2007 Tokyo Auto Show: 2009 Nissan GT-R in Red

The prize for the most surreal pre-show show went to Nissan, which unveiled the new GT-R in a hastily modified underground car park. So much has already been said and written about this car that the unveil was hardly a shock, but Project Chief Kazutoshi Mizuno still had some interesting nuggets to share. Plus, we got to see the supercar in red.

Much is being made of the car's lap time at the famous Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany... Mizuno claimed a time of 7minutes 38 seconds, compared with 7:43 for a Porsche 911 GT3 and 7:32 for a Carrera GT, but he was anxious to point out that there had been "two wet patches on the circuit." Indeed, he mentioned the "wet patches" so many times that you wondered why Nissan simply hadn't waited for a dry day.

Mizuno reckoned that a time of around 7:30 should have been possible in the dry, but that going much faster would have required hand-cut slicks, which isn't "real world." Bizarrely, Nissan admitted to having different test drivers for different lapping. While Chief Test Driver Toshio Suzuki operates in the 7:30-7:40 range, his right-hand man is a 7:40-7:50 man. It's amazing how much the "Ring vernacular" has entered the Japanese psyche.

The GT-R engine will be built in a clean room by a single craftsman, which will limit production to just 1,000 units a month, split among Japan, Europe, the U.S. and the rest of the world. Given that the GT-R promises 911 Turbo performance for Carrera money, we expect to see some frustrated customers at Nissan dealers when the car goes on sale in the U.S. in June 2008. "Instead of asking why our cars are so cheap, ask why our competitors are so expensive," said Mizuno, who revealed that the first GT-R had already been delivered to Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn.

The old R34 GT-R was famed for its easily accessible oversteer, but all the videos of the car from the 'Ring suggested a balance tuned toward understeer. "You cannot compare the old with the new," Mizuno told me. "We have a new control logic to turn the car. This is a supercar you can drive in the snow and the rain. When there were wet patches on the Nurburgring, there was no sawing at the wheel. This is not a maniac car for a limited audience." Whether this has compromised one of the old car's more amusing characteristics remains to be seen.

One other intriguing snippet of information came from the GT-R's chief designer, Hiroshi Hasegawa. I asked whether there had been any plans to produce an Infiniti GT-R and his answer wasn't totally dismissive, admitting that, "going forward there might be some discussions."

Hasegawa also revealed that the blacked-out A-pillar and sloping cabin are "a symbolic theme" that we'll see on other future Nissans. -- Alistair Weaver, European Editor

• Permalink | Comments (2)
•     
• Posted by: October 23, 2007, 11:42 PM
• Categories: Nissan, Tokyo Motor Show