Porsche v Nissan GT-R cheat claim …settled?

[Falc'man]

Has the war between Porsche and Nissan over Nurburgring times finally been settled?

See below for video of some of the independent testing done.

There was a lot of attention in April when the Nissan GT-R did a lap of the Nurburgring in 7:29.

There was applause and there was also some doubt.

Porsche in particular told carsguide that it could not understand “how this time is possible” and that Nissan must have used non-standard tyres.

Porsche ran its own back-to-back tests with the Japanese company's GT-R supercar and said it could not get within 25 seconds of Nissan's claimed record time of seven minutes 29 seconds in April. It also found its 911 Turbo and GT2 were both quicker than the GT-R.

Porsche said it took a standard GT-R, running on regular road tyres, and clocked the GT-R at 7:54.

The German sports car maker was initially protective of the exact lap times, which were run during a program when Porsche also compared its upcoming four-door Panamera with a range of potential rivals.

But Porsche eventually revealed its team clocked the GT-R at 7 minutes 54 seconds, with the 911 Turbo managing 7:38 and the GT2 getting down to 7:34.

The laps were not run by Porsche's usual hot-lap specialist, former world rally champion and race winner Walter Rohrl, but one of the company's chassis development engineers who is an expert on the Nurburgring.

Nissan hit back, saying that its times were valid, and that it could provide evidence – both on video and in the form of the tyres it used.

Now, Drivers Republic in the UK has chimed in, with Ring veteran Chris Harris taking both a Nissan GT-R and a Porsche GT2 around the track.

Both vehicles were stock, except that the limiter was removed from the Nissan and it had Bridgestone tyres rather than the Dunlops used when the car set the 7:29 time.

Which vehicle proved the point? Drivers Republic has offered us their story and the video of their laps.

And they’re happy for you to leave comments here for them to respond to.


http://carsguide.news.com.au/site/mo...claim_settled/