# Nissan GT-R SpecV Tsukuba Circuit Laptime - First Independent Test Results



## [email protected] (May 16, 2003)

The Japanese press have finally got their hands on the production Nissan GT-R SpecV this week and they’re wasting no time in putting it through it’s paces on the circuit. Today we’ve learned that Best Motoring have had Tsukuba Circuit to themselves for the day as well as a SpecV GT-R. Put that together with tame racing driver Keiichi Tsuchiya and good weather and you’re set for an interesting afternoon.

Sources close to Best Motoring have given us the SpecV’s time and instead of keeping you all waiting like we love to do we’ll give it to you straight… 1:02.4.

Unfortunately this means it’s slower than both the 2009 and 2008 base GT-R at the same circuit in similar conditions. Here’s how the SpecV stacks up against the most recent base model GT-R taken from the current issue of Japanese mag Car Top:

MY08 GT-R (JDM - December 2007 delivery): 1:01.888 
MY09 GT-R (JDM): 1:01.343 
SpecV GT-R: 1:02.4 
On a short circuit like Tsukuba the times should be close together but the SpecV should be in front, it should be 1:00 flat. So this begs the question: What’s the deal? We’re really hanging out for the April edition of Best Motoring DVD to find out more.

Photo: © GTRBlog


Makes me feel a little bit better that i missed out buying one


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## peterpeter (Feb 24, 2008)

was vdc on or off?

If it was off all laptimes are invalid AFAIC.

Sorry, being petty.


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## EvolutionVI (Sep 6, 2005)

Maybe they didn´t use the VDC off switch to not void the warranty(sorry,couldn´t resist)


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## peterpeter (Feb 24, 2008)

EvolutionVI said:


> Maybe they didn´t use the VDC off switch to not void the warranty(sorry,couldn´t resist)




there is a point in this though.

If all the lap times are set without vdc...it totally invalidates them for me.
However, seeing as they wont even warranty the car on track anyway, I guess it makes bugger all difference.


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## sumo69 (Mar 31, 2008)

EvolutionVI said:


> Maybe they didn´t use the VDC off switch to not void the warranty(sorry,couldn´t resist)


Or its pre track inspection wasn't carried out to optimise for track use?? (couldn't resist either!)

D


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## EvolutionVI (Sep 6, 2005)

another option is,a Porsche Testdriver drove it


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## Rich001 (Jul 13, 2008)

It can't be slower. On this occasion maybe but it just can't.


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## DCD (Jun 28, 2001)

Funny, when I drove it last week I found it pretty quick....:thumbsup:


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## ATCO (Feb 2, 2003)

Yes, Dino. But yours didn't have FOUR overfed press guys in it like this did!


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## aferx (Oct 4, 2005)

Here’s a video of the spec-v from best motoring but dont know what track it is but it is faster than the MY09 GTR


Here’s a link 

YouTube - NISSAN R35 GT-R SpecV


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## kornmonkey (Jan 29, 2006)

As per usual, these times mean nothing, because they are performed by muppets from a magazine.
Using the same rationale - if I had a go and took 15 minutes to get around in an Enzo, would that mean it was slow?

Didn't think so.

:runaway: :chairshot :runaway:


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## ATCO (Feb 2, 2003)

Strange sort of muppet:

"Put that together with tame racing driver Keiichi Tsuchiya and good weather and you’re set for an interesting afternoon."


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## Rich-GT (Apr 2, 2008)

Final nail in the coffin for being an overpriced waste of money. Fantastic colour though, what the "Black edition" should have been.


Rich


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## Lith (Oct 5, 2006)

Thats very interesting, I'm sure there will be more to this..


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## kornmonkey (Jan 29, 2006)

ATCO said:


> Strange sort of muppet:
> 
> "Put that together with tame racing driver Keiichi Tsuchiya and good weather and you’re set for an interesting afternoon."


I wasn't saying the driver was a muppet. I was talking about the magazine people who compare randomly accomplished times. I bet the previous car was driven by a completely different driver. 
It's like comparing your best time in a GTR versus my best time in a SpecV. 
I suspect you have clocked a lot more track time than me and ought to be much quicker in both


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## DCD (Jun 28, 2001)

Some pix of my drive here...


