Nissan GT-R sets new Nurburgring lap record

Nissan GT-R Nurburgring record

By Tim Pollard

Motor Industry

14 May 2009 15:45

Nissan today revealed it had smashed its own internal lap record of the Nurburgring in the new R35 GT-R. For some this is manna from anorak heaven; of course, others will dismiss it as yet more hype about a rare-groove racetrack with little relevance to the man on the street.

Whatever your view, it’s still pretty impressive. The new Nissan GT-R lapped the Nordschleife in 7min 26.70sec – substantially faster than the 911 Turbo record  of 7min 38sec. Just for the record, the Bugatti Veyron Ring record stands at 7min 40sec, a Porsche Carrera GT 7min 28sec.

The R35-spec GT-R, which only just went on sale in Europe last month, was a stock 2010 model year car with only a handful of changes to a car you or I could buy: Spec V wheels and tyres were fitted (they’re optional on customer cars) and the suspension adjusted to track-day spec (again, customer cars can be specced with this geometry).

Today’s announcement is likely to fan the flames of controversy that broke out last year when Porsche unofficially accused Nissan of cheating after its engineers failed to get anywhere near its Ring lap time in a stock GT-R. Sour grapes? This one’ll run and run…

By Tim Pollard