GT-R’s 7.29 ‘ring time – how?
May 13, 2008 by Karl Peskett
We all know the story of the blisteringly quick Nurburgring lap time which the new GT-R has set. At 7 mins and 29 secs, the flagship Nissan is arguably the world’s best priced supercar.
But little, apart from standard tyres and a dryer surface, was known about the reason behind the increase in pace, from its first recorded run of 7 mins 38 secs. Until now.
According to PistonHeads, even though it was said to be unmodified, there were a few tweaks which are set to debut on its European launch.
Nissan is said to be including harder engine mounts and a stiffer transaxle mount for the US version, allowing for more suspension tuning, and the Euro version will include a recalibrated rear differential, and revised steering. Sign off on these ammendments will be in September.
But if the diff and steering settings have netted an increase of nine seconds on the world’s most challenging circuit, there’s little doubt that the GT-R will gain these tweaks at production.
Chief engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno explained why there will be changes, even after the GT-R’s launch in Japan.
“The GT-R is my son,” he said. “A son grows up and it’s my duty as father to keep improving it.”
Source: PistonHeads
Print it: 
Some Motor body or the Nurburgring ring itself has to bring in some uniformed testing spec for any manufacturer wanting to test there car and call it a production car.Then we can get a feel for what these qouted times realiy mean
“The GT-R is my son,” – spoken like a true engineer..
Dont get me wrong…I love the GTR but the idea of having to remove the engine at 100k to service it puts me off it. The other thing that now gives me a negative vibe is how many of them will you see on the road after 3 or 4 years (they’re here now with private importers beating Nissan to the punch on compliancing). Kinda takes the edge of owning a supercar as well if every second 20-year-old with p-plates and an exhaust (raped by an elephant) comes roaring up the street with the blow-off valve squeeking. For the same money, I d still rather an M3 or a Cayman and know that the market wont be flooded with parallel imports in 4 years time.
Well not a new concept, most manufacturers gain tweaks to the model line ups through testing/racing etc over time giving way to series 1.5’s 2 etc of the same model. Though this is somewhat early in the product life, kinda shafting first of the line buyers….
… lets see what v-spec clocks up…
Im with Fenno, i wont be surprised if you a few GT-R’s sold or being locked away as a collectable before the 100k service.
I agree with you Phill – Not exactly a production car yet. Lets see one off the shelf do the same.
Still it just betters the Germans efforts on their own doorstep for now. Watch this space.
There’s a need to remove the engine to be serviced? And at just 100K? Typical Japanese motors can run thrice, even 4 times that with proper maintenance before a thorough overhaul. That’s a big turn-off then, and pretty much sacrilege to Japan reliability.
100,000k from a supercar engine is pretty good, if you compare it to older Italian supercars.
The extras thrown in for the post 7.29 ring time include a numbered stopwatch that is as slow as the one used for the run.
100K service isnt too big of a deal, most sports cars have internals that require changing.
RX-7s FDs are one case where it is generally in need of a engine rebuild about 100K. Supras are generally a lot more reliable… actually a lot more.
GTRs? well the previous ones, R32 and R33, not sure about R34s, but the 32 and 33 required major service about 100Ks into them, even with good maintenance procedures, its just thats the way they are, unless you literally didnt drive it pass 3000 rpm and drove it as gentle as possible you’d probably still need a major service done 150K anyways.
M3s and Caymans… they do require servicing actually.. regular servicing would be twice the cost of the GTRs hence you probably wont get a major service at 100K because those regular services refreshes a lot of parts/fluids already..