[Monster]

Originally Posted by martinbo

Sorry if I've hijacked your very worthwhile debate.

Its all good, the more people in the discussion the better. I am heading off for some sleep before I read your entire post.

[martinbo]

Well I'm just dishing out thanks to all those who care enough about the topic to discuss it at length and with passion.

Makes a refreshing change from "that car sucks" and "those guys at fast car mag don't know how to drive"...

...and lest we not forget about the topic of this thread; God bless those folks at Nissan who had a hand in the creation of the utterly fantastic bar-raising and all-round great for performance motoring, Nissan GT-R. Bring on the V-Spec. Bring on a sub 7:30 Nordschleife time. Because that's called progress, which, is the best catalyst for forcing the competition to respond!

[warot]

Originally Posted by martinbo

Well I'm just dishing out thanks to all those who care enough about the topic to discuss it at length and with passion.

Makes a refreshing change from "that car sucks" and "those guys at fast car mag don't know how to drive"...

...and lest we not forget about the topic of this thread; God bless those folks at Nissan who had a hand in the creation of the utterly fantastic bar-raising and all-round great for performance motoring, Nissan GT-R. Bring on the V-Spec. Bring on a sub 7:30 Nordschleife time. Because that's called progress, which, is the best catalyst for forcing the competition to respond!

It's definitely great to see threads like this. It's refreshing to have a technical discussion rather than some threads that don't bring anything to the table (that I've seen lately).

As for the GT-R, there's absolutely no doubt that this car has changed the industry. Porsche all of a sudden do not have an answer to this car and it costs much less. It makes the M3's pricetag seem unjustified even. However, there were rumors going around that the GT-R that set the previous laptime at the Ring was not a final product (i.e more power than production version). Do you guys think this could be the same?

As for the technical discussion, I'd like to add this. I'm sure it's been mentioned here that CF not only reduces weight but also increases rigidity. It definitely makes sense to use CF on the roof as that's the highest point of the car obviously. I'd be curious to know how BMW builds their CF roof. Now I'm not expert when it comes to CF manufacturing, but how automated is this process.

I am part of the Virginia Tech mini baja SAE team which is my senior design project. We build a small 1 seater off road car with a 10hp engine. This year, we decided to incorporate CF into last years car and the new one (we are running 2 cars at the competition this year). Obviously, it doesn't look too great (it's a bunch of college guys with no experience with CF) but there is no denying that sucker is strong. Not only is the panel extremely rigid, but it also helps the frame being much more solid as well. While it is expensive for us, there's no doubt that if a bunch of college students can buy and manufacture CF body panels, BMW can do it with even less problems.

So my point is... it's probably not as expensive and complicated as most people think

[Monster]

Originally Posted by martinbo

Discussions on engine vibration frequencies and harmonics are very complex. So I'll refrain from commenting on whether a 4.0 L V8 has less vibration than a 6.2 L V8. Of course, logically it stands to reason; the bigger the cylinder capacity the bigger and heavier the reciprocating components need to be in order to cope with the combustive and inertial forces at play.

There are about 2 massively long equations and 8 massively long sub equations for engine vibration and balancing, not very fun.

Originally Posted by martinbo

Even a Pagani Zonda with 7.3 litres of AMG V12 is closer to the optimum than say a familiar 6.208 L V8. Very importantly, when it comes to high revving engines and risk of engine destruction it's not only how an engine behaves under load i.e. full-throttle acceleration but also when it's unloaded (throttle-lift) at very high rpm. Bigger pistons, con-rods, bearings and gudgeon pins carry more inertia and when the throttle is closed these components have much less resistance to keep them in check on the way up to top-dead centre.

You made a very good point about the engine running in unloaded condition. Our entire subject was spent on studying engine when it is loaded, and nothing about when the engine is unloaded. I am guessing the forces in the piston, con-rods, bearings and other parts in the unloaded condition will be less than when the engine is in loaded condition.

[Monster]

Originally Posted by warot

I am part of the Virginia Tech mini baja SAE team which is my senior design project. We build a small 1 seater off road car with a 10hp engine. This year, we decided to incorporate CF into last years car and the new one (we are running 2 cars at the competition this year). Obviously, it doesn't look too great (it's a bunch of college guys with no experience with CF) but there is no denying that sucker is strong. Not only is the panel extremely rigid, but it also helps the frame being much more solid as well. While it is expensive for us, there's no doubt that if a bunch of college students can buy and manufacture CF body panels, BMW can do it with even less problems.

So my point is... it's probably not as expensive and complicated as most people think

I left my uni's SAE team, they are just so dam lazy. Every other competitors are running turbo engines, we are still stuck with the N.A engine cause nobody wants to do any work.

I think the C.F stuff is pretty expensive, my friend had a roll of them which cost him $4000 AUD, I think it is a 2m by 2m square C.F sheet? The process is just really really time consuming. If a bunch of uni students can build a C.F body for their solar car, proper professionals will do it with no problem.

[siko]

Nissan GT-R Spec V Details Spilled

The flood gates have been cracked open by French owned publication, Road&Track, on the Nissan GT-R Spec V. Already a legend before it has even hits the streets, we've seen the Skyline successor earn itself a place amongst the Nurburgring elite in plain GT-R guise. Now, Nissan is preparing an even more extreme lightweight version known as the GT-R Spec V. Altogether, the Spec V loses 200 lbs (90 kg) and gains 40hp.

Brace yourself: 520 hp at 6500 rpm, 440 lb.-ft. (596 Nm) of torque all the way from 3200 to 5200 rpm, 3615 lbs. (1640 kg), arrives early 2009, 2-seater, cost $130,000 USD, and reportedly laps the Ring faster than 7m 30 sec. - a dummy spec given the GT-R already does it in 7:29. Therefore, its a safe bet that the Spec V will crush the Corvette ZR-1 at 7 min 26 sec, despite the price almost doubling.

According to the other French owned magazine, Car & Driver, the GT-R Spec V will be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in October with sales to commence as soon as December for the Japanese market.

[Source: Road&Track via Autoblog.com]

[Merc1]

520hp on paper, so it will really be making about 580-600hp in reality.

M

[Merc1]

A reliable tip-off on the Nissan GT-R Spec-V specifications has been received. Before getting into that, a strong wind of suspicion says Nissan will not release any data captured from testing at the fabled Nurburgring anymore. Eyebrows of wonder all around? Suffice to say at the Sendai Highland Raceway, where the Nismo and Spec-V GT-Rs are tested, the Spec-V was a full two seconds faster than the standard car.

The engine's output has been upped to 485ps. That will work extremely well with an overboost function which is used for a more effective midrange boost when overtaking.

A number of carbon fiber features can be found inside the Spec-V, such as front seats, a rear shelf that replaces rear seats (a casualty of weight-saving), mirror switch surround as well as MFD surround. Not unexpectedly this lightweight material posts itself quite nicely on the exterior where treatment is metted out on the front grille, rear wing, ducts on the front lip spoiler and brakes are also carbon fiber. It runs on 20-inch forged aluminium wheels with Dunlop tyres as a no-cost option.

GT-R Spec-V has a new colour in Ultimate Black Pearl, said to be a purplish black, to add to Brilliant White, Red, Dark Metal Grey and Black. A base price of ¥15,750,000 ($165K, €128K) should be in order when the car goes on sale 8th January 2009.


Nissan GT-R Spec-V Confirmed Specifications - worldcarfans


M

[Tarek]

That car is gonna humiliate the best from Germany and Italy

Spec-V the new nightmare..

[Just_me]

So if I get this right, the car is only getting another 5 extra horsepower and lower weight. By how much, 100 kg?