New car news

01 May 2008 - 11:00

Lord of the ’Ring

Nissan's GT-R continues to crack Nurburgring lap times, with chief test driver Tochio Suzuki posting an impressively quick 7:29 during the most recent test. 

As if that wasn't showing off enough, he did it with a base-spec car on standard Japanese market tyres.

Nissan has admitted to being frustrated by the damp conditions at last year's test, where they posted a time of 7:38, and so understandably seem to be much happier with this new result. 

They still haven't beaten the fastest production car lap-time though, that was set by Pagani's road-going Zonda F CLubsport lapping the 12.9-mile 'Ring in 7:27.82 last year.

The GT-R V-Spec however - still in development - posted an unofficial and unconfirmed time of 7:25 in early April, so there's still more glory to come. 

You may remember our piece a few weeks back with Gran Turismo chief Kazunori Yamauchi, who himself has been running some impressive times in the GT-R recently. 

You can see Yamauchi-san's efforts thanks to Gran Turismo TV, via YouTube, on his quest to reach 300kmh/186mph in the Nissan.

His legend continues to grow within the Top Gear office.