RE: Nissan GT-R MY14: Review

[RoverP6B]

NomduJour said:

You are making yourself look very foolish indeed. Drive some cars and come back.

I've driven more cars than many here have had hot dinners. I've also been driving longer than some here have been alive.

3ananaPie said:

Not sure what's goingg on here. Anyway, had a play in a MY14 car and the ride is so much better than before. Firm but crashes about a lot less. The gearbox is very smooth and it's just a weapon on the road, even with such heavy rain on the day.

Good to hear it's been improved in this respect. Now, I wonder if they could sort the looks and the interior so it could really rival the best European GTs? I also wonder if something more refined than the V6 might be required.

Now, that's just given me an idea. An Infiniti GTR Lusso with a 7.6 litre quad-turbo V12 making 1100bhp and 960ftlb, anyone?

[samvia]

RoverP6B said:

As I've said before, I've hung on the tail of GT-Rs on such roads, not really trying hard, while watching them bucking and writhing and oversteering all over the place.

You do know this isn't a GT-R, right?

[Pommygranite]

RoverP6B said:

I've driven more cars than many here have had hot dinners. I've also been driving longer than some here have been alive.

You seem to mistake age and experience being commensurate with knowledge and ability.

Given the number of posters mocking what you are saying perhaps you might like to use that maturity and consider why everyone else thinks you're talking rubbish.

[RoverP6B]

samvia said:

You do know this isn't a GT-R, right?

I'll have you know that donkeys are very placid beasts which never misbehave, unlike certain quick Datsuns.

Pommygranite said:

You seem to mistake age and experience being commensurate with knowledge and ability.

Given the number of posters mocking what you are saying perhaps you might like to use that maturity and consider why everyone else thinks you're talking rubbish.

And why exactly should a bunch of kids mocking age/experience make me think of them with anything but contempt? The laws of physics have not changed. The GT-R of old, whatever changes have been made lately, simply isn't that capable on a gnarly B-road, whatever its fanboys would have you believe.

[Pommygranite]

How do you know how old everyone on here is?

Are you too arrogant to consider you might not know as much as you think?

[Herman Toothrot]

PunterCam said:

I dunno, for me it's kind of everything that's wrong in sports cars. Complex, heavy, fast for fasts-sake, I just don't see it. I don't see the point. I'm sure many enjoy the numbers (I have to wonder, without lap times being published, how many less would be sold?), but it seems like a dinosaur to me.

The GTR isn't the only offender - this isn't a hate fuelled rant; the 911 turbo/turbo s are just as bad - but it still annoys me. Remember a few short years ago everyone was driving elises? Every corner you'd see a wee Lotus - people driving them to work, running long daily commutes in them - I thought it might have been the re-emergence of great, affordable, fast and fun motoring. Sadly it seems track times have become a reason to buy a road car. I shudder to think what the maintenance on a 1700kg sports car with that much complexity is going to be in a few years...

Ok, a bit of a rant.

I agree with this, a GTR owning friend won't take his on track days and bought a bike engined caterfield to use on track instead as he said if you drive the GTR as hard as you drive the caterfield you can find yourself needing to spend £3k on consumables in a day and it's definitely not £3ks worth more fun. For me any fast car needs to be driven fast and this means track use, if it's to expensive to use on track on or you don't think it's more fun that a cheap kit car then what's the point?

I fully admit I've really gone off fast car driving on public roads these last few years, simply too many 40mph do gooders who believe overtaking should carry a prison sentence about. Most of my vehicle use is for the commute, (which include some roads that have appeared on 'dream drives' on here, early weekend morning are for mountain biking), only incredibly rarely can you really hoon it, maybe one or two days a year before in less than a mile you catch a queue 10 eurostboxes driving nose to tail. Don't have the same issue on motorbikes which now seem more relevant on the UK's clogged roads.

