPDE a few months ago and there were three GT-Rs (but I do not believe they were Switzer tuned). Anyway, two of the cars each died on the track, had to coast to the side, turn off and wait for a few minutes to restart. Software problem perhaps? Aftermarket tuner chip problems? Overheated turbos force an engine cut off? Me and my 25 year old track car happily motored by. Sort of like Peugeot at Lemans this year: being fastest is nothing without reliability.
Since getting involved in this business I’ve come to realize how difficult it is to tune a GT-R.
Anybody can turn up the boost and spin a dyno, but those cars tend to falter in the real world.
The GT-R requires aggressive management of transmission, clutches, and heat during high-speed operation. Switzer makes the same power out of the Porsche Turbo motor with much less effort, because the stock Porsche block (pre-997.2) is so robust and the transmission itself is both simple and strong.
Cute little man in the driver’s seat Jack.
How you find time to take photos at National Trail Raceway?
that for sure is in Hebron….
As a former single turbo Supra owner, I know exactly what Jack is talking about. That sucker-punch of explosive power as the turbo(s) spool never gets tiring, never gets boring. The ferocious way speed builds is truly intoxicating and addictive. Every car you drive from now on (even world class cars) feel slow in comparison and feel as though they are lacking…something.