Topic: Porsche questions GT-R Ring claim

[drederick]

Porsche questions GT-R Ring claim

I am suprised this isn't posted already but at least someone is calling Nissan on their claim directly. Of course Porsche has an agenda, but, just look at the videos of nissan's 'claimed' record run which are all over youtube and put aside all bias (you know you can!) and ask yourself if the GTR really can hang with the new zr1 down a full throttle straightaway like it does here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjk92atTANc

There is just no WAY a 480hp car - even with 0 percent driveline loss, can hang with a 638 hp car.

And yet the GT-R easily stays with the zr1 for about 40 seconds down a straightaway.

I wonder how Nissan will respond - or will they be silent?

http://carsguide.news.com.au/site/motoring-news/story/porsche_accuses_nissan_of_cheating_at_nurburgring/

Porsche has accused Nissan of cheating in the GT-R's record bid at the Nurburgring racetrack.
Porsche has just run its own back-to-back tests with the Japanese company's GT-R supercar and says 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.

"This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car," says August Achleitner, the 911 product chief for Porsche, speaking to the CARSguide at the Australian press preview of the latest 911 Cabrio.

"For us, it's not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tyres."

He believes the time achieved by Nissan with ex-Formula One driver Toshio Suzuki would only be possible with a semi-slick race-style tyre.

Achleitner says Porsche took a standard GT-R, running on regular road tyres, and ran it around the Nurburgring within two hours of its own cars, on the same day with exactly the same weather conditions.

He says there was no tweaking of any kind and the GT2 and Turbo both ran on regular Porsche road tyres, the Michelin Sport Cup.

"We bought the car in the US. We drove a GT-R with new tyres," he says.

Achleitner 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 he eventually revealed his 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.

Achleitner says the back-to-back comparison was run because Porsche was concerned by Nissan's claims for the GT-R, which is heavier than the 911 with similar power.

"The Nissan is a good car. I don't want to make anything bad with my words," he says.

"It's a very consistent car. But this car is about 20 kilos heavier than the Turbo . . ."

In the end, Porsche believes its testing has achieved the right lap times for the Skyline GT-R and benchmarked it against its own 911 heroes in the right context.

"For us it has been clearly the result. This technical puzzle now fits together. With the other numbers we had problems to understand it," he says.

[Jaeger]

Sour grapes from a sore looser.  Boo hoo for you, Porsche.  "We can't figure out how they did it, therefore they must have cheated."  Laughable arrogance and obvious sour grapes, IMHO.  Like the American sprinters left sputtering in Usain Bolt's jet wash: "We can't run that fast, so he must be on drugs!"  The GT-R is handing Porsche its head in just about every head-to-head battle to be staged in Europe and the States.  Is the GT-R "cheating" in all of those tests, in all of those different publications, in all of those countries, with all of those different drivers as well?  Has Porsche hired Oliver Stone as director of marketing all of a sudden?  Please.

Is the GT-R making more hp than advertised?  Almost certainly.  Question: why is that a bad thing?  Do people object to getting MORE than they paid for?  Isn't this vastly different than a company significantly OVER-RATING the output on their performance flagship (cough - Mazda - cough)?  Doesn't this just make the GT-R even MORE of a spectacular super-car bargain than it already is?

Making allegations is cheap and easy.  Proving them is difficult.  The burden rests on the accuser, not the accused.  Porsche should either put up or shut up.  Or better yet, just build a car that can hang with the GT-R with a retail price anywhere even close to double the going rate for Godzilla on wheels.

Jaeger