04 March 2009 - 16:00
Geneva show: GT-R Spec V
Forget that Qazana-thing. Hiding in a top secret back room - OK, slightly secret side room - off Nissan's main stand is the car we really wanted to see: the GT-R Spec V.
This is it, the lighter, track-focussed GT-R, the Nurburgring-obliterating weapon bedecked in carbon fibre. Forget the dubious paint-job - it's the Spec V's signature colour, but we can't say we're sold - and focus instead on the mechanical goodness on show here.
The Spec V is 60kg lighter than the standard GT-R, mainly by ripping out the rear seats - there are just a pair of, well, holes there now - and adding lots of lovely carbon fibre: there's a beautiful carbon fibre spoiler, thinner carbon fibre seats and a carbon fibre front splitter.
New Potenza cut-slick tyres - which look like they'd be hellish through standing water - along with stiffer springs and bigger brakes complete the mechanical revisions.
The Spec V doesn't get any extra power - but 470bhp was hardly shoddy in the first place - but there's now an ‘overboost' function, which increases peak torque for up to 80 seconds, and a freer-breathing titanium exhaust.
All of which is good, but here's the bad news: Nissan still hasn't confirmed whether the Spec V will make it to Europe. If it does, it'll be in very limited numbers - a couple of dozen only, perhaps - with a six-figure price tag. That's pounds, not yen, sadly.
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Devilishly Good...
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This is my favourite car of all time. Well done for finding it!! Midnight Purple is back!
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If I had the money, I'd buy it and then live on the Nürburgring.
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Stillen Motorsports is making a race-prepped GT-R for the Targa Newfoundland Rally. They mention that they will save about 100lbs just by swapping out the stock front seats with race seats. That doesn't include all the other stuff they gutted from the car (http://blog.stillen.com/2009/02/gutting-the-2009-nissan-r35-gt-r-part-1/).
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i luv the original gt-r but the problem is, its waaaay too heavy. , a car weighing nearly 2 tonnes with only 480 hp and does a 0-60 in 3.5secs or less is wat i dnt understand. the pagani zonda f roadster does 3.5 secs weighing 1.2 tonnes and having 612hp, now thats wierd. and costing just 70000 bucks, thats a big catch
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Finaly! This car is one of the most magnificent cars ever made. The original GT-R was a really badass car, wonder how good this one will be? The colour looks really nice i think, and if I had the money I would buy in seconds!
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The problem is not the horsepower ratio against mass, ok not only that, you must algo take in to account how do you all the power in to the floor, being lighter means nimbler an agile, but havin four wheel drive and active differentials and damping, you can put the power in to the wheels and also do cornering...
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R8 V10 vs. GT-R Spec-V: Which one do you think will be faster?
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,,,,also around TopGear's track?
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This car is quite ridiculous. Nearly double the price of the original for eighty whole seconds of more power? Ummm... no. Too bad none of that extra development cost found it's way into the pocket of a single designer; it's still uglier than nearly everything else on the road.
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For what the V-Spec does and what it can do, the asking price is relatively cheap as it accelerates as fast as a Zonda and the Veyron. There must be a wizard working with Nissan, the GTR just defies the laws of physics. A 2 tonne car that can go 0-62 in 3.5 secs is really really amazing.
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Great car! If I had the money though I'd go for a Porsche or something instead... It surely is a engineering masterpiece but it just doesn't appeal to me. Sadly...:-(
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Replying to evilkeso: First of all, the GT-R doesn't weigh 2 tons, but 1730 kg, 40 kg lighter than the McLaren SLR. 480 bhp, 1730 kg and 3.5 seconds to 60 sounds interesting but it isn't when you consider the 4wd traction off the line and the fact that Nissan lies about the real bhp figures. Several sources discovered that the car has well above 500 bhp, some even say that its computer detecs when its on a dyno and puts down less bhp and that the real figure is around 550 bhp. Also, let's not forget that each engine is hand built and a little bit different. Furthermore, 0 - 60 mph times aren't everything, it has become a marketing tool and can be easily improved by manufacturer by short gearing, which could be normally annoying but not in combination with DSG gearbox.
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Furthermore, not all GT-Rs' seem to be capable of that "magic" 3.5 sec time. InsideLine Edmunds clocked 3.8 s and CarandDriver 4.1!!! seconds to 60 mph. In real world 60 - 120 mph is just as, if not even more important. Besides, Motor Trend Magazine has clocked the 997 Turbo's 0?60 mph time in 3.2 seconds with the Tiptronic transmission. which in theory has the same power to weight ratio as the GT-R. Now, should I move to GT-Rs' launch control, how it voids warranty and broken transmitions? Basically what Nissan officially says is this:"yes, you can go from 0 - 60 under 4 seconds if you buy our product, but you will lose the warranty and make an unrepairable damage to the gearbox. So see you next month and bring another 20k for a new one."
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I haven't finished yet. Evilkeso, by saying "it accelerates as fast as a Zonda and the Veyron" you just proved that you know nothing about cars and you should be suspended from this website because you're just confusing people. Even 3 year old kids know that Veyron accelerates from 0 to 60 in 2.5 seconds which is a second faster than 3.5 and I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere about latest Zonda doing it in 3 seconds dead.
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Some GT-R's can do 3.3secs to 60. And besides, we're talking about the V-Spec. This weighs 60kg less than the standard car's rotund 1740kg and has essentially an 'Overtake' switch where the damper adjust switch used to be - I can only assume the dampers are permanently set to 'TopGear' mode. It has only 2 seats, and is thus cooler. It's, in Nissan's words, "The GT-R for the driving enthusiast". It WILL be awesome, and any time lost in a drag race by keeping the warranty will be made up with overboost, or 'Boost Control'. Lastly, the extra cost is down to the extensive carbon fibre usage. It's still £40k cheaper than a comparatively measly GT2.
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Evil...pure evil
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looks cool and sexy
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looks so amazing! It's beautiful!
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its cool and has good stats but for god's sake the way it looks and makes you feel is often more important , as it is here! :)
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Soooo this is the little devil.
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If had the money, i would buy one, but im only 13
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Purple? UGHHHH, it looked better in the red, does it have the satnav g-force, mpg counter computer thing????
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i deffinantly like it, but i'm a little suprised that they didn't up the power at all, everyone was saying it would be bumped up to at least 500bhp... btw C4_4life, how exactly can you prove that nissan is lying about the horsepower numbers? anyhoo, imagine this: an R35 with an engine swap of one of AMG's bi-turbo V8's... four wheel burnout anyone?
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also, has anyone else seen that hennessey tuning can chip a GT-R R35 up to 1000bph? i just remembered reading about that... *opens new tab*
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curses, only 600bph >=|
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Nissan could've made the gtr specV better than this, lighter and more powerful - I expected more
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i wonder if they will do an r36 in a few years...
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c4_4life your a cock the gtr can do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and can do it quicker there are some recorded times of 3 seconds flat. nissan dont lie about there bhp figures because they only guarantee 480 or more bhp because the engines are hand built. and if your screen name means citeron c4 for life then you defonantly dont know anything about cars.
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STIG commented on this article
05 March 2009
Devilishly Good...
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