GRAN TURISMO CAR REVIEWS

2007 Nissan GT-R
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Years: 2007-
Class: Sports Car
Type: coupe

Country: Japan
Host: GT5

Cost: $77,700 (Premium lot)

Mileage as Tested: @ 40 for testing, 212 for specs

Body Construction: steel, aluminum, & carbon fiber

Length: 183.27" // Width: 74.6" // Height: 53.9"
Wheelbase: 109.4"
Overhang: 6 feet 2 inches
Track: 62.6" [F] 63.0" [R]
Ground Clearance:

Weight: 3,835 pounds
Wgt. Dist: 53/47
Drag: 0.270

Steering: pwr-assisted rack & pinion
Turn Radius: 36' 6"

Layout: Front Engine/All-Wheel Drive
Tires: 255/40R 20 97Y [F], 285/35R-20 100Y[R]

F.Suspension: dual wishbones, coils, shox, anti-roll bar
R.Suspension: multilink, coils, shox, anti-roll bar
Brakes: cross-drilled vented rotors, with ABS & EBD

Engine was fully broken-in for all specs below (212 miles/484 hp). Oil change & engine rebuild were not performed.

Engine: 3.8 liter DOHC V6
Construction: aluminum block & heads
Aspiration: intercooled twin-turbo
Fuel Syst: ECCS
Valves / Cyl: 4
Bore x Stroke: 3.76" x  3.48"
Compression: 9.1:1

Final HP: 484 @ 6,500
Fnl Torq: 442 @ 3,500

Credits per HP: 160.53
Pounds per HP: 7.92
Punds per torq: 8.68
HP per Liter:     127.4

Idle: 925 // Redline: 7,000 // RPM Limit: 7,500

Transmission: 6-speed manumatic
Differential: limited-slip rear

Test car had engine partially-broken in (40 miles/473 hp) for all testing below, since the dealer quotes exactly 473 hp).

0-60 mph: 3.500 seconds
0-100 mph: 8.433
0-150 mph: 20.433

0-100 km/h: 3.687 seconds
0-200 km/h: 13.015

400 Meters: 11.881 @ 119 mph
1000 Mters: 21.593 @ 153 mph

1 Mile: 29.958 @ 170 mph

100-zero mph: 4.75 seconds

Top Gear RPM @ 60 mph: 2,175
Daytona Lap:
Test Track X Lap: 5:46.229

Top Speed at Redline
1st: 38.2
2nd: 65.x
3rd: 94.0
4th: 121.8
5th: 152.6
6th: 198.4 mph @ 7,200 rpm
  

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------------EXTERIOR / HISTORY-----------


Long ago in the early 19th century, an authoress named Mary Shelley wrote the story of Frankenstein. Most of us are familiar with it to some extent, but for those who aren't, this told the tale of a sort of scientist (Victor Frankenstein) who became obsessed with creating a humanoid by using a variety of spare parts. Something like that. It's been awhile since I saw the movie. Actually, I don't think I've seen Frankenstien since I was a kid, and I've never read the book, but I did some reading here online. From what I've gathered, the creator of Frankenstein seems to have been able to finish the job only through a bit of luck and skill. And the monster then came to life.

There was no research & development team, no computers, and no managment cycles or even a sizable staff needed to create Frankenstein. Despite these lacks, results were initially promising and successful; Frankenstein did come to life, a first in the evolution of Mankind!  Problem is, he was just that: a monster. People did not trust this monster, who looked pallid and ugly, and despite the fact that it seems Frankenstein was more of a gentle giant than a menace, he was eventually destroyed.   

So what happens when we do have years and years of R&D, computers, and a large staff of engineers configuring details to the minutest?  Racing experience, and a history of wins in certain series that was so rich, some of these monsters were actually banned from competition during certain eras?  What happens when we have got all these factors, and then have the choice to put together a vast array of "spare parts" to possibly make a monster of our own?

