This past month I returned to Europe. The trip’s purpose was to race at Le Mans and a few other select events, but as with any good trip you have to jump at the opportunities that arise. And the opportunities that arose for me all seemed to revolve around driving great cars.
During my travels between race tracks, I happened to have gotten wind of a very important debut that was happening at the Nurburgring Grand Prix track in Germany. I was informed that Nissan was allowing press to drive their new, even better, more ferocious, supercar killing GT-R Spec V around a shortened version of the Grand Prix track. Being a race driver and a certified car-nut, how could I turn down an opportunity to sample the latest and greatest from Nissan.
Before we get into the actual drive, let’s first take a look at what you get underneath the shiny Spec V badge. It’s a full 130 pounds lighter than the standard GT-R and comes with an extra 5 horsepower power. Nissan gets to keep your rear seats, but in exchange they give you a special overboost function that is activated through the cruise control switch. The overboost function gives you 14 extra pound feet of torque between 3,500 and 5,200rpm for 80 seconds. I’m sure you’re saying to yourself right now, “gee, that certainly doesn’t sound like a lot of extra power”, 5 more horsepower and 14 extra torques, and you’re absolutely right, it isn’t.
Nissan has also fitted the car with two carbon-fiber Recaro racing seats, a new light weight titanium exhaust system and new brakes. But they are no ordinary brakes, they are hideously expensive Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes with a special silver caliper coating to better reflect heat. It is entirely possible that nothing short of a Ferrari FXX can match the brakes of the V-Spec.
Naturally, with a car such as this, there are the typical carbon fiber trim goodies like the rear spoiler, front grill and front splitter which also has integral brake cooling ducts. There’s also a set of new wheels from Nismo with stickier rubber.
Now here’s the catch… the new V-Spec costs twice, yes twice as much as the normal GTR. Given a price tag of nearly $150k, this car doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Especially when you consider that the cockpit adjustable suspension is gone in favor of a hard “special” suspension set-up with Bilstein dampers that if driven on the street you will certainly need to have a chiropractor on speed-dial.
Ah, I know what you’re thinking! It’s not the specs and numbers that matter, but how it drives and feels. Each of us were only allowed 3 laps of a halved Nurburgring GP circuit, certainly not enough time to really determine how good or bad the V-Spec is, and no one was allowed to drive it on the street. I have been fortunate to have driven the standard GTR on the street and on the track many times.
I can confidently tell you that the V-Spec is not noticeably different than the standard GTR and the buzz around all of the press was that the V-Spec is even more prone to understeer than the standard car. It would certainly be beneficial to do a proper road test with the V-Spec, because there is next to nothing you can tell from such a restricted drive such as this one. But what I can tell you is this.
There is virtually no difference in performance from the standard car, and aside from a suspension set-up that is race-car-like firm, I can’t really tell the difference between the two. Granted the new Brembo braking system is best described as ferocious, but the brakes on the standard car were pretty good in their own right, if just a bit prone to fading. If I were to plunk down twice the money of the standard car for a V-Spec, I would certainly expect the V-Spec to feel significantly different. And the good kind of different too, not the confusing “it’s different but mostly the same” feeling I got while driving the V-Spec.
The real question is, is this car worth it? Is it twice as good as the standard GTR given it’s twice the price? Well, no. As far as I can tell, it’s certainly not twice as good as the normal GTR and the rumors around the press area and Nissan’s Nurburgring facility are that it may not be any faster than the standard car. Given how much hype was given to the GTR when it took on the “big boys” at this track, and won, you would assume, that the even more hard-core GTR would be able to trounce on anything Porsche, BMW or Corvette can throw at it. But according to Nissan officials, the V-Spec will never turn a lap around the North Loop of the circuit. Surprising? Yes, but probably a very keen indication that the V-Spec isn’t any faster than the normal GTR.
My suspicion is this: Nissan have tried too hard to make a hard-core track version of their brilliant GTR and instead come up with a less usable, overly stiff car with no back seats and hideously expensive brakes. My other hunch is that Nissan, like a lot of other sports car makers, are putting too much emphasis on the performance of their cars around the Nurburgring circuit. When you tune and set-up a car for the Nurburgring, the result is usually a car with a very stiff front end that is completely useless everywhere else (which the V-Spec is). I think that might make for an interesting article, “Has the Nurburgring wrecked our sports cars?”
So in the end, you are really buying a more exclusive version of the GTR at twice the price with some carbon fiber, big brakes and a spine shattering ride. And it’s only exclusive due to the low (30 units per month) production numbers. As I write this Nissan have no plans to bring the V-Spec to the U.S. And that’s perfectly fine with me. If you’re in the market for a GTR, the standard car is the way to go. Save the extra $70k for track day fees, driving lessons, or car mods.
source: examiner