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## sewid (Sep 2, 2005)

kornmonkey said:


> I wasn't saying the driver was a muppet. I was talking about the magazine people who compare randomly accomplished times. I bet the previous car was driven by a completely different driver.
> It's like comparing your best time in a GTR versus my best time in a SpecV.
> I suspect you have clocked a lot more track time than me and ought to be much quicker in both


This statement is not logical.

Someone who drives a base model GT-R faster than Tsuchiya drives a SpecV is clearly not a muppet.

As for other factors such as track condition and temperature, well the tests were within days of each other on a completely dry track.

I think the comparison is fine but there are factors not mentioned such as what tires are used in each car. I failed to mention it because I cannot confirm it right now. I will do so when I get some time and perhaps it will go some way to explaining why the SpecV was slower than the base GT-R.


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## NickM (Oct 25, 2003)

lol, first reply is about VDC  They should rename this the VDC Forum.

Nice pics Dino, looks


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## kornmonkey (Jan 29, 2006)

sewid said:


> This statement is not logical.
> 
> Someone who drives a base model GT-R faster than Tsuchiya drives a SpecV is clearly not a muppet.
> 
> ...


I think I've just spotted one - or did you mean to type a colon after the word logical?


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## peterpeter (Feb 24, 2008)

NickM said:


> lol, first reply is about VDC  They should rename this the VDC Forum.
> 
> Nice pics Dino, looks



true, but seeing as Nissan have seemingly bullshitted their customers over this, its no surprise.

ALL the laptimes. especially those tests comparing the car to porsches mean nothing, because the porsches are still warrantied on track (as long as there is no serious abuse--Ive been tracking porsches for 10years+...no warranty issues at all. Problems have always been resolved) and there is no pre-post inspection, and reduced service intervals. There is also no warranty off when tc/pasm is off. All this garbage is designed to put owners off tracking their cars...its pathetic.


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## NickM (Oct 25, 2003)

peterpeter said:


> true, but seeing as Nissan have seemingly bullshitted their customers over this, its no surprise.
> 
> ALL the laptimes. especially those tests comparing the car to porsches mean nothing, because the porsches are still warrantied on track (as long as there is no serious abuse--Ive been tracking porsches for 10years+...no warranty issues at all. Problems have always been resolved) and there is no pre-post inspection, and reduced service intervals. There is also no warranty off when tc/pasm is off. All this garbage is designed to put owners off tracking their cars...its pathetic.


It's to cover their ar*ses and to make money. Not saying it's right or wrong, just the way it is.


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## tokyogtr (Feb 14, 2008)

DCD said:


> Some pix of my drive here...


how were the brakes?


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## Howsie (Feb 25, 2002)

NickM said:


> It's to cover their ar*ses and to make money. Not saying it's right or wrong, just the way it is.


And it would imply that the car is not up to the job...


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## NickM (Oct 25, 2003)

Howsie said:


> And it would imply that the car is not up to the job...


I can't help but feel the pre/post track day inspections are a mix of extreme cautiousness and a cheeky cash in.

The whole VDC/warranty thing is just bizarre in my eyes, don't understand why it's on there if you can't use it. Couldn't resist a dig though, as every time I glance at this section the talk is always about the VDC (unsurprisingly).

The price of the club sport package is bonkers, and the Spec-V whilst a very, very nice car has a price tag almost as daft as the LF-A.

Great car for those that want blistering performance on the road, but for a track car I think you're better off spending your 60k on something else.


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## Howsie (Feb 25, 2002)

German all the way.


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## DCD (Jun 28, 2001)

tokyogtr said:


> how were the brakes?


Very good indeed. Admittedly they did feel a bit "wooden" at first but quickly came to life after a few corners. I found them to be very progressive allowing you to modulate very finely the braking power under heavy braking. They also felt very strong....but with a set of pads costing ¥2,000,000 (nope not a typo) I'd stick with the steel ones...


