[DeTomaso] Why Is the Nissan R-35 GTR so fast??

Julian Kift julian_kift at hotmail.com
Fri Jan 13 13:44:41 EST 2012


There's a guy that runs a 2009 R35 GTR at our local SCCA region and no question it's  a quick car. This guy has a big ego and hates to get beat by anything, so he's always first in line to get out on a clean track. All season he and I would switch back and forth for fastest lap time, but I never really ran side by side with him to see where he was strong, that is until late in the season last year and what I saw really surprised me. I swear following him that the car was literally driving him, he was justa long for the ride. The ass end was all over the track, but each time the computer and all wheel drive did it's job and recovered. Well almost each time, when I started pushing to pass he eventually overdrove it into a spin. Now that recount does nothing to decry the straight line speeds and capability of the car, but a lot of the fast track times in this guy's case were down to the technology aids.
  
Each small error on my part was a 1/10th of a second loss, to him in the R35 it was seamless as the car counteracted it. Yes you can rightly argue that a great driver will do even more with the car and I have to admit that Nissan really pulled together a great performance package, but the styling does little for me personally.
 
So when it comes to the 64K question of which would I reather be driving? I can honestly say without a doubt that I'd stick with my Ultima, where I am driving and not driven, call me 'old fashioned' but maybe its just that fundamental rawness. That's probably why I love Pantera's too.....
 
BTW If anyone feels the urge to take on an R35 GTR my Ultima is for sale. I got a deal on a full out race car for this season....
 
Julian
 
> Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:35:35 -0500
> From: patrick.q.lee at rbc.com
> To: detomaso at realbig.com
> Subject: [DeTomaso] Why Is the Nissan R-35 GTR so fast??
> 
> Okay, I have a reasonably fast 71 Pantera with a nice 393 stroked street
> motor, with alloy heads and 11:5 compression.
> I have a 2011 Jaguar XKR Special Edition with 510 hp which also feels
> stupid fast as well....but Top Gear has the Nissan GTR literally
> thrashing
> every Ferrari (Enzo included), Lambo (LP640 included), the Maserati MC
> 12, any Aston Martin, any Audi any Jaguar, any Mercedes, any Porsche,
> any Corvette.....
> My god, the only thing within sight of this rocket around a track was
> the Noble, the Atom and the Bugatti Veyron and they weren't any faster.
> This is the regular R-35 GTR you can buy for 90 grand. If you tweak the
> blowers, this thing will generate 700-1000 hp.
> They have one that did 8's in the quarter at 170 mph....what is going on
> here???
> _______________________________________________________________________ 		 	   		  


More information about the DeTomaso mailing list