German Car Zone

There were plenty of enthusiasts who scoffed when Nissan's engineers started dragging a 911 Turbo around with them while testing the 2009 GT-R. It seemed like a lofty benchmark for a car that's expected to cost around $75,000, but the latest word from Germany suggests Nissan may have met its goals.

Prototypes of the 2009 GT-R started circling the Nurburgring yesterday, and according to spy shooters on the scene it was clear that the GT-R was running at full steam. With that in mind, they pulled out their stop watches to get an idea just how fast the GT-R was getting around the Nordschleife. The fastest hand timed lap came in at around 7:38, two seconds faster than the 911 Turbo's widely reported fastest lap of 7:40.

And as if that wasn’t enough to cement the GT-R's reputation around the Nurburgring, our spies also caught a couple shots of the Nissan blowing by the facelift Porsche 911 Turbo we showed you earlier in the week. The Porsche may not have been running at full speed, but a pass is a pass.



Straightline - Spy photos: Nissan GT-R beats 911 Turbo around the Nurburgring.*

Better start taking this car seriously. It's going to be interesting to hear what all the anti-Jap/nay-sayers have to say about the Skyline GT-R when such a laptime around the 'Ring becomes official.

The proportions of the Skyline also look amazing.. not much has changed from the concept shown a few years ago, which IMO is definately a good thing!

Great to see a car that looks better than a Porsche actually go as fast (if not faster) than one!

The facelift version of the 997 Turbo will get extra engine power as well as quick shifting DSG gearbox, so while the GT-R is quicker than the 997 Turbo now, I think they will be quite equally matched in the future. Does anyone know if this time is set with a standard GT-R or most likely the lighter weight, more power powerful version (I can't remember the name of it). A 7:38 is seriousely quick, well done to the Nissan engineers. Originally they set off to beat the lap record like the orginal R32, but this effort isn't bad at all.

sportauto is the only way to go comparing cars. I really hope Sportauto getting their hands on the new Skyline for their supertests

The cars from east i never bitched about:

Skyline GT-R
Supra
Mitsu Lancer
Subbie Impreza

The time set by Nissan in the R32, what was that again?

Well, manufacturer times have no credibility at all and im surpirsed that people still quotes the times set by that no-where-near original R32 GTR.

I can't wait either!

Yup, this car is going to make a lot of expensive German cars look bad!

That is quite possible, it will be really interesting to see a well documented test of a standard GTR on the ring for the first time. Nissan sure has a lot of pressure to deliver!