As you may have gathered, I am referring to the car of this latest review as a monster. First time I saw the R35-generation GT-R here in America, I did indeed think it was a monster. That is just what it looked like as it travelled along some road amongst ordinary soccer-mom minivans, beat up Tauruses, giant Suburbans, and a UPS delivery truck. The GT-R literally looks out of place; like some sort of vehicle that has escaped the set of a Batman movie. There is nothing else like it. The Audi R8 comes closest, perhaps, and both the Nissan GT-R and the Audi R8 share one thing in common: they look dangerous and are perhaps from another world. Alien ships on 4 wheels, these vehicles seem to be.

Nissan has been on a styling crusade these last 20 years to make several of their models more and more streamlined and efficient, but to me they've also become more and more generic. The original Z has personality, for instance, the latest Zs do not. The latest Zs look as if they've only taken one thing into consideration: aerodynamics. Little styling cues that the 240Z, 260Z, 280Z, and 280ZX proudly displayed (inset headlamps, seperated bumpers, bits of chrome, slotted rear-glass covers, etc.) have been axed over the years, all for the sake of better gas mileage and a little more speed. 

...This is opinion, so don't get all huffy if you disagree. The R35's bodywork (which also features a bulging, overstuffed appearance) however looks completely appropriate. Unlike the latest Zs, the R35 does have a lot of personality. It's a rather mean-looking personality (with its giant black grille semi-masked by a virtual open blanket of sheet metal), but it's still personality all the same. And despite its semi-blocky look, the R35 happens to carry a very low 0.270 drag coefficient. Previous GT-Rs (which also have a rather boxy demeanor) could not get this low. How did Nissan do it?      

The rear of the R35 has styling cues going back to the originals of the 1960s: round taillights, rather than giant, box-like lighting assembies as is so common nowadays. There is also a wing on the trunk, and all of this is consistent with what we're used to from Nissan. This car may not be called "Skyline" anymore, but it still is a Skyline at its heart.    

The real-life GT-R can be bought with two option packages here in America; I'm not sure what happens in Asia or Europe, and in the game we've got five different GT-Rs to choose from, not including racing models. There's the base '07 car, the '05 Proto (whch I assume is supposed to be a concept/prototype model shown at car shows), the '12 Black Edition (available as DLC only), the GT-R "Black Mask", and the '09 GT-R SPECV. I will drive each and every one of these given time, this I can promise.  

We did not get the GT-R until 2009 here in America, but (of course) we are lucky to get one at all, considering the first four generations of GT-Rs were not sold in the U.S. of A.  Anyways, there are 'Standard' or 'Premium' edition GT-Rs in real-life. The Standard one listed for $69,850 in 2009, and the Premium one was slightly more at $71,900. At 77,700 credits, the in-game car costs more than what we would pay in real-life, but perhaps it's because they've added some extra dealer costs in the game. :-) Desitination charges, luxury taxes, a year's supply of free gasoline, who knows... 

Anyways, this seems like a lot of money, and it's not due to just the fact that this car goes fast. Here's some of what a real-life driver gets to enjoy. These words are taken from www.nctd.com by the way...

The GT-R comes with every comfort and convenience a driver and passenger need, and most of what a driver and passenger could want. The sports car-like cabin is climate controlled. The navigation system responds to voice commands. Behind the navigation system's LCD lie 11 pages of data, graphs and virtual gauges that tell the tale on more of the car's dynamics than most drivers can, or want to, be bothered knowing. All this makes even the infernal red start/stop button that takes the place of a perfectly functional key tolerable. At least, most of the time.

Wow, there ya go. I recently reviewed an orginal Premium '68 Fiat 500, which hasn't even got a tachometer!  But it doesn't end there...

The 2009 Nissan GT-R comes in two trim levels. The standard GT-R ($69,850) doesn't lack for much: Dual-zone, automatic climate control, cruise control, power mirrors, windows and locks, eight-way adjustable driver's seat and four-way adjustable front passenger seat, AM/FM/XM/CD stereo with MP3 and WMA playback and six speakers, 30GB hard disk that supports voice recognition, seven-inch color-LCD, GPS-based navigation system with 9.3 GB for personalized audio tracks, dash-mounted Compact Flash card reader, Bluetooth phone system for hands-free operation. Run-flat summer compound Dunlop tires wrap around high-luster, smoke-gray, aluminum alloy wheels.

