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Settled into the Alcantara-trimmed seat I headed north toward a favorite two-lane that meanders along a mountain spine before ultimately dropping like a roller coaster to the desert floor. Arizona’s high-mountain roads are fastidiously maintained, and a 500-mile road trip is the best test for a GT. No candidate for a “Vanishing Point” remake, I’d choose my moments carefully in this 600 horsepower “time attack” racecar for the road.
As GT-R is a populist performance car and not a European thoroughbred, the 30-minute drive out of Phoenix included requests for acceleration runs from not only young drivers in rough-looking Japanese tuner cars, but also older gents in high-performance German sedans, goading me to put on a show. My car for the day was the very first production GT-R NISMO let loose on North American roads, and among the very few Nissan products suited to Forbes Life, so I felt obligated to turn it loose for short demonstration runs.
How did NISMO (for NISsan MOtorsports) find the additional 55 horsepower that places this car above workaday GT-Rs? With a pair of high-flow, large-diameter turbochargers forcing more air into the combustion chambers, accompanied by the expected remapping of ignition timing and increased fuel delivery.
The result is 600 horsepower and 481 lb-ft of torque. Even with the extra puff from new turbos, the horsepower and torque curves have been shifted upwards, meaning power is produced higher in the rev range, where it’s harder to access driving on the road. The extra power will only impact ultimate performance on racetracks or under ideal highway conditions.
What really sets the NISMO apart is readily apparent the first time its frightening black mouth is aimed into a corner, and it’s not that peaky bump in power. NISMO adopted new springs and specially calibrated Bilstein DampTronic dampers, then fitted links to the front double wishbone suspension to optimize wheel position during extreme cornering, and popped on Dunlops with a NISMO-specific tread for more contact patch. Finally, a 17.3mm hollow anti-roll bar spans the rear suspension, keeping the car’s posture flatter and more predictable in transitional handling (left-right-left) than on a standard GT-R. All that suspension work is bolted to a body structure that is slightly stiffer thanks to adhesive bonding of the underbody structure.
The result is a nearly two-ton car that sweeps through corners as if it’s lost 500 pounds. For a heavy, tall car that’s always been more of a bully than a sophisticate, GT-R NISMO is light on its feet, a deft stepper on the dance floor. I had a standard GT-R only a month ago, and the difference in communication and sense of integrity is palpable. For a brief moment in time, this is likely the best “time attack” car for track day events, a combination of performance and relative affordability.
As GT-R is a populist performance car and not a European thoroughbred, the 30-minute drive out of Phoenix included requests for acceleration runs from not only young drivers in rough-looking Japanese tuner cars, but also older gents in high-performance German sedans, goading me to put on a show. My car for the day was the very first production GT-R NISMO let loose on North American roads, and among the very few Nissan products suited to Forbes Life, so I felt obligated to turn it loose for short demonstration runs.
How did NISMO (for NISsan MOtorsports) find the additional 55 horsepower that places this car above workaday GT-Rs? With a pair of high-flow, large-diameter turbochargers forcing more air into the combustion chambers, accompanied by the expected remapping of ignition timing and increased fuel delivery.
The result is 600 horsepower and 481 lb-ft of torque. Even with the extra puff from new turbos, the horsepower and torque curves have been shifted upwards, meaning power is produced higher in the rev range, where it’s harder to access driving on the road. The extra power will only impact ultimate performance on racetracks or under ideal highway conditions.
What really sets the NISMO apart is readily apparent the first time its frightening black mouth is aimed into a corner, and it’s not that peaky bump in power. NISMO adopted new springs and specially calibrated Bilstein DampTronic dampers, then fitted links to the front double wishbone suspension to optimize wheel position during extreme cornering, and popped on Dunlops with a NISMO-specific tread for more contact patch. Finally, a 17.3mm hollow anti-roll bar spans the rear suspension, keeping the car’s posture flatter and more predictable in transitional handling (left-right-left) than on a standard GT-R. All that suspension work is bolted to a body structure that is slightly stiffer thanks to adhesive bonding of the underbody structure.
The result is a nearly two-ton car that sweeps through corners as if it’s lost 500 pounds. For a heavy, tall car that’s always been more of a bully than a sophisticate, GT-R NISMO is light on its feet, a deft stepper on the dance floor. I had a standard GT-R only a month ago, and the difference in communication and sense of integrity is palpable. For a brief moment in time, this is likely the best “time attack” car for track day events, a combination of performance and relative affordability.
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