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As far as i know COTF has no specified capacity limitation but they have proposed a parity development system for a range of capacities. The only requirement is that it be a naturally aspirated V8. The aim was to open the field up to the Euro marques selling hipo V8 sedans. The race car must be 4dr body with RWD and have the external appearance of the street car. The chassis, floor pan, steering, suspension, brakes, gearbox, wheels, tires, aero, etc. are all control so the racing will remain very competitive. More importantly it will also remain very affordable and relevant, costing < $250,000 per car. Nissan currently run two very successful NA V8 racing powerplant programmes, one in partnership with Zytek. All the series they currently take part in use fairly aggresive intake restriction to limit power output, this means that V8SC will be the first time we see these powerplants opened up. From what I recall the Nissan/Zytek VK45 is capable of 580Nm and between 600 and 700hp (unrestricted) depending on race length. The VK56 obviously takes that further and you could run similar power at a reduced cost with increased durability. With Ford's involvement sitting precariously at the moment, the departure of one make (in a two make series) will sound the death knell for the series. COTF is their strategy for obtaining much needed diversity in their investor pool. There really is no other path to take without killing the series. I'm looking forward to the 2013 season. I suspect there will be some interesting reactions from the fans and one or two news making moments if Nissan makes it to the podium.

It's called providing context. Yes, it may be the case that that company is responsible. The majority of the GT-R's transmission woes stem from under-engineering not poor build quality. Ask the gents over at Willall about their experiences with the unit. That doesn't mean that the company doesn't know what it's doing. It's entirely plausible that they were working under a tight budget or time frame (which is likely given the price target for the GT-R) or that they had communication issues with Aichi. Remember these are the same folks that designed the MDCT unit for BMW and programmed the Veyrons gearbox. Both are projects which have turned out quite well.

If I'm not mistaken, the GT-R's gearbox was designed mostly in Australia, by a small Sydney based design house that is a subsidiary of Borg Warner. They were the ones who designed and patented the Dualtronic technology that BW now owns. They were also responsible for programming the Veyron's gearbox for Ricardo. The GR6 is built in Japan by a subsidiary of Nissan and apparently there was some degree of co-operation during the design. The 'new' Nissan corporation has adopted this distributed engineering model for most of it's new cars. It's purely a cost based decision. Manufacturers have had to change the way they do everything to survive in this market.

What's truly amazing here is that the GT-R is 1 whole second slower than the new PDK turbo over the 1/4 mile drag. That's one whole second !!! The GT-R is heavier, less powerful, has narrower tires and one less ratio. Going into a track comparison with those specs, you'd expect it to be slaughtered. And yet not only does it keep up, it goes on to win. Just mind bending !!!

I caught of an interesting tire setup i've not seen before on an R35.You get a good look at the wheels/tires from about 3:00. These seem different, yet again, from the latest Super Taikyu GT-R's wheel/tire setup. Can't find any info on the net though.

I got that too. He made a fairly good getaway down the straight only to almost run off the road at the end because he wasn't paying attention to what's in front. Apparently one of the GT-R punters comments that "he's going to kill himself". He's also using some fairly defensive lines and running wide on the exit. I get the feeling that there has been some fairly intense rivalry between these two drivers.

2800 lbs vs 3900 lbs through the corners at Mugello. Ferrari's finest vs a Nissan. Who will win? Both cars are stock.

V8 Supercars are genuine race cars. They have no relationship to the road car what so ever. The fact that they look similar is almost purely coincidental. Yes they do start out with a road car but the amount of chopping and custom fab that goes into them is genuinely staggering. The front ends are hacked and replaced with custom suspension geometry, as is the rear, and there is one monumental buttress fitted to the rear end to handle the massive power levels. Their floors are completely removed and replaced with custom built in house jobbies. The driver's seating position is moved almost to the middle of the car and the race engine is moved much further aft than the road car. On top of that, this years 888 falcon did not share a single external panel with the road car. The Ford and Holden stickers are there for little more than sponsorship. That Holden and Ford can claim victory for the hard work that each individual team undertakes is nothing short of a joke. Anyway, add slick tires and closed loop chassis tuning and there is no chance that any road car will ever keep up.

