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3.8 sec 0-60 mph

8.5 sec 0-100 mph

This is insane. Its faster than the Lambo Gallardo and yet costs half as much. Nissan insn''t going to be able to build enough of these.
 

It's just an astonishing car. The Porsche has finally had it's eye wiped.

Very impressive figures by the GT-R indeed. The 4WD traction certainly helping out as well as the nicely sorted paddle transmission. But did Chris Harris mess up his M3 effort somewhat, even allowing for the "worn tyres" issue"? It seemed like it.

There is no doubt about it that any avid enthusiast would be more than happy with any one of these three fantatstic cars in their garage, but the Skyline is just awesome, beyond awesome and truly on another level.

 Just get your head round the numbers, never mind the performance numbers but the cost numbers.  Surely this car has just well and truly kicked all the rules of badge snobbery into touch, who in their right mind would pay another £25-30K minimum + for a Porsche with close to comparable performance ? Nevermind  a Gallardo for 2 to 3 times as much !!!!

And the best bit of all in my eyes. All that performance is immediately on tap never mind who is driving be it Hamilton or my granny,and in the right colour, maybe a nice titanium grey, you could tootle about nice and discretely avoiding the animosity that 'real' supercars happen to generate.

Nissan UK, where do I send my deposit cheque ?

 ps Chris, please lose the fuzzy beard !

Give me a break!

I'm sorry to not get caught up in the all the motoring press hype, but if you have £55K plus to spend on what is essentially a toy, you're only going to buy the GT-R if you're a die hard Jap fan. The interior looks like it was designed in a lunch break (no matter what the quality may be like) and the styling is the usual Manga rubbish - yes its purposeful, yes its agressive - but at this price point people what something that is also beautiful - otherwise they may as well buy a Mistu-scooby for 20K less.

I'd be putting my cash to a 911 Carrera S - and if I could afford 100K? I'd add a caterham or Atom.

Don't get me wrong, it's an impressive machine - and I respect that, but it should cost what it does in Japan - £35K and it makes sense - but no more.

One point to keep in mind though is that the GT-R has been designed ground up as a highly focused performance machine to obliterate corners and long straights. Clearly it's an awesome point to point device.

However, based on all the reports I've read so far (and probably because of its amazing abilities) even by high performance car standards it has a pretty unforgiving ride, making it perhaps somewhat more compromised than something like the M3 as a road car to be used day in day out. Having said that, I'm sure many perfomance enthusiasts won't care about that. In terms of value/ability for money its pretty hard to beat.

I wonder how it would fare against the Audit R8.

It's kind of interesting that Chris wanted to run the 250 pound cars for a 250 mi race, but these cars for only 1 flying lap.  He said that this would illustrate the ease of use aspects of the car(s?).  Although he chose the 997 GT3 to compare against the GTR, as opposed to its benchmark and closer technical competitor - the 997 turbo (if not in price...), I still think that he has stacked the cards against Porsche this time.  Have the Japs finnaly got to him??

 Specifcally, if he really wants to show how good the GTR is at the track, then run it for more than 1 flying lap.  At least do what Best Motoring does, and run it for 5, and then compare the total or average lap, which is similar to a race.  Secondly, I wasn't aware that the best way to launch a 997 GT3 is by dropping the clutch @4000 RPM...  We all expected the GTR to be faster off the line with AWD and launch control - why did he have to exagerate this difference?

 Don't get me wrong - I like what Chris is doing with these videos.  I think his style is getting better with every clip.  He truly gives you the impression that he is talking to you directly, as opposed to grandstanding like Jeremy does so often.  However, I would prefer it if he did a better job at maintaining his journalistic integrity.

Mr tforth,

You're suggesting Chris' integrity is in question because he picked a less powerful 911 than the Turbo, and because he deliberately span its wheels a bit from stationary? That's madness.

The GT-R has already beaten the Turbo on a road-based comparison in this week's issue of our mag. We'd have been repeating ourselves had we picked the Turbo. We picked the GT3 not only because it's closer on price to the Nissan, but because it's the better and quicker 911 on a circuit, and because, from an enthusiast's standpoint, it's also just the better 911 full stop: more responsive, more enervating, more thrilling-to-drive.

And you have to spin the wheels a little in a car like that to get it away from the line quickly. Remember the engine's designed to deliver more power than torque. This car will bog down if you drop the clutch at much lower rpm than 4000rpm. And that's not quick. 

I think the new GTR is a fantastic vehicle. Nissan has taken the Porsche which has probably been the benchmark in the supercar segment for handling, performance and actual driveability, and on there first real attempt at a supercar actually made a car that is not only quicker and faster but also more driveable even for an average driver. On top of this you can buy the Nissan at a much better price get ten times as much kit as standard and as far as build quality goes from what I have read it is as good as what any of the other top marques offer. Weather a car looks nice or ugly is alwayse an arguable point as we all have different tasts what I do like about the GTR is its styling is unique it has not copied any other car it offers somthing different. The Porsche models all seem to look the same and have had the same styling since the year dot. Porsche and BMW alike have become so common on our roads when I see them on the road now I dont get the wow factor. I do get that from the GTR though.

What has not been mentioned aswell is the running costs I would expect the servicing cost of the GTR to be more in line with that of a VW Golf GTi yet another plus point.

Any body looking for a supercar would have to consider a GTR any body who would not due to brand snobbery would simply have more money than sence.

Well done Nissan.

Mr. Saunders,

 Thanks for your response.  Sorry, I wasn't suggesting that you compare it against the 997 tt, as I am a regular reader and am aware that you have already done so.  Rather, the point I was tryin to get at was the way in which the 997 GT3 was used in this comparison.  Specifically, I would have thought that a little bit of riding out the clutch would ensure a better start in the GT3 (I'm sure Sutters would know).  Secondly, as I had already mentioned in my original submission, run the cars for more than 1 lap, to get a better idea of how these cars would perform at an actual track day.  Personally, I'm not aware of anybody who would go out and only do one flying lap at a track day.  Another point I would like to make regarding the laping session, is that GT3s are known for their relative good turn-in, and not the understeer that Chris repeatedly mentioned.  It would sound to me like either the alignment was out, or the front tires were shot.

 Lastly, can he please refrain from continually using the term: "this is the best car I've ever driven" - or something along those lines.  It's believable with the Veyron, but not with the GTR.  Again, I think Chris is doing an excellent job in general.  These comments are intended to be objective constructive criticism, as I do not own either car.

 ...and that dashboard in the GTR...  Did they try and copy something from the eighties?  I thought that BMW had lost the plot...

found this clip on youtube from some US reviewers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDoJdQXmwu8&feature=related

they time the GTR after a few attempts to 60 and 1/4 mile.  figures back were better than manufacturers claims.... 0-60 in 3.3!!!