Porsche accused Nissan for cheating with GTR Nurburgring results

Just when the burning fires of Nissan GTR's amazing performance was just about to ease off, Porsche lit the dying flame up with the splashing of bucket of aircraft grade petroleum claiming Nissan cheated on its GTR's achievements on the Nurburgring track. The story started when Nissan announced a time of 7 minutes 38 seconds around the Ring, on a damp track, playing level field with Porsche's 911 Turbo. Then a week later, they announced a shocking time of 7 minutes 29 seconds on a dry track, beating every single mass production vehicle timed on the Ring, causing an uproar of disbelieve in every corner of supercardom. Then Nissan kept everyone's mouth shut with a video of the lap run confirming their claim. Subsequently, GTR quickly relinquish the legendary status dubbed 'God of War' in Japan, and 'Godzilla' in the rest of the Western world; from it's predecessor Skyline GTR R32.

The fire did not just stop there, with every motoring magazine queuing up for a test on the GTR's seemingly incomprehensible, impossible performance with it's 'mere' 480hp 3.8 ltr V6 Twin Turbo charged engine coupled to a six speed 'only' automated twin clutch manual transmission, powering a behemoth weighing 1740kg. The most watched/viewed/favored Top Gear from BBC tested the GTR on their famous track with The Stig behind the wheels revealed an even more shocking result, with the GTR clocking the track faster than Porsche's once in a lifetime hypercar Porsche Carrera GT, ranking number 7, with Clarkson claiming that "Nissan did not just build a new supercar, they've built a new yardstick."

Then car magazines from around the world tested the GTR pitched against the 911 Turbo, and the GTR won in all comparisons, most notably is Evo Magazine's test, where the magazine's team was widely known as advocates of Porsches tested the GTR against an American drag monster Corvette Z06 and won, and then pitching the GTR against an Audi R8, a new benchmark for handling and comfort finesse over twisting B-roads with the GTR again trumping the R8 and finally pitting the GTR to Porsche's track magician the 911 GT3 and left the GT3 in a shy corner. Subsequently in a group test arranged by Autocar UK, the GTR was pitted against the R8 and 911 again and Autocar claiming the Nissan rumbles in between the two and blow both of them away with no hesitation.

Motor Trend from US then figures its a waste of time figuring how a 480hp 1740kg car could easily beat rivals that weighs much lesser with the same amount of horsepower then took the GTR to a quick dyno session and claims that the GTR produces around 550hp on the crank, saving some embarrassing facial expressions from their own national champion Chevrolet Corvette Z06, however a quick calculation by Wheels Weekly reveals that a 550hp output on the crank, does converts back to around 480hp on the wheels.

Now, Porsche, the car that Nissan was obviously aiming after and had clearly got it beaten in bruises is of course non too happy with this. And they did the simple thing to do, buying a Nissan GTR and shipped it over to Germany, all stock and place it on a battle with the 911 Turbo GT2 and 911 Turbo. Product Chief for the 911 Mr August Achleitner said "This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car." As he claims, their own repeated tests on the Nurburgring revealed the GTR clocked in a time of 7 minutes 54 seconds, where the 911 Turbo did 7 minutes 38 seconds and the GT2 did 7 minutes 34 seconds. Both of which, were repeatedly faster than the GTR around the Nurburgring. With the GTR consistently returning times 25 seconds off their initial claims (and proof).

Well, it seems the guys at Stuttgart might have a better sleep the night after their test. Knowing that they have to just ignore the tests done by Top Gear, Autocar, Evo, Fifth Gear, Inside Line, Car Magazine and plenty of experts around the world. As for Wheels Weekly, we might have a word for Porsche: "Did you flick the three toggles to 'R'? In case you did, you might wanna try it again holding them there till the lights were lit."


Image Sourced: NetCarShow