...and...

The GT-R Premium model ($71,900) adds heated front seats, a Bose audio system with 11 speakers, including two subwoofers stacked vertically in a panel separating the rear seats, and run-flat summer Bridgestones.

...but it doesn't end there....

Options include the Cold Weather Package (no charge) with all-season Dunlop tires on bright silver wheels and a 50/50 coolant mix. The Super Silver special paint ($3000) is hand-polished before receiving three clearcoats. An iPod converter ($360) and GT-R floor mats ($280) can be installed at port of entry or by the dealer. 

We get all this stuff at a bargain actually, considering all of this can be had in BMWs and others competing with the GT-R for a larger bill. The BMW M6 (which the GT-R is supposed to compete with directly) for instance cost just over $96,000 in 2006-7, the Audi R8 was more like $114,000. I'm not even going to compare the latest from Italy and England with the Nissan. I think we get the point.  

Driving this car as a Premium model in-game, we don't get to enjoy its auto climate control or its 8-way adjustable seats, but we do get some other goodies.

The dash itself is dazzling, as expected, and there are the standard (but useful) speedo and tach, gas gauge and temperature gauge. The speedometer is hard for me to read exactly, but easy to use peripherally. Once you know where the speedometer's needle will fall as you enter some fast/slow braking zones, it becomes possible to use this needle in our peripheral vision to slow the car on successive laps. It's very easy to see how many RPMs are being displayed, too. The tach is small, but I always know when the engine is redlining.

Gear-shifts are also displayed, which I find to be very useful. Sometimes I forget which gear I am in, you see. As I approached certain turns, it is helpful to wind up in 3rd rather than 2nd, if 3rd is the gear that I know happens to be the best choice. I actually wonder (seriously) if Nissan used Gran Turismo cars as inspiration. Videogame cars always have a way for us to actually see what gear we are in at-a-glance, I wonder if Nissan took this into consideration.

The car has a turbo-boost gauge, as well as a feature I did not expect: a g-force meter! This shows how many lateral gs the car is experiencing as we corner. Perfectly useless to most drivers, I suppose, but it's certainly cool to have, anyways. There are a couple other gauges and gizmos on the dash, and I wasn't sure what their purpose is, but then I found a site featuring info. 

Adjustability is central to the daily-driver nature of the Nissan GT-R, with a special "set-up switch" located in the center of the instrument panel. This switch enables the driver to adjust transmission shifts, shock absorbers and the Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC-R) in three settings – Normal, Comfort or R, the high-performance setting designed for the Nissan GT-R supercar application.

We cannot use any of this stuff in the game, but it's cool to know what it actually is. The GT-R's mirrors are useful as well, and the horn sounds like it means business. We don't get a soprano sax or a party tooter, here. :-)


I initially chose the GT-R in-game not for myself, but for D. Rice (Dirty Rice, lol), who is one of my B-spec drivers. He needed to attack the Pro Series Supercar Festival. I wasn't sure this would be possible; after all, the GT-R never actually wins races when driven by B-spec opponents.  I test-drove the GT-R first (around High Speed Ring II and Nurburgring GP/F), but Dirty Rice is the one who actually got to race it first.

One thing I noticed: D. Rice seemed very happy behind the wheel as I got him to grind several races in a row. He seemed to enjoy his GT-R experience, and if he would get a decent lead over his competition, he would sometimes start pushing the car, tossing it a little into certain turns without me telling him to "speed up". ... Some people say B-spec is boring, and sometimes it certainly can be. But at moments like this, I find myself rooting for my virtual driver, just like some people cheer a player on a sports team.  

Though my driver was occasionally challenged, there were some races in which he made it to the front all too easily, prompting me to create an entirely new set of weight/power ratios for the Racing Guide. This car is actually too good for my system as it was!  And this tells us something about the R35: if a B-spec driver can handle it to the point of overkill, we're off to a good start. Interestingly, I tried having Mr. Rice (and a couple other drivers) race some earlier GT-R editions: from R32 to R34. Not once could these drivers eke a win, and that's while using approximately the same weight & power as the R35 was equipped with.