If the UK currently had 1980's numbers of car ownership / population a GTR would be on the list, sadly those days have gone. This of course applies to all fast cars which is why people buy more Porsches, Ferraris, S-Line Audis than Nissan GTRs because truth be told it's the pose value that's important to most people not how fast they can drive on the way to work.

[9mm]

Most cars are a bit st on roads straight out of Sleepy Hollow. Unless they're closed for a rally stage they are also used by horse riders, walkers, cyclists, farm machinery, septic tank lorries, animal transporters and fruit pickers, so anyone hooning on them needs to learn some responsibility and grow up. Few acts of driving are more irresponsible than fast driving on roads in poor condition with hidden exits and poor visibility.

Drive fast on good roads where we don't even need to drive a car to know how fast it is. This argument is like saying I can hold off a Veyron on a gnarly narrow country road in my Sunbeam Alpine. Course you can, so can I towing a caravan, if I want to drive down the middle of the road. In more news, Daihatsu Copen held up by Zonda in race to top of multi storey.

[samvia]

RoverP6B said:

And why exactly should a bunch of people who have actually driven the car make me think of them with anything but contempt? The laws of physics have not changed. The GT-R of old, whatever changes have been made lately, simply isn't that capable on a gnarly B-road, whatever people who have actually driven the car would have you believe.

EFA

[NomduJour]

RoverP6B said:

The GT-R of old, whatever changes have been made lately, simply isn't that capable on a gnarly B-road, whatever its fanboys would have you believe.

Whereas you have never even sat in one, I've owned several of them. I can assure you that even a standard old R32 GT-R covers ground very quickly one you're used to its way of working.

Your opinions are just that, and have absolutely zero credibility.

[Dom(UK)]

RoverP6B said:

Old not-bitter fart with not-crap not-boring car has nothing against younger men or faster cars. Ultimately, though, I find tech-fest performance cars boring. I could still beat a GT-R cross-country in the Beagle Pup 150 I was taught to fly by the ex chief instructor of the Red Arrows, Ted Girdler. He was a Jag man - had a V12 and latterly an XJS.

RoverP6B: For what it's worth, I've owned a GT-R since its UK launch and have oft taken B back roads where the road is more like MIRA suspension test tracks at GT-R resonant frequencies. At the right fast but road legal speeds, on certain tyre and suspension settings my GT-R shakes more like a Phantom in a spin, i.e. downright unpleasant. As a result I can imagine just the description you relate along your local B-roads, where the GT-R is knocking the teeth out of its occupants. For ordinary drivers heading where they want to go at pace, but not wanting to drive like they stole it, I've no doubt your 535 does a good job of keeping them honest and hustles them along to make progress; likewise the ride comfort is so poor the GT-R driver is happy to punt along at a certain pace. However the GT-R still capable of pressing on hard with the same ordinary driver and then some.

Reading through all your posts, I'd totally agree that an unfamiliar, twisty, uneven, slippery, hilly crest bound road is a great leveller in terms of apparently eliminating the gulf in performance on paper between the GT-R and your 535i. I think your at the crossover between easily accessible GT-R performance in relative comfort, punting along on boost in at modest revs in mid-gears. Above this, it can get scrabbily for ordinary drivers, especially on muddy leafy wet cambered wet road you describe!

However, hooked up correctly and driven well by an accomplished driver, the GT-R's cross-country pace is up there with the very best... and it's very fast indeed, through the twisties and on the straights, B road or no B-road. Some describe it as devastatingly fast.

Btw, I test drove the standard MY14 and as GT-Rs go I think it's the best yet, SVM/Litchfield etc tuned and modded variants excepted.

[Zed 44]

Herman Toothrot said:

I agree with this, a GTR owning friend won't take his on track days and bought a bike engined caterfield to use on track instead as he said if you drive the GTR as hard as you drive the caterfield you can find yourself needing to spend £3k on consumables in a day and it's definitely not £3ks worth more fun. For me any fast car needs to be driven fast and this means track use, if it's to expensive to use on track on or you don't think it's more fun that a cheap kit car then what's the point?