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## DCD (Jun 28, 2001)

People, just to set things straight I think there is a bit of confusion. The video posted on youtube was done a few months ago and the guy driving is Toshio Suzuki the chief test driver for the GTR project.

The lap/time Ben is going on about was done yesterday around Tsukuba with Tsuchiya driving the car (not a PR car but the same owner car I drove last week). I think the slow time might have to do with the fact that the track was still probably wet from the previous night's rain as well as temperatures being pretty low (around 4-5ºC). The car was on the Dunlops which as far as I know are very good on the dry but not as good as the Bridgestones once some moisture is introduced. The SpecV will be faster on a good day, there is no doubt about it, just don't expect massive differences. It's a very finely tuned car, but it's just not "double-the-price" quicker.


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## stealth (Jul 6, 2004)

They need to stick v and non v cars on the track ,same day same driver for anything near a fair result. Sounds like it wont be quicker by much anyway if at all. Cheaper to just get a nice 35 re painted in that loverly midnight black and have a few tweeky mods and a re map than shell out on a spec v ,Just my opinion.


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## tokyogtr (Feb 14, 2008)

DCD said:


> Very good indeed. Admittedly they did feel a bit "wooden" at first but quickly came to life after a few corners. I found them to be very progressive allowing you to modulate very finely the braking power under heavy braking. They also felt very strong....but with a set of pads costing ¥2,000,000 (nope not a typo) I'd stick with the steel ones...


i think your zero button is malfunction (holy ....!!!)...

do they drop that little bomb shell on you after they have your Yen16m or when you turn up for the pads to be replaced???!!!


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## R33_GTS-t (Apr 27, 2005)

Well that's a bit of a balls up. Too bad for all the people who put deposits down on the SpecV.


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## peterpeter (Feb 24, 2008)

NickM said:


> I can't help but feel the pre/post track day inspections are a mix of extreme cautiousness and a cheeky cash in.
> 
> The whole VDC/warranty thing is just bizarre in my eyes, don't understand why it's on there if you can't use it. Couldn't resist a dig though, as every time I glance at this section the talk is always about the VDC (unsurprisingly).
> 
> ...



would like to believe it and after the Academy day I believed Nissan had produced a car that overall was better than most porsches.

after this debacle, its clear that while its still an amazing road, car its not going to be anywhere near as durable and they have been very deceitful about track day usability.
For some owners is not an issue but Ive always been a track day nut.
I know the car is too heavy to track often, but the barriers they are seemingly putting up are making the car a laughing stock...and it will affect used values long term.


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## turbobungle (Mar 18, 2008)

DCD said:


> Very good indeed. Admittedly they did feel a bit "wooden" at first but quickly came to life after a few corners. I found them to be very progressive allowing you to modulate very finely the braking power under heavy braking. They also felt very strong....but with a set of pads costing ¥2,000,000 (nope not a typo) I'd stick with the steel ones...


2,000,000yen!!! Thats over £14,000 for pads!!! I assume that includes discs and a complimentry round-the-world-cruise while they fit them????


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## JKRice (Aug 31, 2008)

peterpeter said:


> would like to believe it and after the Academy day I believed Nissan had produced a car that overall was better than most porsches.
> 
> after this debacle, its clear that while its still an amazing road, car its not going to be anywhere near as durable and they have been very deceitful about track day usability.
> For some owners is not an issue but Ive always been a track day nut.
> I know the car is too heavy to track often, but the barriers they are seemingly putting up are making the car a laughing stock...and it will affect used values long term.


Yes and no.....

