Even though getting phone calls from car manufacturers is a daily affair for me, the call from Nissan Motor India one fine morning was a pleasant surprise!
Even though getting phone calls from car manufacturers is a daily affair for me, the call from Nissan Motor India one fine morning was a pleasant surprise! I was invited to the exclusive drive for the legendary GT-R and the 2016 X-Trail Hybrid at the Buddh International Race Circuit. It’s not every day that you get to drive the Nissan GT-R, and that too on the BIC. Super excited, I started the countdown till drive day!
Food for thought: Nissan unveiled the GT-R in 2007 which replaced the Skyline GT-R and become Nissan’s performance supercar since then. The Nissan GT-R has been an ultimate icon of sorts with sports car enthusiasts and car buffs. Now Nissan is getting its icon and flagship GT-R to India this coming September. The X-Trail would also be making a comeback on to the Indian roads, but this time only in the Hybrid form.
Here is my brief encounter with the Nissan GT-R on the BIC track and the X-Trail Hybrid at the BIC campus area. Read on to know more on these two Japanese beauties. One super mean and the other go green!
Nissan GT-R
3 laps on the BIC behind the wheels of the Nissan GT-R and what you can read here is the track experience for it. We would have a full-fledged Road Test Review for it as soon as it’s launched here later this year.
Rightly nicknamed the `Godzilla’, I had my first sight of it at the pits at the BIC. Gleaming Regal Red in the Delhi wintery sun, it was the cynosure of all the journalists there, who were waiting to try their hand on the beauty! Engine growl instantly audible, the Nissan GT-R was getting ready for its spin on the tracks. The low-slung GT-R looked pretty long and wide with its muscularly wedged bodyline and strong, unique character styling. We were told earlier by Nissan officials that the GT-R is more aerodynamic than a bullet train and can reach a dash to 100kmph in a bare 2.7 seconds. Now these figures and facts were more than enough to set our pulses racing!
The current generation GT-R that India will be getting gets some updates that include High Intensity Discharge (HID) multi LED headlights. These headlights have four LED lights, one for high beam and three other low beam, that include long distance and wide illumination modes. The iconic signature and instantly recognizable fighter aircraft tail-styled four round tail lamps will now be getting LED lamps in them.
The GT-R spent two years at the rolling-road wind tunnel at Group Lotus in Europe and 1.5 years in Yoshitaka Suzuka in Japan fine-tuning the secrets of bringing racecar aerodynamics to the street form. You’ll love the sides seeing the arrow shaped sloping aero blade canopy roofline and the sharp prominently curved C-pillar that stands out on this car.
The GT-R is designed extremely aerodynamically with its design made to cut the wind from above and underneath the car. There is a very functional underbody diffuser made of carbon fiber. Vents on the lower rear corner on the rear bumper of the vehicle manage air flow. A very practical and stylish rear spoiler and vents at the back of the front fenders help in creating a strong down force.
The front grille has a large opening with rounded edges to optimize the engine cooling and offer minimum drag force while reducing pressure in the engine bay and in return help to vent (cool) the brakes. The hood too gets the aerodynamic treatment with hood scoops that assist engine cooling along with cutting the wind. The front lower corner of the bumper has special double fins to smoothen the air flow around the body and in turn, enhance the air flow coming from the front to create extra down force. All this aerodynamic wizardry comes together on the GT-R giving it a low drag coefficient of 0.26.
On the inside, you have a super sporty, all black interior with tons of gadgetry to suit and enhance your track experience. The meters and information displays surround the driver, while there is a large color display on the center dash that makes you feel that you are playing a video game. In fact, the display console is designed by Nissan in collaboration with Polyphony Digital, the makers of the famous video game Gran Turismo! You get three modes to play… with R-mode for the ultimate race performance, Normal mode for daily driving and a Special mode. These three preset modes tune the suspension, transmission and alter the overall drive feel of the GT-R.
There are a lot of carbon fiber styling inserts around the cabin area that just ooze the sporty character of this car. The center console display screen can be toggled through the display to check the vital statistics, like water temperature, engine oil temperature, engine oil pressure and torque level during the track run. The screen display can be customized with five performance screen presets to suit your personalized taste and needs. This includes a screen that measures the efficiency parameters for cornering, acceleration, braking and also measuring the G-forces.
The Nissan GT-R comes powered by the legendary VR38DETT 3.8-litre twin turbo V6 engine that hits out a mammoth 545PS and kicks out an earth-shattering 630Nm of torque at even the lowest engine RPM. Combined with this, is an electronic drive-by-wire throttle and the ATTESA ET-S Four Wheel Drive (4WD) with Nissans patented independent rear mounted transaxle. This mind-boggling engine is mated to a GR6 6-speed Dual Clutch Transmission with 3 individual shift modes on it. Full automatic shifting, sequential manual control via steering wheel paddle shifters is how you can tame this monster.
For passenger comfort, you get heated front race seats that are fully adjustable electrically. The rear seat can seat two passengers. The steering gets real leather wrapping and as mentioned, the cabin gets lots of carbon fiber inserts all around.
A car that goes this fast definitely needs a very good set of brakes! You have an all disc brake setup with 390mm front and 380mm rear units. The Nissan GT-R drives on Dunlop SP Sport Maxx 600” DSST CTT run flat tyres and needs nitrogen filled in it. Rays 20-spoke light weight forged aluminum alloys come standard and look amazingly sporty.
On the safety aspect, the GT-R comes loaded, with driver, passenger airbags, along with side curtain airbags. Front seat pretensioners and load limiters are on the list too. ABS with EBD is standard along with brake assist. The Godzilla also has traction control and Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC).
On the move, you firstly need to be a very good driver to control the mind-blowing power that this beast can make. The ATTESA-TS 4WD system keeps the GT-R planted at all drive speeds and on corners too. Traction is at its peak on the GT-R and this car can take the corners in style and at great speeds. You control the gear shifts using the paddles and notice the instant shifts that this super-fast gearbox is capable of. The steering coaxes you to dare take on corners with speed and come out of it with utter grace and sheer confidence! Experiencing G-forces is easy inside the cabin due to the capability and the technology that this car comes loaded with, including the safety ones. And mind you, this car is capable of doing a top speed of 315kmph!
Waiting now to spend more time with the Nissan GT-R for a full road test review soon, so keep watching this space till then…
Nissan GT-R Photo Gallery:
Pics: Ritesh Madhok
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