I fully admit I've really gone off fast car driving on public roads these last few years, simply too many 40mph do gooders who believe overtaking should carry a prison sentence about. Most of my vehicle use is for the commute, (which include some roads that have appeared on 'dream drives' on here, early weekend morning are for mountain biking), only incredibly rarely can you really hoon it, maybe one or two days a year before in less than a mile you catch a queue 10 eurostboxes driving nose to tail. Don't have the same issue on motorbikes which now seem more relevant on the UK's clogged roads.

If the UK currently had 1980's numbers of car ownership / population a GTR would be on the list, sadly those days have gone. This of course applies to all fast cars which is why people buy more Porsches, Ferraris, S-Line Audis than Nissan GTRs because truth be told it's the pose value that's important to most people not how fast they can drive on the way to work.

As a GTR owner, I pretty much agree with this which is why I take mine to Europe several times a year where roads are fantastic and mostly unoccupied. I also agree with some other contributors here that a relatively fast hatchback often feels safer and more controllable on B roads than the GTR and is often as quick. Even my 1.6 turbo Peugeot

[Dom(UK)]

RoverP6B said:

1) On such roads, you can't get anywhere near flat out in anything more powerful than an 80s hot hatch

2) You're still having to drive within the limits of what the chassis can put down to the surface. Too much spring rate, not enough rebound damping and not enough suspension travel will severely restrict that.

Show them a half-decent A-road and it'd be a very different story.

I think it's more a case of the drivers you've encountered being unwilling to press any harder, rather than a performance limit of the the cars like the 911 turbo and GT-R being unable. Whether the suspension specification and tuning genuinely limits these cars pace on extremely bumpy roads I am not so sure, I think its more the discomfort factor combined with driving within safe limits for other road users that dominates rather than a hard chassis performance limit of the car.

Around, the twisties in poor conditions I can imagine drivers holding well back, it's common sense. GT-R or no, they lose grip and skid like any other car, so safe driving should prevail. For the GT-R, the MY14 suspension feels more refined and noticeably better suited to UK roads. Even a standard original 2009 GT-R without runflats is surprisingly compliant on bumpy surfaces.

Therefore I'd recommend RoverP6B takes the plunge and find out for himself. RoverP6B test drive a MY14 GT-R on your local B-roads on a bright fresh Winter's day, give it the beans and report back on your findings. Plus make sure you do the the same on a smooth Band A-roads for comparison.

I'd be interested to hear your feedback having completed the test drive.... you'll enjoy yourself. Fun in big bucket fulls is guaranteed.

I'd also agree many slower cars are just as much or more fun than a GT-R on the road and on the track, precisely because they can be driven at 10/10s whilst the GT-R doesn't always get past 5/10s on the road and 7/10s on the track where the speed it generates on the straights and its corner entry and exit speeds are more suited to the handling skills of very experienced track drivers. Even so, as a novice driver one experience glimpses of it hooking together and it's still satisfying, techno-fest or no. Being able to take a GT-R by the scruff of its neck and push it around a track on its limit and beyond takes a genuinely accomplished driver; such drivers I've met report the GT-R is a satisfying drive because they are still properly hooked-in to the car, and enjoy the interplay of their driving with the car dynamics and mechanical systems.

For me, and many other drivers, the GT-R and cars like it exceed my driving talent by some margin, and learning good road and track craft in lesser beasts, is a sensible and highly entertaining proposition. A Caterfield being an ideal tool to learn and improve. Grins all round.

Enough said

[Dagnut]

RoverP6B said:

And why exactly should a bunch of kids mocking age/experience make me think of them with anything but contempt? The laws of physics have not changed. The GT-R of old, whatever changes have been made lately, simply isn't that capable on a gnarly B-road, whatever its fanboys would have you believe.

In this case you're the inexperienced one, you have no experience of the cars you are dismissing. Age is not factor here, the ability of an EVO6 and GTR really are beyond your comprehension because with any first hand experience of these cars you simply wouldn't have even started this debate.