I agree that it should be an amazing road car, and that lack of confirmed information is souring some peoples decision to buy what they perceived (rightly or wrongly) to be a track day car too. Having read BMW and Porsches Warranty it would appear that Nissan have imposed extra conditions but this is easily explained away by the fact that the car is set up for road use and prior to track use they want users to have the set-up changed to track day setting and reversed after, together with those changes they will do fluid checks etc. The warranty will cover your consumer rights therefore if a component fails due to abuse / misuse or a component fails (due to abuse / misuse) and affects something else those parts WILL NOT be covered (Same as Porsche / BMW). When the post track changed and checks have been effected than your entire warranty (over and above your consumer rights) will be re-instigate (same as Porsche / BMW). What is not clear is whether Nissan or the HPCs will turn a "blind eye" to some non-warranted component failures resulting from Track use as Porsche / BMW have seemd to (though from my POV this is only anecdotal). Only time will tell - remembering these are tough times and Customer Relationships are key to future business.....


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## diddy_p (Oct 5, 2006)

JKRice said:


> Yes and no.....
> 
> I agree that it should be an amazing road car, and that lack of confirmed information is souring some peoples decision to buy what they perceived (rightly or wrongly) to be a track day car too. Having read BMW and Porsches Warranty it would appear that Nissan have imposed extra conditions but this is easily explained away by the fact that the car is set up for road use and prior to track use they want users to have the set-up changed to track day setting and reversed after, together with those changes they will do fluid checks etc. The warranty will cover your consumer rights therefore if a component fails due to abuse / misuse or a component fails (due to abuse / misuse) and affects something else those parts WILL NOT be covered (Same as Porsche / BMW). When the post track changed and checks have been effected than your entire warranty (over and above your consumer rights) will be re-instigate (same as Porsche / BMW). What is not clear is whether Nissan or the HPCs will turn a "blind eye" to some non-warranted component failures resulting from Track use as Porsche / BMW have seemd to (though from my POV this is only anecdotal). Only time will tell - remembering these are tough times and Customer Relationships are key to future business.....


probably makes the most sense out of all these warranty threads.


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## Yakozan (May 23, 2005)

diddy_p said:


> probably makes the most sense out of all these warranty threads.


I totally agree.


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## stealth (Jul 6, 2004)

Lol ,even this thread has ended up off topic and back on to warranty issues:blahblah:


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## thb_da_one (Nov 30, 2007)

Why was it slower? WTH! Anyways, whatever the reason maybe, it doesn't have the right to be slower for so much more money.


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## NickM (Oct 25, 2003)

thb_da_one said:


> Why was it slower? WTH! Anyways, whatever the reason maybe, it doesn't have the right to be slower for so much more money.


See post 27.


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## dwreid (Mar 2, 2008)

thb_da_one said:


> Why was it slower? WTH! Anyways, whatever the reason maybe, it doesn't have the right to be slower for so much more money.


Have worked this one out. No significant difference in lap times but maybe Spec V includes warranty for VDC off on track days. Maybe extra cost outlay is not for performance improvements but to give Nissan the extra cash to replace the transmission under Warranty when it goes fut within the Warranty period !!! :flame::chuckle:

Personally I think the whole warranty issue is unwarranted (pardon the pun) and I have every confidence in the GT-R based on all the rave reviews and reports we've heard over the last 18 months or so. The test cars at Silverstone were absolutely hammered and I'll be lucky if I give my car 1% of the abuse they suffered.


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## stealth (Jul 6, 2004)

dwreid said:


> The test cars at Silverstone were absolutely hammered and I'll be lucky if I give my car 1% of the abuse they suffered.






No one told you then ! The Silverstone cars had special one off Kryptonite Transmissions and box's.


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## dwreid (Mar 2, 2008)

stealth said:


> No one told you then ! The Silverstone cars had special one off Kryptonite Transmissions and box's.


Nah, could not have been Kryptonite, Supraman survived Silverstone and is still posting regularly. :chuckle:


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## David.Yu (Jun 28, 2001)

turbobungle said:


> 2,000,000yen!!! Thats over £14,000 for pads!!! I assume that includes discs and a complimentry round-the-world-cruise while they fit them????


I know what Dino wrote, but that has to be the cost for discs and pads.

There are no road car pads in existence that cost that much!

(It "only" cost £20k to replace an Enzo's discs and pads a few years ago.)


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## DCD (Jun 28, 2001)

David, the disc & pad combo comes in at ¥4.700.000 :chuckle:

Next guess....price for each of the SpecV turbos.... ???


