Porsche accuses Nissan of cheating?

[MagicHallucinations]

Porsche accuses Nissan GT-R of cheating the 'Ring - Autoblog

Sour grapes or legitimate complaint? That's the question we're left pondering after reading that Porsche believes Nissan must have cheated to record its 7:29:03 lap time of the famed Nürburgring race circuit. Porsche claims that it had been suspicious of the Nissan's lap times, so it acquired a U.S.-spec GT-R for testing back-to-back with its own 911 Turbo and GT2. The result? The mighty Godzilla was toppled by the Teutonic German duo, with the GT-R posting times a good 25-seconds slower than Nissan's claim.

How can Porsche explain the discrepancy? "This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car. For us, it's not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tires," says August Achleitner, the man in charge of the 911 program. There is footage of the GT-R lapping the 'Ring at high speed, but it's taken from inside the car where the tires cannot be seen.

Considering the fact that Nissan saw fit to issue a press release commemorating the car's fast-lap, we doubt this is something that will be taken lightly. There's a big can 'o worms here, and Porsche's in the corner holding the opener.

This isn't the 1st time I've heard about them using different tires. Others have heard this yes? I recall that argument when the zr1 did it on street tires.

[sonza68]

There were also rumors that Nissan turned up the boost on the 'Ring car.

[ND4SPD]

playing devils advocate... changing the tires and upping the boost - isn't that stuff that can be done easily by anyone who buys the car?

If Nissan said it was stock GTR, which is what you buy at the showroom, then yeah, they lied/cheated/whatever. But just changing the tires doesn't seem THAT bad... I mean, its a race track, where you should be using the best tires anyway.

[MagicHallucinations]

playing devils advocate... changing the tires and upping the boost - isn't that stuff that can be done easily by anyone who buys the car?

If Nissan said it was stock GTR, which is what you buy at the showroom, then yeah, they lied/cheated/whatever. But just changing the tires doesn't seem THAT bad... I mean, its a race track, where you should be using the best tires anyway.

I do see your points Matt. Tires are easily had but they change a lot when it comes to racing. With better tires you have more grip and better braking. I'm not 100% but I think this "competition" between automakers, on who can get the fastest lap, is suppose to be done in the stock production car. The car doesn't come with Rcomps or higher boost. If they did indeed change those things.

I'm interested to see the outcome of this.

[nadthomas]

I had always heard that the GT-R that did the lap was a "track prep'ed" car. Therefore not a production model, and in my opinion cannot be fairly compared to a 100% stock car, so in my mind I have never consider the GT-R lap all that impressive.

[ND4SPD]

Does anyone have a link to the official Nissan statement made when the car did the lap?

[BlackBetty]

I don't know about tires but I do know that they probably voided that cars warranty.

[jaged]

the viper smashed it so it doesnt really matter does it?

[sonza68]

Not really. Despite the controversy, the Zonda F, ZR1 and Viper ACR were all faster. It was faster than all the Porsches though, so that is probably why they care.

[B3NN3TT]

Excellent article on this at Speed:Sport:Life today -

Speed:Sport:Life » Avoidable Contact #17: Cheating Nissan, Bitter Porsche.