German Car Zone

Race ready

They say all good things come in small packages, and Nissan takes this message to heart when it comes to letting go of information on its highly anticipated GT-R GT500 race car.

Last week we brought you the description of the new GT500 racer and a video of the 'taped-up' GT500 on its first test run on the track. Today we can add some high resolution photos to the list.

Late January Nissan will finally release technical specifications of the most powerful GT-R, together with Nissan's full range of global motorsports activities. Can we silently hope for a Nissan GT-R GT500 type car in Europe or North America?

Full specs for Nissan’s V8 powered GT500 GT-R

Posted on Thursday 31 January 2008



The race cars of the GT500 class in the Japanese touring car series (JGTC) have some of the most extreme aerodynamic and powertrain packages in the business and the latest iteration of one of the event’s legends, Nissan’s GT-R super sports car, doesn’t fail to live up to the standard of past heroes. Nissan first unveiled the racer at a press event earlier in the month but today at another event in Tokyo full specifications for the car were detailed.

Four teams will enter the R35 GT-R for this year’s Super GT series in replacement of the current 350Z-based race cars. Virtually every component of the road going car has been improved or replaced, including the potent twin-turbo V6. The engine is still too new for race teams so instead they stuck with the current 4.5L normally-aspirated V8 mill. The car also sports a six-speed sequential transaxle and RWD layout as per the rules of the series.

The V8 engine still develops the maximum allowable 500hp, even with air-restrictions, and its torque levels are far beyond the 376lb-ft figure announced today. The first race of the season kicks off at Suzuka on the 15th of March and there’s a scheduled nine events all up on the calendar.

Nissan GT-R GT500 Race Car at NisMo Festival


LINK

Holy smokes, I'm out of words ...!

Nissan GT-R Wins Maiden Race
Press Release

The XANAVI NISMO GT-R (#23), starting from the second on the grid and driven by Satoshi Motoyama and Benoit Treluyer, won the first race of the 2008 Super GT series in Japan in front of more than 32,000 spectators. Michael Krumm and Masataka Yanagida brought the MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (#22) home in the 2nd place for a historic debut race weekend for Nissan.

At 2pm local time, 42 GT race cars started the formation lap led by a Nissan GT-R Safety Car under perfect race conditions. The two NISMO GT-Rs, starting from the front row, made a clean start. Unfortunately, the CALSONIC GT-R (#12) in third place on the grid was hit from behind on the first lap and was taken out of the race for repairs.

Krumm in the #22 car, started from the pole position and crossed the control line at the end of lap one followed by Treluyer behind the wheel of the #23 GT-R. The Nissan pair continued to dominate the rest of the race ahead of the Lexus SC 430 in the third place, creating a gap of more than four seconds by lap forty.

Both leading Nissan’s pitted for tires and a driver change in the middle of the 52 lap race and subsequently changed the race order. Yanagida who took over #22 car from Krumm choose harder tires than Motoyama in the #23 car. XANAVI NISMO GT-R (#23) with more tire grip on softer rubber passed the MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (#22) in the hair-pin corner on lap 24 and went on to win the race.

The WOODONE ADVAN Clarion GT-R (#24) driven by Brazilian Joao-Paulo de Oliveira and Seiji Ara completed a steady race performance to finish in 5th position. The YelloHat YMS TOMICA GT-R (#3) driven by Ronnie Quintarelli from Italy and Naoki Yokomizo was in 6th position towards the end of the race but pulled out of the race on lap 42 due to mechanical problems.

[Source: Nissan via WCF]