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## zell (Nov 23, 2007)

DCD said:


> David, the disc & pad combo comes in at ¥4.700.000 :chuckle:
> 
> Next guess....price for each of the SpecV turbos.... ???


Millions of dolla'


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## Zed Ed (Oct 24, 2007)

I once heard that Boeing charged 46,000 dollars for a replacement toilet seat on some military planes.

Nissan clearly thinks that is a shrewd policy

As with all things in life...... someone will be willing to pay


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## David.Yu (Jun 28, 2001)

DCD said:


> David, the disc & pad combo comes in at ¥4.700.000 :chuckle:


Are they made by Brembo? I cannot understand why they would be more than twice the price of identical items supplied to Ferrari and Porsche.

Unless it is just another currency anomaly...


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## R33_GTS-t (Apr 27, 2005)

Zed Ed said:


> I once heard that Boeing charged 46,000 dollars for a replacement toilet seat on some military planes.


By the time you've written up the change proposal, had it assessed, gained authorisation, had the funds released, qualified the change, amended the drawing set and altered the manufacturing processes etc. etc.... I wouldn't doubt it. You'd be surprised at just how many cooks it takes to spoil the broth.


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## Guy (Jun 27, 2001)

DCD said:


> David, the disc & pad combo comes in at ¥4.700.000 :chuckle:
> 
> Next guess....price for each of the SpecV turbos.... ???



4.7m yen - £34,000

Is that really their price?


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## supraman (Mar 25, 2008)

dwreid said:


> Nah, could not have been Kryptonite, Supraman survived Silverstone and is still posting regularly. :chuckle:


Yes. I'm still alive! :chuckle:


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## [email protected] (May 16, 2003)

Some SpecV part prices:

Charger Assy, Turbo ..............JPY 1,000,000 ($10,226 usd)
Charger Assy, Turbo ............. JPY 1,000,000 ($10,226)
Absorber Kit, Shock Fr RH ... JPY 181,000 ($1,850)
Absorber Kit, Shock Fr LH .....JPY 181,000 ($1,850)
Absorber Kit, Shock Rr RH .. JPY 164,000 ($1,677)
Absorber Kit, Shock Rr LH ... JPY 164,000 ($1,677)
Pad Kit, Disc Brake ................ JPY 2,000,000 ($20,453)
Rotor&Pad Kit, Disc Brake .. JPY 4,700,000 ($48,064)
Caliper Kit, Disc Brake Fr RH JPY 320,000 ($3,272)
Caliper Kit, Disc Brake Fr LH. JPY 320,000 ($3,272)
Caliper Kit, Disc Brake Rr RH JPY 240,000 ($2,454)
Caliper Kit, Disc Brake Rr LH JPY 240,000 ($2,454)
Air Spoiler Assy, Rr ............... JPY 900,000 ($9,203)
Emblem, Trunk Lid ................ JPY 150,000 ($1,533)
Cushion Assy, Front Seat .... JPY 347,000 ($3,548)
Back Assy, Front Seat ......... JPY 698,000 ($7,138)
Cover, Engine Lower ............ JPY 640,000 ($6,544)
Finisher, Seat Back Center . JPY 522,000 ($5,338)
The cloth cover on the rear seat area costs. JPY 100,000 ($1,022)


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## Zed Ed (Oct 24, 2007)




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## Piggaz (Sep 5, 2002)

1 million yen for A turbo!!!
What a joke!


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## diddy_p (Oct 5, 2006)

whoa... whoa again!


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## mindlessoath (Nov 30, 2007)

whoa


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## Guy (Jun 27, 2001)

They've gone completely bonkers!


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## YT48 (Feb 3, 2009)

Trying to shoot my foot correctly here.............


aim............

aim............


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## David.Yu (Jun 28, 2001)

Anyone going to Geneva to see the world's most expensive Nissan?

It will surely be the only chance as nobody is going to be stupid enough to import one!


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## mindlessoath (Nov 30, 2007)

ohh yea, there will be alot of stupid people to import them!


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