Nissan GT-R to be revised for Europe

By Tim Pollard

Motor Industry

01 May 2008 18:14

Nissan is fettling its GT-R before it goes on sale in the UK in April 2009. It might have just announced a new lap record at the Nurburgring – chief test driver Tochio Suzuki shaved nine seconds off the GT-R's previous record of 7min 38 – but Nissan's engineers are already working on upgrades to the everyman's supercar.

Chief vehicle engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno told CAR Online that the GT-R models bound for the American market would benefit from a range of small tweaks, including three harder engine mounts and a stiffer transaxle mount to stop the mechancial parts from moving under extreme cornering. It's detail like this that enabled the new 7min 29sec...

Nissan GT-R: detail changes

'The new mounts make the car feel more together in extreme circumstances,' he said. 'We've also changed the spring rates front and rear – it's a minute change, they're just 0.1kg/sq mm stiffer. But it means the movement of the suspension and powertrain are more perfectly tuned.'

The same changes will be rolled out to every GT-R; this is a global model and one week after the US-spec modifications were made, they were applied to the domestic market cars. You'd still be a bit gutted if you bought one of the very first models off the line though...

Click 'Next' to find out what further changes are planned for European GT-Rs

By Tim Pollard