GTR myth-busted, pt. 2!! Track experience!

Nissan GTR ownership reality, part 2

Greetings fellow petrolheads. I apologize for the delay in delivering this crucial information. As some of you know, in the first part of this “sequel” I have disclosed the true face of living with a Nissan GTR on a daily basis. Now, as promised, as shall share my experience with the track performance of this Japanese icon.

Before I get really into it, let’s settle the important one….YES, IT IS FAST! Better still, it is very fast in hands of 90% of people….but I guess that is no news for the majority of us, the hardened YouTube veterans.

I went with it to the following race tracks:
1. Imola
2. Brno
3. Most
4. Nordschleife

I know this may not seem as much but trust me, I got a good feeling of what the car is, and isn’t, capable of. There are zillions of people that have much more track experience than me and all of them are welcome to share their observations with me. Last thing to settle, the car is (was) completely stock (early model), running street tyres (Dunlops or Bridgestones). In the first part I am going to omit the Nordschleife performance as the track is so specific and the car performance is vastly different there.

1. NON- Nordschleife track performance

Ok, so I get in the car in the pitlane (helmet on), start her up and off we go. Before entering the circuit I switch the 3 buttons to race. I join the track, pull the paddle and notice that by doing that, the gearbox setting reverts to standard…annoying…so I push the button to race again. All is ready. The first lap is simply about bringing a bit of heat to the tires and oils. Last corner…apex to apex, floor it to get as much speed down the straight to start the good one. First corner and I massively overbrake it….so badly in fact, that the old fella in the E30 that I managed to obliterate on the straight is overtaking me with the smuggest face. Ok so the brakes are good…next braking zone, I naturally go in way too hot and I discover surprising amount of understeer. Good thing is that you can all feel it in the wheel since it vibrates like a dildo on overdrive. To fix the understeer, you simply lift off and then let the 4wd system do the rest. DO NOT BRAKE…unless it is terminal –kiss-the-tire-wall understeer…than straighten your wheels brake as hard as you can and turn your wheels when you reach some sensible speed (hopefully prior to reaching the wall)….Few more corners and I am getting the hang of it. Brake early with straight wheels, turn in and as soon as you feel the front hooked get on the throttle. What happens is mind-bending. The car keeps on accelerating through the corner with very neutral (slightly understeerish) behaviour…suddenly, you find that most of the cars are in your way….yes they will brake later but then they are going to be blocking the racing line and exit because you are so much quicker through here. This is all GREAT NEWS you might say…well the victory is rather short lived I am afraid…it takes about 3 laps to get used to the combination of car+track…and GTR will give you 4, max. 5 laps before the inevitable comes….GEARBOX OVERHEATS!!!

• Gearbox

WHY? WHY?? Why on Earth would you build a car that is marketed for occasional track use that cannot last 5 hot laps? Does the word ‘occasional’ have some very specific Japanese translation? I am not expecting it to be GT3 RS-like but at least 10 laps would be nice. This is so frustrating…as soon as you get into rhythm you have to slow down and cool the bloody gearbox. I know that there are inexpensive aftermarket kits and that the newer cars are supposedly better at this issue but still….not good in my books. Other than that, the box works brilliantly…fast, non-hesitant and has the right amount of ‘life’ to it, meaning it does not feel too robotic, distant and emotionless…there is a slight jerk on the upshifts but it feels mechanical –in-built rather than calibrated for the purpose. Downshifts have a nice rev-matching. Overall C…just because the overheating.

• Visibilty – forward facing

I find this extremely important on the track…probably more than on the road. If you cannot see where the ends of the car are, you cannot nail the line…hence you cannot nail a good time. GTR is…appalling. As mentioned before, I am quite tall and big so I struggle to fit in the car without the helmet let alone with it…this drastically reduces my opportunities for a good seating setup. I simply have to put the seat as low as possible and nearly as far as possible. This means that I cannot see the wheel arches…and that is bad. I can sort of see the left one (drivers side) but have absolutely no clue where the other wheel is. The only indications are the curbs as I can feel going over them…so after a while you get a feeling for the car size….or rather you would if you could do more than 5 laps. :-D Plus using curbs is not the best way to treat something that still has number plates on it and must last more than two session before rebuild. :-D Overall C.

• Engine

No problems here. Plenty of power and torque…slightly characterless on the track…no real noise indication of the rpm (from 5000 onwards sounds and pulls the same) so you must check the rev counter for good and safe shifts. Engine is very responsive for a twin turbo, given that you keep it above 3000 rpm…which you will since you are on the track. :-D B+

• Handling

As briefly described above, handling is good. A bit of understeer if you go in too fast and also if you try to put down too much power at the wrong moment. This can also turn into oversteer should you switch off the traction control…WARNING…switching off the traction control voids the warranty! Overall the car feels heavy under braking and quick directional changes are not its favourite cup of tea either. Understandable since it weighs cca 1850 including driver. B

• Brakes

Well…I said before that they are good…they are but only the first 3 laps…during the other 2 you are gonna have, they start to fade a bit. However it is a nice one-time fade. The pedal gets softer once, but does not get softer much more after that…so you still have confidence in that the car is going to stop. Now since it is a heavy car, the brakes are extremely prone to how you treat them…if you do 5 laps and then stop in the pits to have a rant with your mates how you can do the lap 5 seconds faster had the gearbox not overheated, the brakes will do as the name suggest…break. More specifically, they will bend and crack. Unless you have a spare discs and pads, that means tow truck for you my friend. B

N.B. there is a quick an easy fix for the brake fade for everyone with drilled discs. After every spirited drive, take an air gun and a tiny screwdriver and poke all the holes clear of the brake dusts. The holes in the discs are there to vent the gases that are created during the high temperature friction process of pads rubbing the discs. So if they are clogged, the gasses will have nowhere to escape and create additional resistance that needs to be overcome by applying more force on the brake pedal.

1. Nordschleife performance

Pretty much none of the above applies here. The track is so long and fast and combined with the fact that normal human being cannot do more than 2-3 laps in succession means that the gearbox overheating problem is non-existent. Actually the only problem I have discovered with the GTR on Nordschleife is the false feeling of safety and skill that it inspires in the driver. Luckily I never managed to do more than 2 laps one after the other to fall a victim to this (for various reasons). The car feels there at home…as it should since it was designed for it and in all honesty, 95% of us will not achieve a better lap time in anything else than the GTR. A*…This leads me to

Summary

The GTR is in a tough spot. It is a part of long lasting tradition of supercar killers and on that front it delivers with a deadly blow…but apart from that I find it as a car struggling to justify its purpose. It is not a daily driver. In our family, we did it, we drove it as a daily and it did not make much sense (check part one). It is not a track car…it is too diluted by road-focused engineering for a pure track car…example would be the 4wd system…brilliant on the road but not necessary on the track (even Nissan knows this by making the GTR GT3 car RWD) or the DVD/HiFi system (which is actually only usable in town or on A roads). The only area where it excels in my opinion is the Nordschleife and A/B roads….that leaves us with this: Nissan GTR is a car suitable for someone who commutes on A/B roads to Nordschleife. :-D :-D

Are we going to sell it? Never. Do we love the car? Yes to bits. Why, you ask? Because it generates huge smile on my face every time I drive it.

Thank you for reading this, please share this as much as possible so the word gets out to the world.

Fellow petrolhead

If in doubt, flat out!!