Here is some new and rare footage of the Nissan GTR being assembled and tested at Nissan’s assembly plant in Tochigi, Japan. Follow the jump for part two of the video.
Continue reading ‘VIDEO: Rare footage of the Nissan GTR being assembled and tested’
No, not Max Mosley nazi-red, Ferrari red. Driver Kimi Raikkonen cruised to victory yesterday after leading the Spanish GP from start to finish, followed a few seconds later by his Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton took third. It was the 78th 1 - 2 team finish in F1 history.
Raikkonen is now sitting at 29 points for the season, nine ahead of second place Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari is also now in the lead of the constructor’s standings.
[Source: The Guardian]
I promise, it’s REALLY not Jeremy Clarkson day here at TDC… But this was just too funny not to share.
With all eyes on the Nissan GTR, people have forgot all about the other AWD turbo sports car out of Japan: the Mitusbishi EVO. Thankfully Jeremy Clarkson hasn’t, and in his latest Times Online piece he takes the new Mitsubish EVO X out for a little road test. Verdict? “Eye-wateringly brilliant.”
Of course there are lots of buttons you can press to make the handling different but those are for geeks and bores. All I can report is that the basics of this car – the core – are monumentally, toweringly, eye-wateringly brilliant.
Then there’s the speed. Yes, a Ferrari 430 is full of brio and passion but get an Evo X on your tail and I guarantee that, unless it’s being driven by a complete spanner, you will not be able to shake it off.
Sounds like a pretty solid endorsement to me.
Full Article: Jeremy Clarkson Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution review
7tune.com (via ‘Best Car’) is reporting to have some new insider details on Nissan’s upcoming GTR V Spec. One of their more interesting claims is that the car is to debut in October of this year for a remarkable $124,000 USD.
At around 4pm on April 8th and with unfavorable conditions, the GT-R Spec V produced a lap time (recorded by observers) at the ‘Ring of 7 minutes 25 seconds. The target time for the Spec V was a slightly more optimistic 7 minutes 20 seconds but with a damp track this wasn’t to be realized. To put it into perspective, last year Walter Rohrl piloted a Porsche 997 GT2 at the same track and completed a lap time of 7 minutes 32 seconds, some seven seconds slower than the Spec V. Even more surprising is the gap in lap times between the standard GT-R and the Spec V, the regular model posting a thirteen second slower lap time at 7 minutes 38 seconds. Spec V test driver Toshio Suzuki suggests that given the right conditions the Spec V could very well produce a lap time that could “blow ones mind”. Following the April 8th tests the GT-R Spec V was taken from the Nurburgring circuit temporarily and switched to general road tests.
…
A source close to the Nissan development team has confirmed that the Spec V has an unladen weight of 1590kg and a power output of 550ps, but made no mention of an ‘over boost’ function as reported in our previous article. A power improvement of 80ps and a weight reduction of 150kg puts the power to weight ratio at 2.89kg/ps which puts the GT-R Spec V in another league. These figures will likely help the Spec V achieve a ten second 0 - 400m time, a good improvement over the already quick 11.6 second quarter mile of the standard car.
There’s no way to determine how accurate any of this data is, so be sure to take it with a grain of salt.
Here’s the video of Stephane Ortelli’s spectacular crash during a Le Mans event today at the Monza circuit. Ortelli suffered a broken ankle in the crash, but fortunately came away otherwise unharmed.
[Sources: Jalopnik.com, et al]
Edmunds puts on their thinking caps for a little speculation about the how much power the 2009 Cadillac CTS-V could make.
It will [make 567hp], that is, if GM Powertrain and Cadillac are underestimating the engine’s output as much as GM and Chevrolet underestimated the output of the related LS9 motor that powers the 2009 Corvette ZR1. At its launch at the Detroit auto show this past January, Chevrolet was careful to note that the LS9 would make “at least 620 horsepower.” The final figure, announced last night is 638 hp. That’s a 3 percent increase. How could Chevrolet be so wrong? Willfully, that’s how.
Full Article: 2009 Cadillac CTS-V To Make 567 Horsepower
Edmunds Inside Line has some more details on the 2009 Corvette ZR1’s recent 205mph run down the ATP Papenburg test track in Papenburg, Germany.
Luke Sewell, a powertrain engineer on the Corvette platform team, told Inside Line that Patrick Herrmann, a European engineer, was behind the wheel during the top-speed run. Sewell says Herrmann isn’t part of the Corvette team, but that he’s certified to drive the ATP Papenburg course.
Sewell said he himself spent time in the 2009 ZR1’s right seat during the testing, and that the vehicle used was an “integration” vehicle, a mule, that was different from a production car only in that it was equipped with a roll cage and instrumentation for monitoring speed, cooling temps and such.
Full Article: 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Goes 205 mph-Plus!
