If you’re a manufacturer of anything even remotely sporty these days you’re no doubt testing at the Nurburgring. Fine tuning and tweaking the performance because of just how well the Nurburgring represents a wide variety of driving conditions.

You wont be the only one testing your final product there however because, if it’s a real sports car, then Germany’s Sport Auto magazine will put it to their famous Supertest.

The Nissan GT-R had to do it and passed with flying colours setting a 7:38 laptime with editor Horst von Saurma (HvS) behind the wheel. Well now the Corvette ZR1′s time has come to be put to the same test.

Despite the weight and power advantage over the GT-R, the ZR1 only managed to equal the GT-R’s 7:38 lap time on the 13 mile long Nordschliefe circuit in the hands of the same test driver, HvS.

Quite an interesting data point this considering each manufacturer previously set times in the 7:26 region. To then set a 7:38 in an independent test…

Other tracks were also compared in the German article, the ZR1 beating out the GT-R’s Hockenheimring laptime (1:09.7 to the GT-R’s 1:10.7) and then the ZR1 losing out to the GT-R in the wet handling course (1:36.8 to the GT-R’s 1:32.4).

リンク: Sport Auto Magazine ウェブサイト
ソース: NAGTROC Forums

自動車関連ニュース, 雑誌／DVD／メディア gt-r, gtr, nissan, nordschliefe, nurburgring, r35, zr1

Nurburgring stalker extraordinaire KGP Photography has snapped shots of the Nissan GT-R back at Nurburgring this week. The shots clearly show the same stuff we posted back in April 2009 when NAGTROC member Kislik spotted the same car at the ‘ring.

Whats changed since then? Well the rear diffuser seems to have gained a long row of red LED’s which are most likely an update to the European/Australian specification’s rear fog light. The rear spoiler is now black and is possibly revised. Can’t tell exactly in what way.

Most car ‘blogs today are reporting this car to be the 2011 SpecM GT-R but personally, I can’t see much evidence to support that it is anything more than the 2011 facelift GT-R. Anyone else spot something I don’t on this car?

画像: Edmunds Straightline
More Images/リンク: Jalopnik Nissan GT-R Spy Photos

GT-R ニュースヘッドライン, SpecM 2011, gt-r, gtr, nissan, nurburgring, r35, spec-m, specm, spy, spy photo

There’s really nothing like the way Suzuki-san can drive the Nissan GT-R through the many turns of the Nordschleife. The laptimes he sets are secondary to the brute force journey he takes each lap to get there. I asked him myself how he does it and he craftily managed to remain humble.

Recently Suzuki-san decided to put the development know how gained from being the R35 GT-R development test driver go-to guy for quite a handful of years now to further use. He’s setup shop in Iruma, Saitama Prefecture, Japan where he plans to service GT-Rs as well as develop a tuning brand.

The shop is known as Nordring and out front hangs a tribute to the GT-R’s 7:26.70 laptime. Inside the theme continues with the actual Dunlop tires used on the record lap time mounted on displays behind the V35 Skyline VR38 drivetrain test mule. The test mule is one of the more interesting exhibits as this is the first time I’ve seen photos of it since very early testing days. Good to know this piece of history is still kicking around.

Suzuki-san’s Nordring brand has already demonstrated the Nordring Aero Kit during the workshop grand opening event attended by many of the R35 GT-R Club of Japan (including Ado-san, club President who rocked up in his SpecV riding on Neez EI8GHT Eurocross-R wheels).

Further plans include developing an original exhaust and suspension components for the GT-R. We’ll stay tuned and keep you guys posted. Until then check out some photos of the launch event thanks to GTRBlog reader Onkyo who attended the event.

Thanks to Mindlessoath for putting me on the scent of this story.

リンク: Nordring Corporation ウェブサイト
Photos: ONKYO @ Minkara

チューニングニュース, ノルドリンク gt-r, gtr, nurburgring, r35, suzuki, ノルドリンク

When you’ve got thousands of tourists attacking your public race track each year you’re going to run into the odd occasion when someone makes an error. If that error gets serious you’re going to want to be able to get to the scene of an incident quickly. On a 20km circuit like the Nordschliefe this is no job for an ordinary fire truck.

So proving to the world it’s not only one of the worlds fastest production cars ever to lap the ‘Ring, it’s now the most practical after receiving a full “fire engine” conversion.

That’s right, the car is fitted with a fire retardant tank fully consuming the rear passenger area, followed by a functional hose reel and equipment bay in the trunk. The car is also kitted out with a full roll cage and carbon fibre Recaro racing seats for safety. This is no joke!

Photographs used with permission.

Images/ソース: NissanSportz.com – Is This The World’s Fastest Roadgoing Fire Engine?

GT-R ニュースヘッドライン, 自動車関連ニュース fire truck, gtr, nissan, nurburgring, rrv

Nissan has decided to go ahead and setup shop on the new ring boulevard at the Nurburgring in Germany with a new concept store known as “Nissan Sportscars Shop”. On display is a Nissan GT-R, a 370z Nurburgring edition and the European specification Nissan GT-R SpecV.

Sales are expected to begin this year but pricing is not yet known.

Will Nissan let the world know the SpecV Nurburgring laptime at the European SpecV launch? Makes sense to me!

Check the full press release after the jump…

ソース: Nissan Motors Australia

Read more…

GT-R ニュースヘッドライン, SpecV GT-R gt-r, gtr, nissan, nurburgring, r35, specv