British auto journos declare Nissan GT-R dogs bollocks

Yes, the 997 Turbo for instance accellerates faster with the five speed Tiptronic S than the manual, and that's an old fashioned automatic with a torque converter, no fancy double clutch stuff. It's simply because it allows you to pre load the system with torque, meaning no wheelspin or bogging down when setting off.
It's more to do with the fact that there's no turbo lag between gear changes. When you change gears in a turbo car, no matter how powerful it is, there's a slight pause between gear change and the turbo spooling up again in the next gear. In an automatic car, there is no pause as the throttle is always open, meaning the turbo doesn't stop spooling.
 
Bridge to gantry is I think what the lap is on normal public days. Nissan's lap times were of a full timed lap, of the entire course except for the little pit straight (which is around 200m I think), standard for a Nurburgring Nordschleife lap. Ignore anyone who says the 7.38 wasn't a complete lap, they have no idea what they're talking about and no proof the back their claims up.
 
ok well i was just going by this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordschleife_fastest_lap_times

EDIT: Ok found out that the Bridge to Gantry method is shorter ~approx 22 seconds quicker

This means their laptimes are measured from bridge to gantry (see below) and are approximately 22 seconds faster than a full 20.832 km (12.944 mi) Nordschleife lap.

7:38.54* Nissan GT-R 480 PS/1740 kg Toshio Suzuki 2007-09-24 *NISSAN 10/7 Video[3] bridge to gantry. Run flat tires. Semi-wet conditions.
 
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Well that's incorrect, because the GT-R lap is the 20.6km version of the track that virtually all lap times on the Ring are done with. Bridge to gantry doesn't include a big chunk of the main straight, that's for public days, the GT-R was done on a private test day and was 20.6km.

Just to make things clear if you're confused. The 7.38 (and a faster 7.37.5 that doesn't have video so Nissan just use the 38 since it has proof) was done on the standard Potenza custom run-flats that come on the production car, the lap was done in the exact same way 99% of official (magazine or manufacturer tests, like the Zonda F recently for example) tests were done, that is cutting out 200m of the full 20.8km track for safety reasons, and the car can do those times since it's almost certainly got a lot more power than is claimed (around 530hp or so most likely). Any quotes of Nissan people talking about times in the 7.40s and 50s are about what certain test drivers or engineers could achieve, while one or two of their drivers can do sub 7.40s.
 
Isn't this thread getting a bit out of hand? :p

I think youre right. Its amazing how much interest and controversy a Nissan can create.

I was in Ginza yesterday and Nissan has a building there with display space where they rotate new models, and the GT-R was there (alongside the Fuga). Quite a few people pawing over it.

Some impressions I got;
Its a big car, and quite tall, compared to a Corvette its a monster!
The wheels were massive
The tyres looked like cut slicks ;)
The engine sits pretty high in the engine bay
There is not much leg room in the back (read: zero)
But the boot is pretty big (shame they couldnt have shifted the seats back a little)
When I first saw pics of the interior I literally laughed out loud, but after sitting in it, its not all that bad.

Anyway, here are some pics from the camera phone...

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