Jump to content
SAU Community

Carsales.com.au's Review On The R35 Gtr In Japan.


Recommended Posts

the problem here is weight

as Ferni said, you can't go too far either side of optimal for the damping and have a system that works well

(ie- 'jacking' down or po-go'ing). the engineers have obviously chosen springs that have a huge rate to control the fat body, so that basicaly determines the ride characteristics. the shockies only job is to 'damp' the motion of the springs

also - I hope to god Nissan Australia does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to suspension settings on account of MOTOR/Wheels magazine and the UK guys whining about comfort

:/

When the 350Z was released, the exact same complaints were made about its ride. So they revised the suspension for the European models, with help from Nissan UK. Guess what happened? Those suspension revisions ended up in later model 350Zs internationally, and everyone concluded the car drove better on the road since it was absorbing bumps. On road loops the Euro-spec setup was quicker and more confidence inspiring, and made the car more enjoyable to drive.

As always, the Japanese can't seem to tune suspension. They always assume "stiffer = better" when its not the case, especially not for a street car driven by ordinary people. A car with progressive handling is always quicker than something super sensitive unless you're a good driver (which most people are not).

Considering the car in question is not the V-Spec or N1, I hope they do something about the suspension if its as bad as they say. If someone complains about a track-focused car being too harsh on the road but great on the track, I'd agree that they're nuts, but if you intend on living the GT-R as a "daily drivable supercar" then I'd rather it absorb bumps and maintain constant tyre contact with the road.

As always, the Japanese can't seem to tune suspension. They always assume "stiffer = better" when its not the case, especially not for a street car driven by ordinary people. A car with progressive handling is always quicker than something super sensitive unless you're a good driver (which most people are not).

I thought the GTR used Bilstein suspension and was tuned by the guys at Bilstein?

Anyway, there is no way the GTR with its weight can lap the Nurg in 7:38 with softer suspension. Nissan engineers knew that and they had to compromise the softer suspension in order to get the lap time they were after.

I think you'll find that the differences between japanese-tuned suspension and australian-tuned suspension has more to do with the roads in each place than the engineers.

I love the term "built for australian roads" - in other words, have the suspension as soft as you can possibly make it so as not to spill your drink every 5m when you hit a pothole or some piece of badly cracked bitumen. Our roads (at least here in SA) are bumpy and extremely crap. On a good quality flat road, my stagea is more comfortable than just about every other car i've been in. It kind of just glides along, no seasickness etc.

But give it your average adelaide road and the suspension is less than perfect :P

As far as the article is concerned. Most of the aussie car reviewers are so brainwashed into aussie cars its no wonder it only scored 3.5/5.0. They were probably just confused because they couldn't work out what model of holden it was...

Correct me if im wrong, but the Aussie guy that test drove the GTR was from MOTOR magazine?

As i can recall, guys at MOTOR magazine have always been biased towards the GTR's - they don't like GTR's. There was one time, they tested the R34 with other cars and complained that it's handling around the track was more annoying than revolutional. Thats because they didn't know that a GTR is meant to be driven hard to bring out the best in it. They were driving it around the track like pussies.

However, WHEELS magazine have always loved GTR's. They were the ones that gave it the nickname 'Godzilla'. Anyway, i remembered an article where they tested an R34 N1 against a Monaro GTS or somethin and they said that the GTR was "the best car they've ever driven - no kidding".

Man these guys dont know how to drive pfft 4.0 wait till people own this car and get familiar with it easy mid 3s and mid to low 11s...

umm, with launch control and DSG what does the driver actually have to do to but hold the right pedal down???

umm, with launch control and DSG what does the driver actually have to do to but hold the right pedal down???

They were testing in slightly damp conditions. Hence there could be a couple of tenths that can be cut from the 0-100kmh time and the 0-400m (also mentioning they hit the 180kmh limiter before they reached the end of the 400m and they still managed a 12.1).

a) GT-R has launch control and b) it works! Using it to good effect on the complex's deserted dragstrip, in the failing light at the end of the Sendai session, MOTOR's David Morley punched out an even 4.0sec for the 0-100km/h sprint and 12.1sec for the standing 400m.

While in 'normal' conditions the 4.0sec will be hard to trim...

nothing about it being damp when they did it. If it was damp I doubt they'd say it would be hard to beat in normal conditions. so my point about knowing how to drive, or getting familiar with the car helping accelleration times significantly still stands.

nothing about it being damp when they did it. If it was damp I doubt they'd say it would be hard to beat in normal conditions. so my point about knowing how to drive, or getting familiar with the car helping accelleration times significantly still stands.

