freind of mine recently put a deposit down for a new GTR, as a thankyou Nissan gave him an invite to a driver training course at nurburg
when he got there he had a 3 day driving course and some laps unsupervised on the GT circuit plus driffting and skid pan lessons in the new GTR and a 350 Z
they also got their own customised helmets+ monogramed helmet bags
now thats what i call proper customer care
its supposedly cost Nissan 3k per customer and at the end of the 3 weeks the cars go back to Nissan to be stripped and inspected for weaknesses, looks like Nissan are taking this seriously

 

Off to Car Talk

 

looks more like concerns about quality to me

 

Gad are you going to start an anti-GTR forum?

i think this is an example of a manufacturer taking steps that others (in the performance arena) should be following. seems a great idea, get future users to try out the product and see how it stands up.. hardly rocket science but sound nevertheless

lets face it, we're not all racing drivers (though obviously this board consists almost entirely of ultra-talented would be F1 drivers ) and may have some odd, bad, habits

 

I think the GTR is a piece of engineering/electrickery

Just not as great as we have all been led to believe

And I honestly believe in the principle of getting things right first time, certainly before you release them to the public

I've no particular anti-GTR bias, other than the fact that I dislike hype (and few could deny the hype around this car)

And that I think it is a pig ugly design that will appeal mostly to baseball cap wearers with a bit of cash

 

How much of the hype is Nissan generated though? obviously beating the 911 turbo ring time was a target which they hit and crowed about but the media have always wanted a mainstream manufacturer to make a car which can beat a 'supercar' in the performance stakes and in one metric it's achieved that. imho it deserves plaudits for that

it looks a lot like the new evo to me.. very aggressive styling and certainly not sports car styling, very yank muscle car but i'm a fan of that and cars like the classic mustang etc.

I don't buy the electrickery comment though, that's what progress is about. ABS, TC are all things previously called 'boxes of tricks' which everything half decent has these days.. even the newer S has TC . it can probably dull the experience but no doubt adds pace and safety

 

they produced the ad ending with the ring time, so I guess the answer is obvious

tweaking the tail of supercars has been around for a while. it appeals to 'poor' people for obvious reasons but few people buy supercars for ultimate performance

each to their own with styling. I quite like the new EVO from pics I have seen, but the GTR is a beefy lump in the metal, and does nothing for me at all

it's probably an age thing; I am not bothered by having pas, abs or airbags

I am not criticising the GTR for it and agree that it's progress

 

New Evo is not my favorite

Looks nicer but 5 speed manual option doesn't appeal to me much, plus it's apparently even more stale to drive. Paddle shift is a no no too.

I really want a test drive of the new GTR, as i'm quite keen on owning one late next year. It's that or an Evo 9 MR with the RS diff. I have thought about R34, but I think the prices still have further room to tumble and it's looking a bit dated.

 

i think that's an enthusiast thing.. it's like evo (i know not your favourite publication) giving the old M3 (the number escapes me, was it the first one?) the title of best M car.. it's not really about pace, it's about the entire package, steering, handling, involvement..

and i'm with you on that.. raw is good but few cars these days are. the elise/vx220 being the ones which come to mind immediately

 

for me, old cars with no aids are fine in two situations:

1. when you are on your own on the road/track (although I don't know about tracks)

2. when other cars on the road/track are from the same era

driving a classic in sprited fashion on the roads where there is any element of 'competition' is not fun at all - and can be dangerous

I totally get it that ultimate speed is not that important, but it has to be in the conditions I've described above - for me anyway