Them is some pretty hopeless lap times for an R35. Was it raining? You will remember that Luff ran a Bathurst lap time in a bog stock Aussie R35, wearing Bridgestones, on a damp track, requiring him to brake and lose 50km/h before entering the chase. He still ran a 2:25. What gives? I would expected better from a stock GT-R, let alone a race prepped one.

Both laps were driven by the mag editor, Horst von Saurma as is normal for most Supertest laps. Sportauto's numbers for the 911 turbo make the whole Porsche/Nissan debarcle even more interesting. Acceleration 0-100km/h: 3.8s 0-200km/h: 12.6s Nordschleife Straight Vmax: 282km/h Lap Time : 7:54 (!!!!!) and this particular 911T that Sportauto received was shod with Pilot Sport Cups and PCCBs

c/o nagtroc Results: ZR1 (GT-R) Acceleration 0-100km/h: 4.0s (4.1s) 0-200km/h: 11.4s (13.1s) Nordschleife Peak lateral g: 1.6g (1.45g) Straight Vmax: 288km/h (276km/h) Lap Time: 7:38 (7:38) Note: The GT-R is 10-12km/h faster than the ZR1 through difficult technical sections just not on the straight.

I've seen a very interesting pattern of results with GT-R reviews. Journos typically have no idea how to drive the car and are instantly deflated by the fact that you can't go fully sideways like you can with a VN commodore. On the other hand professional racers (particularly those from a rally background) thoroughly enjoy the GT-R's dynamics and actually find the car to be quite a handfull at the limit. Both Millen in the US and Ordynski here in Oz have produced faster laps in the GT-R than the GT2 and both found the GT-R to have a shitload of dynamic presence at the limit. It is a complete misconception that the GT-R drives itself or is easy to drive at the limit. That misconception comes to you courtesy of Journos who percieve tire smoke and sideways action to be an indication of real perfomance. Journos are simply not capable of taking the GT-R to 10/10ths. So don't expect great results or great reviews from them.

Pop quiz: Who was the Australian journalist that interviewed the Porsche 911 product chief, August Achtleiner, and subsequently published a scathing article which accused a certain other manufacturer of fabricating lap times and created one of the greatest shit storms in all of automotive history?

True dat! R32's broke plenty. It's just that very few were ever left in stock configuration long enough for people to remember. I'm willing to bet solidly that the vast majority of the R32's touring car success in Oz was due to Freddy Gibson's remarkable re-engineering of the GT-R rather than any inherent over-engineering. These are teething problems and the aftermarket (and hopefully Nissan) will soon develop ways to overcome them. Racing is the best way to discover a car's weaknesses.

I'm curious about this also. I know that the weight is near stock (!), wheels and tires (RFTs !!!) also definitely stock. The suspension was stock at previous events but not sure about this one. Brakes can't possibly be stock, can they??? Speed limiter obviously removed. The exhaust is definitely not stock, at Rally Tas it sounded like some sort of giant monster was trolling the Tassy woods, it's roars echoing through their valleys.

Am I reading it incorrectly or do Q/T now have a massive lead on the pack? Weeks has slowed right down and now it looks like Quinn is taking it easy and just trying to finish/saving the car. For a while they were in a heated battle and left the field behind. That seems to have taken it's toll on the Lambo. Fingers + Toes crossed for the Quinn win!

Tx. Cooling is definitely one upgrade that all R35 trackers should seriously consider but you should also think about changing the exhaust setup to let the cooler do it's job. I just noticed a build on the NAGTROC site where they've fitted the WL GR6 cooling system but the GT-R's awkwardly positioned muffler (on the quad tip system) is literally kissing the WL rear mounted radiator while also completely blocking it's air flow. The ZELE car had a single sided exhaust setup and the volume of space it clears up for the radiator is simply staggering. And theirs was a twin muffler system but simply making it one sided moved both mufflers right out of the way of the radiator. A single pipe system with only one pack would clear even more room. Using a single pipe also frees up the exhaust exit point on one side so there may be a possibility of fitting a secondary radiator there, air flow permitting. Has Willal run any cooling comparisons with different exhaust arrangements?

