As expected the Nordring GT-R attended the 2010 Tokyo AutoSalon which gave us a great opportunity to check it out in the flesh for the first time. Let us take you on a tour around the car to get a good feel for the Nordring gear.
Starting up front of the Nordring GT-R we can first notice the front bumper cover over the center section of the OEM bumper. This covers the normally gunmetal grey section of the front bumper with carbon which extends down to the engine oil cooler duct area with some horizontal louvres. It’s matched to a dry carbon grille which adds a unique looking lump either side of the GT-R badge. The fitment on these pieces was perfect and the carbon could not be faulted in any area whatsoever.
Continuing downward we next notice the dry carbon front lip and underspoiler. It’s two duct inlets are a welcome sign for many. We verified that they are also indeed functional. The ducts continue to the start of the front wheel well where a second guiding panel (FRP on the demo car but dry carbon for production) takes the stream of outside air and directs it at the front brake rotors. Again the carbon was faultless and fitment perfect against the OEM bumper. The weave was angled precisely to take advantage of the carbon’s pleasing visual effect.
Lastly, we see the headlight finishers and NACA ducts on the hood which add splashes of carbon to the lower edge of the headlights and hood respectively. A nice touch, well executed on both counts.
Moving to the side of the car we notice the carbon sideskirts firstly. These very much keep in the theme of the OEM side skirts with only one small difference. The upper edge is slightly changed at the front to sit flush with the front fender finishers. This was about the only odd part of the car and I couldn’t figure what they were getting at with it.
The dry carbon side mirror covers are a real sweet touch, you can see that the weave of the fibre changing to keep the two “tone” look of the standard mirror. I found that particularly appealing.
Around back now and first up is the the trunk lid which is replaced with an entirely carbon item. It’s OEM in quality and appearance until you notice that there is an integrated rear lip on it. It gives it that unique look and most probably some aero benefit. The fit and finish of this was top notch and it could be a big seller if you ask me.
The full carbon rear wing sits atop and looks very similar to the standard GT-R unit. There’s some minor styling changes but overall most wont pick them without seeing them sitting next to each other.
Moving down, we see the new Nordring carbon rear bumper. A huge piece of carbon with some unique horizontal louvres designed to remove heat from the transmission area above the rear under diffuser. It’s matched with a carbon underspoiler which in turn matches up to a set of rear under diffuser fins.
That pretty much covers the outside of the car, but if we look under the hood now we can see one of the more original engine cover designs seen so far. There’s also a set of engine bay shrouds that wrap around the front of the engine bay as dress up parts more than anything else.
Which brings us to the Toshio Suzuki tuned Bilstein Suspension. This kit offers a damper set replacement, springs not included, which will replace your standard dampers without the side effect of voiding your Nissan factory warranty. The dampers are fully compatible with the GT-R’s adjustable settings for R mode, Normal and Comfort and are designed for street and sports use.
Nordring also say original forged magnesium wheels are on their way but at the show they weren’t on the car. The wheels you see in the photos are actually the Neez EI8GHT Eurocross-R wheels with GT-R centre cap option fitted up. Great wheels all the same.
After checking out the Nordring car, we were able to spend some time catching up with Nordring President and Nissan Chief Test Driver, Toshio Suzuki-san. We asked if he had plans to export the Nordring parts to overseas markets. Unfortunately for us though, it seems that, since the parts are Nissan Motors approved for use with the GT-R, he’d need to jump through quite a few hoops to do that. So at this stage you simply wont be able to buy it directly for export. He didn’t permanantly rule it out, but there may be a long wait before we see this stuff outside Japan.
We also cleared up if Nordring planned any engine tuning modifications, and – so far no. They are happy with the standard car’s performance and to mess with that, we got the feeling, would also likely risk their fortunate position of being the only aftermarket supplier of Nissan approved parts for the GT-R.
Overall, a very conservative and well thought out bunch of upgrades to the GT-R which don’t intefere with the lines of the car. It’s not for everyone however as it comes with the dual baggage of price tag and being difficult to obtain outside Japan.
We got a few photos to browse through but let us know in the comments if you want answers to any more questions and remember to check our previous posts if you want to know about pricing on this stuff.
リンク: Nordring ウェブサイト
画像: (C) Copyright GTRBlog.com
ノルドリンク, パーツ, モーターショー, 東京オートサロン
carbon fibre, cf, gt-r, gtr, nissan, r35, ノルドリンク