It seems you're right. did they mention what revs the launch control takes off? is it a clutch frying redline launch?

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • I had 3 counts over the last couple of weeks once where i got stranded at a jdm paint yard booking in some work. 2nd time was moving the car into the drive way for the inspection and the 3rd was during the inspection for the co2 leak test. Fix: 1st, car off for a hour and half disconnected battery 10mins 4th try car started 2nd, 5th try started 3rd, countless time starting disconnected battery dude was under the hood listening to the starting sequence fuel pump ect.   
    • This. As for your options - I suggest remote mounting the Nissan sensor further away on a length of steel tube. That tube to have a loop in it to handle vibration, etc etc. You will need to either put a tee and a bleed fitting near the sensor, or crack the fitting at the sensor to bleed it full of oil when you first set it up, otherwise you won't get the line filled. But this is a small problem. Just needs enough access to get it done.
    • The time is always correct. Only the date is wrong. It currently thinks it is January 19. Tomorrow it will say it is January 20. The date and time are ( should be ! ) retrieved from the GPS navigation system.
    • Buy yourself a set of easy outs. See if they will get a good bite in and unthread it.   Very very lucky the whole sender didn't let go while on the track and cost you a motor!
    • Well GTSBoy, prepare yourself further. I did a track day with 1/2 a day prep on Friday, inpromptu. The good news is that I got home, and didn't drive the car into a wall. Everything seemed mostly okay. The car was even a little faster than it was last time. I also got to get some good datalog data too. I also noticed a tiny bit of knock which was (luckily?) recorded. All I know is the knock sensors got recalibrated.... and are notorious for false knock. So I don't know if they are too sensitive, not sensitive enough... or some other third option. But I reduced timing anyway. It wasn't every pull through the session either. Think along the lines of -1 degree of timing for say, three instances while at the top of 4th in a 20 minute all-hot-lap session. Unfortunately at the end of session 2... I noticed a little oil. I borrowed some jack stands and a jack and took a look under there, but as is often the case, messing around with it kinda half cleaned it up, it was not conclusive where it was coming from. I decided to give it another go and see how it was. The amount of oil was maybe one/two small drops. I did another 20 minute session and car went well, and I was just starting to get into it and not be terrified of driving on track. I pulled over and checked in the pits and saw this: This is where I called it, packed up and went home as I live ~20 min from the track with a VERY VERY CLOSE EYE on Oil Pressure on the way home. The volume wasn't much but you never know. I checked it today when I had my own space/tools/time to find out what was going on, wanted to clean it up, run the car and see if any of the fittings from around the oil filter were causing it. I have like.. 5 fittings there, so I suspected one was (hopefully?) the culprit. It became immediately apparent as soon as I looked around more closely. 795d266d-a034-4b8c-89c9-d83860f5d00a.mp4       This is the R34 GTT oil sender connected via an adapter to an oil cooler block I have installed which runs AN lines to my cooler (and back). There's also an oil temp sensor on top.  Just after that video, I attempted to unthread the sensor to see if it's loose/worn and it disintegrated in my hand. So yes. I am glad I noticed that oil because it would appear that complete and utter catastrophic engine failure was about 1 second of engine runtime away. I did try to drill the fitting out, and only succeeded in drilling the middle hole much larger and now there's a... smooth hole in there with what looks like a damn sleeve still incredibly tight in there. Not really sure how to proceed from here. My options: 1) Find someone who can remove the stuck fitting, and use a steel adapter so it won't fatigue? (Female BSPT for the R34 sender to 1/8NPT male - HARD to find). IF it isn't possible to remove - Buy a new block ($320) and have someone tap a new 1/8NPT in the top of it ($????) and hope the steel adapter works better. 2) Buy a new block and give up on the OEM pressure sender for the dash entirely, and use the supplied 1/8 NPT for the oil temp sender. Having the oil pressure read 0 in the dash with the warning lamp will give me a lot of anxiety driving around. I do have the actual GM sensor/sender working, but it needs OBD2 as a gauge. If I'm datalogging I don't actually have a readout of what the gauge is currently displaying. 3) Other? Find a new location for the OEM sender? Though I don't know of anywhere that will work. I also don't know if a steel adapter is actually functionally smart here. It's clearly leveraged itself through vibration of the motor and snapped in half. This doesn't seem like a setup a smart person would replicate given the weight of the OEM sender. Still pretty happy being lucky for once and seeing this at the absolute last moment before bye bye motor in a big way, even if an adapter is apparently 6 weeks+ delivery and I have no way to free the current stuck/potentially destroyed threads in the current oil block.
×
×
  • Create New...