Nissan GT-R smashes own Nurburgring record

NISSAN has smashed its own production car lap record at the famous Nordschleife circuit at the Nurburgring in Germany, achieving a lap time of seven minutes and 29 seconds during testing late last month – nine seconds faster than the previous test.

Nissan claims GT-R chief test driver Tochio Suzuki set the time in a base-specification version of the 353kW coupe, which is due on sale here in early 2009, fitted with standard tyres.

A performance benchmark for the world’s top sportscar manufacturers, the Nordschleife is a sinewy 20.8km stretch of forest road. Suzuki-san, who also set the GT-R’s previous record, achieved the quicker time despite reportedly damp conditions on two corners.

The 7:29 result is claimed to be one of the fastest laps ever achieved by a production car at the “green hell”, with unofficial timing placing the GT-R third behind the Porsche Carrera GT (7:28.0) and Pagani Zonda F (7:27.8).

“At last year’s testing, we were frustrated by the conditions at the Nurburgring, always believing that the GT-R could go under seven minutes 30 seconds,” said GT-R chief vehicle engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno.

“Below seven minutes 30 seconds, the GT-R proves it is among the fastest mass-production cars in the world. We set out to build a multi-performance supercar accessible to anyone, anytime and anywhere – I believe the GT-R has delivered that promise.”

The lighter-weight, more track-oriented Spec V version understood to be in development should be even quicker.

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