How did the car handle? You might well be the first owner to properly track an AU spec R35.

Yep. All the 911's ever given to Sportauto are PCCB'd and Sportcup'd. Knowing how important Nurburgring lap times are, all the Euro manufacturers offer hot options on pretty much every car, though fewer than 5% of sales actually tick them. The E92 M3 that Sportauto tested was also Sportcup'd and had race pads on the front callipers. Running a well designed R-compound would return more than 5 seconds on the 'ring. A great track setup for the GT-R would be a combination of the Nismo wheels and the New 20" R888s that Toyo are working on right now.

Nikasil is a similar idea in that it's aim is to replace the cast iron sleeve with a thinner liner but I believe that Nikasil is an electroplating process rather than a thermal process, like Plasma coating. Plasma coatings aren't as sensitive to fuel quality as Nikasil.

There is generally a lot of confusion over the term Plasma. The bore liner itself is not "Plasma", which conjures up images of a gel like substance. The term Plasma refers to the state of a Super Heated gas, i.e. the process not the end product. In this case the Super heated gas is created by an arc and fired under pressure at a feeder. The feeder feeds a raw material composition which is instantly melted by the super hot Plasma, then gets atomised and flies towards the bore surface. At least this is how it is for the PTWA process. The little melted particles are so hot that when they hit the bore surface they mate with the Alloy. Or at least that's the idea. So the lining is held in place by adhesive strength compared to a sleeve which is held in place by a mechanical interlock. I think this idea is pretty new as far as cars are concerned but it can only get better as they play around with the composition of the raw feed and bore prep etc.

I've just read on a German forum that Porsche brought a VLN 911 GT3 RSR to the track on the same day (15/04) that Nissan tried to run their record lap. It seems that their intention was to set the absolute Nurburgring record i.e. to break 6:55. Their previous best was 7:03 but something went dramatically wrong this time (tire failure) and the car exited the track pretty violently, moving a whole lot of sand onto the track while doing so. Hence the 7:27.56 being run so late in the day and with sh*t all over the track at that sector. The weather is just clearing up after raining for the past two days. There will be 2 or 3 clear days and then more predicted rain for the rest of the month. If a re-run and Spec-V run doesn't happen in the next few days, it probably won't happen this year.

Nagtroc - GT-R's at the ring This appears to be a public drive day and the first R35 you see is wearing the same Nissan owned dealership plates as the Spec-V which was spotted testing at the Nurb last year. There are two R35s, it appears as though they have both S1 and S2 cars there. Edit: The Spec-V is definitely also there, see below. More Pics of them entering the track High Res shots of the Spec-V and Base GT-R

Yep, It's friction loading of the wet clutch which produces a similar result to power braking a conventional auto. As for all this talk about the bores, I dont think it will turn out to be an issue. Besides you cannot simply "re-coat" them. The machines that apply the coating require the motor to be placed on a special jig (i.e. removed from the car). On top of this you would need to remove all the block peripherals as a sucessfull coat requires the entire block to be pre-heated. All of this needs to happen in a clean room to prevent imperfections etc. Considering the cost of the setup and it's complexity I sincerely doubt dealerships would have this capability or that Nissan planned for the bore lining to be replaced. If anything should happen and they do fail (perhaps due to aftermarket tuning etc.) Darton sleeves might end up being a better replacement option. I think the Haltech guys were looking at following this path.

I wouldn't over use LC2. Unlike LC1 (The VDC off type Launch) which was an open clutch, electronic RPM limited launch, LC2 is a powerbrake type launch with a partially closed wet clutch being friction loaded. It's less harsh in terms of impact but still bad on Tx temps and clutch life. You could actually experience an LC2 type launch with LC1 programmed cars, with VDC set to ON or R-mode, the only difference was that in LC1 they fitted a 2k rev limit to reduce the friction loading. You could potentially see 11.6's at the strip without using LC at all. Several US cars regularly post sub 12 times by just nailing the gas, i.e.take your foot off the brake then nail the gas.