Before 2008, the “old” Nürburgring, aka Nordschleife, was a very demanding track deemed too dangerous for Formula 1 racing, but car manufacturers used it for testing purposes and on certain days, any mere mortal could drive his or her car for as many laps as they could afford.
Nissan changed all that by making the 7’29’’ lap time recorded by the new GT-R a key point of its launch campaign. It also sparked a war of words with Porsche and perhaps more importantly, made posting a competitive lap time at the ‘Ring a must for every new sports car.
In the four years since its launch, Nissan has been constantly honing the R35 GT-R, upgrading almost every mechanical part, from the chassis to the suspension and the engine.
This is because Kazutoshi Mizuno, program director of the GT-R development team, believes that no matter how good the car is, “the customer always wants more”. It has also resulted in the 2013MY model cutting 9 seconds off the original lap time.
Mizuno says that constantly testing and improving the car improves the whole development team. He also believes that the “Green Hell” is the perfect place for this task, and he intends to make the most out of it in upgrading the GT-R as the current model will stay in production for the next five years.
So this year, Nissan will race at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring with a production GT-R Track Edition prepared not by its Nismo motorsports division, but by the Mizuno-led development team.
The car will participate in the N24 class, which restricts the changes one can make to the standard road car. “Just as important as performance is, we must confident about the reliability and durability of the car”, explained Mizuno.
He fully adopts the creed that racing improves the breed: “This is the reason we entered the 24 Hours of Nürburgring race: to perform harsher endurance tests for future performance improvements.”
Based on the Track-Pack edition, the car that will take part in the race has no modifications to the engine, transmission and suspension over the road model. Mizuno claims that the only changes, other than those mandated by safety rules, are an increase in downforce at the front end and replacing the 9.5J wide wheels with 10J ones and the rear wing with a new spoiler.
You can check out our spy photos of the car and watch the video of Mizuno-san and his development team and test drivers preparing the GT-R at the Nordschleife, as well as the original 7’29’’ lap with Toshio Suzuki behind the wheel, right after the jump.
PHOTO GALLERY
VIDEO