The GT-R is a heavy machine, a virtual monster weighing 3,835 pounds. There are actually several R35-era GT-Rs in GT5, but I am currently focusing on the 'base model', if we can call it such. Before letting Dirty Rice drive what became a virtual "Godzilla" in the Supercar Fest, I removed all possible weight, and this one carries 3,110 at the lightest. This still sounds like too much, does it not? But there are several reasons why the Nissan GT-R R35 feels mighty fine and comfortable with these pounds.
 
We can only buy this one in six different colors, which might bum some drivers out if it weren't for GT's paint shop. In real-life, the car is colored with chip-resistant paint, and then given 3 runs of clearcoat afterwards. All of this is done by hand, from what I have read, rather than a robot. Robots. Let's talk about robots. ...Matter of fact, the GT-R's monster-like appearance is supposed to have been inspired by a series of robots in anime, and the car does indeed have a robotic look. It also drives kinda like a robot at times. Let's take a look.


 

Meet the Yellow Jacket !!!
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...an '07 GT-R with wing & spoiler kit

------------ENGINE / DRIVETRAIN-----------


The Nissan GT-R comes in one body style, a two-door, 2+2 quasi-coupe. There's also but one powertrain offered, a twin-turbocharged, 3.6-liter V6 driving all four wheels through a six-speed, twin-clutch, sequential-shifting, automated-manual transaxle. Shifts are managed either by computer or by steering column-mounted magnesium paddle shifters.

More words from New Car Test Drive. I also found these words from an article over at Supercars.net

Often touted as a supercar for the playstation generation, the Nissan GT-R offers wholesale performance from a lineage that includes the legendary R34 Skyline. 

Mmmm hmmm, very nice! Anyways, for those who may fear that the GT-R is just an Infiniti re-badged, or some sort of poseur that kinda resembles an R34 fear not. This is a serious machine, folks, full of nothing but a desire to eat, devour, pwn, and roll back into the trailer with another set of impressions upon its bumpers. Most likely, these impressions will mostly be on its front bumpers, not its rear ones. The R35 GT-R will be doing plenty of bumper punting while driven by certain drivers. There won't be as many cars punting the GT-R's rear bumper.

It also sounds like a monster. Listening to my GT-R during a replay, and I realized I wanted to keep the lights on in my room. I realized I love the way this car sounds as I'm driving it, but I don't want that deep rumbly supersonic noise creeping into my nightmares!

The dealer quotes 473 horses, yet we 'only' start with 469 back in the garage. This is no prob; after just 40 miles around High Speed Ring, the VR38-coded V6  has broken-in to the point that it's now got 473, and this is where I began my testing.  

Testing. Heh heh. Here we go... The GT-R (no surprise) wound up taking ALL the first-place records at Special Stage Test Track X, beating out the former 1st-place holder (a C6-era Corvette) by several tenths of a second, and several miles per hour. Having lots more horses helps, of course, but then I noticed something unexpected about the GT-R after testing was done. I compared a real-life version to the virtual one. The following are a side-by-side comparison to some results found at www.supercars.net

                           R/L                          GT5
0 - 60 mph ~3.5 seconds            3.500 seconds
0 - 100 mph ~8.5 seconds          8.433 "
0 - 1/4 mile ~11.7 seconds         11.881 "

top speed ~ / 193 mph                198.xx mph


Spot. On. PD appears to have done their homework, big time.  

The engine is mostly aluminum, and is twin-turbocharged which is not a surprise, but what's really interesting is this car's drivetrain, which features the first "independent transaxle 4WD system." This, like so many other gizmos nowadays, is computer-controlled. The transmission, 6 plate dual-clutch, and torque converter are also located at the rear of the car, rather than in its center. This means that the overall weight of the drivetrain is distributed underneath the car itself, balancing its weight. There are plenty of times that the GT-R certainly does handle neutrally (rather than understeering or oversteering heavily), especially when not driven too aggressively, and we can now see why. 

