It's beaten the Corvette Z06, the Porsche 911 Turbo, and all of last year's Super Lap Battle Street All-Wheel-Drive class time attack contenders in bone stock form. It's conquered the Super GT GT500-class ranks and has undoubtedly beaten every other car in the whole in terms of media hype. Its name is the Nissan GT-R, and it's entering the Ultimate Street Car Challenge thanks to Daryl Alison of JSpecConnect.com.
There have been more rumors surrounding the R35-model GT-R than even an Internet forum can support. Is it untuneable? Did the JDM dealership nanny monitoring system carry over into the U.S. models? Will changing something as stupid as the floor mats throw a check engine light? The car is new and, perhaps more important, expensive, and not very many people have cracked open their engine blocks yet to experiment.
USDM models of the GT-R have only been on the streets for a few weeks, as of this writing, and have been very slowly trickling out to interested buyers. Apparently, $20,000 surprise mark-ups are changing the minds of quite a few people who put their name down on the GT-R pre-sale list.
Still, the GT-R is a powerhouse, even in factory trim. The engine is a twin-turbocharged 3.8L V-6, hand-built in a clean room by a very detail-oriented Japanese man. Nissan says that it makes 480 bhp and 430 lb-ft of torque. After test driving one (see Feb. '08 and Mar. '08 issues), we believe those numbers.
The car has a complicated, electronically controlled all-wheel-drive system and a paddle-shifted dual-clutch transmission that's backed up with a gaggle of switches, buttons, and modes. The suspension is electronically adjustable as well, and we have yet to hear about a tuner on any shore who has come up with anything dramatically better. The brakes are Brembo monoblock calipers, with 15-inch rotors at all four corners. Yeah, it's got a few tricks built into it.
Don't think that this car will be completely stock at the USCC though. With just a few days to prep his GT-R between delivery and the USCC, Alison will be bolting on a new exhaust and trying to find more power with an experimential ECU reflash.
But for this year's event, we'd actually prefer that the GT-R be near stock. Currently nobody has tested or perfected any engine upgrades for a U.S.-spec GT-R, and we want a healthy, running R35 in the USCC. This car is supposed to be the supercar wonder child. The boogeyman that scared Porsche and is supposedly the benchmark for the next NSX. The GT-R may have shook Stuttgart's core, but we want to know how it will do against the concentrated minds of a few dedicated tuners. Can it beat a widebody STI, twin-turbo Z, or a V-8-swapped Audi coupe?
The GT-R is sure to do well in the ride comfort and driveability tests, and Alison is a GT-R regular (both judge and competitor) who is sure to have some tricks up his sleeve. But is a 3,800-pound, stock GT-R packing enough heat in this crowd to come out on top?
2009 Nissan GT-R
Engine
Engine Code: VR38DETT
Type: 3,799cc V-6, DOHC, aluminum block and heads, twin-turbocharged and intercooled, variable intake valve timing
Internal Modifications: Stock
External Modifications: Cat-back exhaust, Y-pipeEngine Management
Modifications: Cobb ECU reflash
Drivetrain
Layout: Longitudinal front engine, all-wheel drive
Drivetrain Modifications: Stock
Suspension
Front: Stock
Rear: Stock
Brakes
Front: Stock
Rear: Stock
External
Wheels: Stock
Tires: Stock
Body: Stock
Interior: Stock