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Porsche v Nissan GT-R cheat claim ...settled?

  • By Karla Pincott
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image See below for video of the testing done. Photo Gallery

Has the war between Porsche and Nissan over Nurburgring times finally been settled?


See below for video of some of the independent testing done.


There was a lot of attention in April when the Nissan GT-R did a lap of the Nurburgring in 7:29.

There was applause and there was also some doubt.

Porsche in particular told carsguide that it could not understand “how this time is possible” and that Nissan must have used non-standard tyres.

Porsche ran its own back-to-back tests with the Japanese company's GT-R supercar and said it could not get within 25 seconds of Nissan's claimed record time of seven minutes 29 seconds in April. It also found its 911 Turbo and GT2 were both quicker than the GT-R.

Porsche said it took a standard GT-R, running on regular road tyres, and clocked the GT-R at 7:54.

The German sports car maker was initially protective of the exact lap times, which were run during a program when Porsche also compared its upcoming four-door Panamera with a range of potential rivals.

But Porsche eventually revealed its team clocked the GT-R at 7 minutes 54 seconds, with the 911 Turbo managing 7:38 and the GT2 getting down to 7:34.

The laps were not run by Porsche's usual hot-lap specialist, former world rally champion and race winner Walter Rohrl, but one of the company's chassis development engineers who is an expert on the Nurburgring.

Nissan hit back, saying that its times were valid, and that it could provide evidence – both on video and in the form of the tyres it used.

Now, Drivers Republic in the UK has chimed in, with Ring veteran Chris Harris taking both a Nissan GT-R and a Porsche GT2 around the track.

Both vehicles were stock, except that the limiter was removed from the Nissan and it had Bridgestone tyres rather than the Dunlops used when the car set the 7:29 time.

Which vehicle proved the point? Drivers Republic has offered us their story and the video of their laps. 

And they’re happy for you to leave comments here for them to respond to.

 

Comments on this story

Displaying 3 of 70 comments

  • Notice how now (when Nissan has been proven wrong and beaten) everyone is saying 'who cares' but when when it was porsche who looked like they were the ones who were beaten everybody seemed to care then. I think people out there just can't hack that the GTR was a sham all along!

    the alex of brisbane Posted on 25 November 2008 4:07pm
  • Actually scrap that - it shows the times in the photo gallery.

    the alex of brisbane Posted on 25 November 2008 3:34pm
  • I agree who cares... Ihave also owned many cars some of which were performance vehicles. I now aspire to more energy efficient cheaper cars courtesy of a massive drop in my net worth over the last year. I like both the Nissan GTR and the Porsche but I will never again spend lots of money on cars and I think this debate focussed on speed is largely irrelevant given the current state of the world and the dwindling fuel supplies.

    Dave1 Posted on 25 November 2008 3:25pm
  • Well, I'm on a work computer and can't access the video so if someone would like to type the times the cars achieved that would be great smile

    the alex of brisbane Posted on 25 November 2008 3:25pm
  • HA HA! Owned.... 7mins 29 Nissan aye? I knew that was BS from the very second i heard it.. Faster than a Veyron, yeah right... What are all you Muzzas gonna say now? Wait, let me guess, Porche cheated now... Maybe they had nitro? Come guys, i'm sure you guys can come up with some excuses for performing badly. But the difference here is that we aint your bimbo girlfriends and we wont fall for em...

    Dan of Chapel street muait.... Fully shick... Posted on 25 November 2008 3:17pm
  • HA HA! Owned.... 7mins 29 Nissan aye? I knew that was BS from the very second i heard it.. Faster than a Veyron, yeah right... What are all you Muzzas gonna say now? Wait, let me guess, Porche cheated now... Maybe they had nitro? Come guys, i'm sure you guys can come up with some excuses for performing badly. But the difference here is that we aint your bimbo girlfriends and we wont fall for em...

    Dan of Chapel street muait.... Fully shick... Posted on 25 November 2008 2:27pm
  • p newman - a fair few people care! nissan are challenging the old supercar guard with a flegling new kid on the block at half the price.

    macca of melbourne Posted on 25 November 2008 2:24pm
  • Maybe the GT3 can do better.

    David Posted on 25 November 2008 2:20pm
  • This article answers a question nobody asked. Nissan never claimed the GT-R was faster than a GT2. The claim was the GT-R was faster than a 911 Turbo. There is a difference between the two cars.

    Ryan of Melbourne Posted on 25 November 2008 1:06pm
  • Frankly who cares. One is a Porsche, the other a Nissan - I wont own either. I have owned sports cars (my last was a wonderful BMW E34 M5) and now drive a Suzuki Swift. The Swift is a cracker of a car, has a leather steering wheel and the stereo works! Time to worry about more important things in life like working on my bar chords...

    P Newman of VIC Posted on 25 November 2008 11:50am

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