The engine, transmission, and other drivetrain components are hand-assembled in a "clean room" by a single technician. In mechanic work, there are "clean" and "dirty" rooms, and different sorts of work takes place in these two different environments. Electronic and computer assembly (for instance) is often accomplished in a clean room because you don't want axle grease or latent pollution from a nearby generator getting inside these sorts of components and screwing them up. So this tells us something about the level of craftsmanship that's going on with the VR38.   

If the KPGC10 of long ago became "Kenmeri", and the R32 became "Godzilla", what will the R35's nickname finally be?  I've nicknamed my car Frankenstein, but this seems inappropriate, considering the real Frankenstein was nothing but clumsy, and not very fast. It's also debatable whether Mary Shelley's protaganist was cruel and murderous, as well, his story kinda alludes to the fact that he was more of a misunderstood giant. Well, the R35 GT-R happens to be all these things on those tracks: fast (very fast), brutal in those corners (rather than simply clumsy), and not very gentle at all. "Cruel and murderous" seems more likely. 

Power upgrades promise many more good things to come, and not just for B-spec. I have chosen my orange/green 'polarized'-colored GT-R for the Gran Turismo World Championship races, as well. While D.
 Rice was driving, I think we managed tuning up past 600 horses, and we hadn't even touched any official engine stages yet!              


------------CHASSIS / HANDLING-----------


With years and years of development before this virtual Frankenstein of concepts, implementations, and experience came to be, the GT-R happens to be one of the most complex devices ever developed for human usage, period.   

As mentioned, there are a variety of electronic systems extant in this car, and in my initial test-drive in a stock GT-R around Sarthe, I made sure ALL of these were on. Just to see what happens. So this means: stability control (Nissan calls it Vehicle Dynamic Control), traction control, and active steering (stong) were all on initially.

With all systems go, the GT-R tries its best to work with us, but feels conflicted. Aggressive (or sometimes mild) turn-in with or without braking causes the entire car to get confused. We'll see it understeer one moment, and then it'll correct itself and tries to turn in the direction that I'm wanting it to go, only it tries too hard, causing the front-end to GRAB instead of push or grip inwards normally!  All this stuff (ASM, TCS, etc.) is supposed to help keep real-life drivers out of accidents, yet if I were to use this crap during an actual race, chances are I'd wind up slamming somebody, especially as the nannying sends my car into alternate orbits of which I'm not anticipating.

Over and over the line I want gets wildly distorted. Give some gas (actually, lots of gas), and now the GT-R's trying to obey, but traction control causes it to understeer, and then the active steering and stability control contradict this! ...causing the car to cut its horsepower output by at least half! If I'm in a particularly tight area, this means the mighty GT-R is now crawling along, barely faster than a Fiat!    

It's like I'm the boss, yet my commands are being micro-managed by a set of other bosses, each with their own little teams of employees. These employees constantly text and email one another, sending progress reports this way and that, while the micro-bosses struggle to keep their company afloat during hard times. The end result? Here we have a car that's hurting itself more than it's helping, so far as racing lines and lap times go. So let's turn all this stuff off, whadoyasay? 

The real-life GT-R has three suspension modes: Comfort, Normal, and R (which stands for *gulp* Racing). From what I have read, those who want to drive this car on a typical road (full of bumps and pavement junctions) shouldn't even consider using Normal mode, doing so will provide a ride full of jolts and twitches. Comfort is where it's at on a typical road. Comfort mode is supposed to soften the suspension or something. 
 
But in the game we don't get these extra options with electronic suspension settings, which is okay. Our car is perpetually in R mode in my opinion, and as we drive over a particularly bumpy track like Sarthe, this becomes very evident down the Mulsanne. The GT-R twitches and rocks so much, it's like putting food on a red-hot skillet, and watching it dance around. Take a gander at this car's coils, and we can see why this is so: we've got 10.3 and 7.2 kg/mm, so far as spring settings go. That's pretty stiff!  It's also many steps in a different direction, when comparing to earlier GT-Rs in our game, most of which feature 4.0 and 5.0 front to rear.  

