Maybe I’m the last to know, but I just found out that the 2008 “Nissan GT-R” competing in the Super GT GT500 class is powered by a V8 VK45DE (the motor out of a Infiniti FX45, et al), as opposed to any sort of twin turbo V6 configuration you might except: IE, the VR38DETT out of the new Nissan GTR or the VQ30DETT out of the previous generation Nissan Super GT cars. Continue reading after the jump.
What made the Toyota 2JZ-GTE motor out of the Mark IV Supra so great was that it was designed for the original JGTC. The rules stated that competeing car had to use a motor out of it’s production car equivalent with little modifications, hence the inherent strength of the 2JZ motors. I guess the GT500 class in Super GT is about as production based these days as NASCAR is… Rather disappointing to say the least.
Even the remarkable world beating Corvette C6R (from the American Le Mans Series) uses a C6.R engine that closely resembles the LS7 motor found in the C6 Corvette Z06.
As a side note, I am going to make the completely off the wall claim that the VK45DE is a better motor then the VR38DETT, just to spite Nissan and draw meaningless assumptions from their choice of race motors. I mean, hey, if they’re going to pick one of their motors over another for competition, surely that has to say something… Yeah not really, but you get my point. [What really probably happened is that Super GT places handicaps on forced induction cars, and using a motor like the VK45DE allowed them to go naturally aspirated (as opposed to the twin turbo VR38) which kept some of the weight penalties off. But I don’t really care.]
yawrs.