There are times these stiff coils can damage racing lines and such (especially over curbing) but most of the time the GT-R can handle extra movements from tires to suspension to car that a softer suspension would soak. When I drove an '07 GT-R in the Gran Turismo World Championship (in a car that is 390 pounds heavier than Dirty's), I didn't even bother to mess with the suspension. The suspension (and also the drivetrain) were left as-is for this set of races, except for aftermarket flywheels and carbon driveshaft(s). Since I was managing wins, or silvers, or a bronze or two as I did some test-races, it can easily be said that the GT-R's undercarriage is race-ready while stock, just like the engine is.  

One of the reasons why is its excellent all-wheel drive system, which has been configured to send power to those wheels that need traction the most. This system has been developed since the 1980s in earlier Nissan products, and is known as ATTESA E-TS in the R35. Hundreds of times per second, information is being sent from yaw sensors to the powertrain control module, which in turn is making sure wheel-spin (if it shows up at all) and slipping occurs as minimally as possible. Once all the extra stuff is turned off (TCS, ASC, and Active Steering), we can now just let ATTESA E-TS system do its thing, without any extra input from other electronics. ... And "its thing" happens to include lots of useful hand-holding as we're pushing this one hard. Matter of fact, this car is not only fast, not only handles well, but it handles safely, too, considering the fact that many lesser machines would be spinning-out and crashing at this level of punishment.   

Even with power stock and engine broken-in (484-ish hp) it simply doesn't matter what the surface of the road is like, or whether one or two tires are riding on a bumpy curb or some grass; push the throttle fully, and the GT-R lurches out of that turn, with barely a hint of wheelspin, perhaps.  And if all four tires have pavement beneath them, this steel, aluminum, and carbon-fiber Frankenstein often can send the exact amount of needed power to each axle. The car then feels as if it's on rails, literally, as it performs perfect arcs out of tight hairpins, or any sort of difficult turn we can imagine.

Here are some more words from Supercars.net to help shed more light on this complexity of an automobile.  

Suspension duties are handled through a special Bilstein DampTronic*1 system, which utilizes all pertinent vehicle information to provide appropriate damping forces for all situations and helps maintain a high level of control for straight-line driving, cornering, and braking.

I first got to experience an all-wheel drive system like this years ago in the Subaru SVX of GT and GT2, beating Vipers, TVRs, and other 2-wheel drives, simply due to better out-of-turn traction. Difference is (of course) those SVXes had a lot less power, somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 or 200 hp less. But the same basic concept applies: 2-wheel drive cars are going to suffer possible issues (zig-zagging, traction-loss, slipping and sliding)) as they zoom out of turns. The AWD, with its superior traction, will not usually do this. But the advantage a 2WD has is flexibility. Sometimes a rear-drive will have a certain flexibility with cornering lines which an AWD might lack.

Driving around now without any electronic assistance, there are indeed some moments when the GT-R feels as if it's about to "bind up" mid-turn. One of this car's only enemies while power & parts are stock is understeer, but even if there's no understeer, the GT-R still has a heavy steering feel, and requires a few moments more of full wheel-cranking before we can crush that throttle.

But the bottom line: Viper, Z-car, any 2WD BMWs (etc.) might be able to jump on their gas sooner, but chances are they won't be able to jump on it as heavily as the GT-R can. That's the thing; once this Nissan has a path cleared for takeoff, we can usually just give ALL the gas we want, while the car happily complies. The AWD system's computer makes sure the exact amounts of wheel-horsepower are going to each axle, balancing this with our steering input and the road's surface, helping us to possibly get the best launches we can.            

Then, of course, there's the downside. Carry a bit much speed into the turn? Have a happy day! Mr. Understeer is back!  With all the electronic assistance off, we have nobody to blame but ourselves if we enter and maintain too much speed into turns. As this one starts to push, it suddenly feels like a 3,800+ pound car!  It's difficult to truely spin an AWD such as this out of turns. Instead, understeer shows up at times while exiting, assuming too much gas is being tossed into the sky too early.

Basically: The car works with us in all regards, and seems to be doing its best to avoid pushing, but there are still times when it can't help us out anymore. This is truest of course on those stock hard sport tires. Better tires usually = less chances of understeer of course.  

That's one thing about the GT-R, caution still applies in force, just as it does in every other automobile on the market, but Nissan has done all they can to keep us out of danger.  We've got several braking systems working at once for instance (ABS, EBD, and brake assist, 6 piston calipers up front and 4 pistons in the rear), and all of this stuff is there for a reason.    

If braking zones are anticipated, the GT-R's front end starts to perform with an aggression that simply pleases: GRABBING occasionally into that turn, while those front tires SCREAM!  Braking in this car can be just as fun as accelerating. Matter of fact, braking is sometimes too good. There are plenty of times when I've used partial brakes into certain turns (especially esses and partial curves) because braking full-force caused me to enter too slowly. 

So braking is phenomenol, and so is trail-braking to some extent. This monster's cornering lines can often be played with while entering (depending mostly on tire grip,of course), as the crowds blur and any competition hopefully gets out of our way. The main problems with trail-braking start to occur once we've got some racing tires on. Even hard-graded slicks can cause the front-end to grab inwards too much at times, causing near-disasters. But there's always that safety net to get the monster out of these moments.  

Options. It's all about options. We always have options in the R35 generation GT-R, whether we are winning or losing. But I can guarantee that in this one, overall wins sometimes come way too easily.  
 
 

PROS---------------------------------------

1). It's a Skyline!

2). Aggressive style, and an aggressive demeanor on those tracks as well. This is an intimidating-looking car, which some (like myself) can appreciate.

3). Lots of intercooled power (as if the topic even needs to be brought up). Lack of turbo-lag, too, even in some lower gears at the "wrong" speed.

4). Lots of aftermarket options. So many, I have yet to buy them all.

5). Appropriate gearing with a twin clutch (IRL) which shifts at the push of a paddle. Even while stock, we're pushing nearly 200 miles per hour.

6). All-wheel drive traction. It seems to have a finer, more intuitive feel to it, compared to an R32 GT-R I drove a few days ago.   

7). The R35 is Premium, and there are several versions to try. Arguably, there's not too many (yet) on the market.  

8). I love this car but Bob REALLY loves it. B-spec drivers happen to be able to pwn some other A.I. as they compete around those tracks.      

9). Grabby brakes. If GT5 actually featured brake fade, this is one vehicle which would exhibit none of these concerns (according to real-life drivers), if PD were to model this correctly.  

10). Handling which matches all that power. Sport-tuned suspesion, giant 20" wheels. What more could a virtual race driver ask for?  

11). Lack of oversteer issues, especially while power is young and stock.

12). High-speed stability of a jetliner. Even as it's punted and pit-manuevered by other cars, the R35 tends to keep itself planted.  

13). Hey! It's a Skyline!


CONS--------------------------------------

1). Heavy. We don't usually notice this car's weight until it's too late.

2). Understeer and lateral movement issues, sometimes when it's not expected. The front-end can also grab too aggressively on entry at times, causing unintended racing lines. 
 
3). A heavy steering feel, as well, even if understeer is not present. Here is where that BMW or late-model Z car happens to excell in comparison.

4). A perfect cheater's car, considering PD's lack of horsepower rules in any GT game outside of GT2 (cheaters will see this as a Pro, of course).

5). Kinda pricey, some might think.

6). Kinda ugly, others might think.

7). This is one of those cars which is so "safe" to drive, it starts to become too easy to win with after awhile. And easy wins = a boring set of races in my opinion, no matter how cool that dashboard view is.

8). A rather stiff machine, which features above-average coil spring rates. This only makes a difference at super-bumpy tracks, of course.

9). No racing modifications (body wise) And the wing/aero parts barely seem to help with cornering like they did in previous games.

10). Dashboard area is a little too obstructive at times during races. It's sometimes hard to see where the road is, especially at narrow tracks, and especially when following other cars too closely.

11). This final Con is the most subjective and difficult to explain, but the more philosophical readers out there might get it. Soul. This is a very robotic, monsterous being that hasn't got any soul. Always feels like a machine. It hasn't got a set of quirks or warmths that other, lesser cars often have. The GT-R (as awesome as it is) is a rather cold automobile, full of perfections, and rarely any flaws.  


Published: January 11, 2013

   

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