Tag: Nissan GT-R

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Nissan Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2011: Day 4 & 5 update

Targa Tasmania 2011

Tony Quinn and Naomi Tillett today held on to win their second Targa Tasmania rally in three years. In their Nissan GT-R the 2009 champs carried a comfortable lead into the final day and drove well to secure victory by 3 minutes and 39 seconds.

Wet weather on the last two days certainly provided tough conditions for all competitors and many found their limits. Yesterday, especially, claimed many competitors with the heavy rain in the afternoon.

Second in the modern outright placings was Dean Herridge (Subaru WRX STi), almost two minutes ahead of Matthew Sims (Nissan GT-R).

Winner in the classic outright category was Rex Broadbent (Porsche 911 Carrera 911 RS), from David Cooper (Holden Torana A9X) and Nick Ellis (Porsche 911 Carrera). This makes it five wins on the trot for Broadbent in the classic competition.

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Motorsports Nissan

Godzilla on track for GT1 championship

Nissan GT-R - FIA GT1

Nissan will be hoping this is the view the new FIA GT1 field sees in 2010 after announcing four new GT-Rs will be taking part in the upcoming season. Nismo have signed agreements with UK-based Sumo Power GT and Swiss Racing Team, based in, well Switzerland. Each team will run a two car operation with Nismo offering tech support.

Other details are pretty scant at the moment, so you’ll just have to make do with these pics that make the GT-R’s backside even bigger—but so much naughtier!

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Motorsports News Nissan

Nissan GT-R to lead touring cars, again

R35 Nissan GT-R

The good old days of the Nissan GT-R leading the best Australian touring cars in the land are coming back. The GT-R will be leading the way for the V8 Supercar field during 2009 after signing on to fill the vacant Safety Car position following the departure of the Chrysler 300C.

I know what you’re thinking, and no, the GT-R probably won’t be quicker than the purpose built racing Falcadores. That said, it’d be kinda fun if we were given a chance to see just how close a $150K Nissan would go against cars from the premier Australian racing category.

Rumours that Jim Richards will be driving the Safety Car in 2009 remain unconfirmed (more info after the jump).

Source: CarAdvice

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Nissan

Cobra Tuning gives GT-R more venom

Cobra N+ Nissan GT-R

“Power can only be substituted with more power.”

Well, that’s what the press blurb attached to this new Cobra N+ Nissan GT-R concept claims. The German funsters have upped the power from 353kW to 405kW (485hp to 550hp). Torque also gets a bit of a kick along, from 588Nm to 680Nm. The Cobra tuned Godzilla can sprint to 100km/h in just 3.5 seconds on its way to a top speed of 320km/h (200mph).

Nissan reckoned their GT-R couldn’t be tuned, well the above power figures, reached in part through ECU tweaks, have put paid to that claim. Other usual tuning trickery such as revised air intakes and exhaust design have also helped to nudge GT-R’s power along.

Cobra’s tuning concept looks the business, too, on its 21 inch lightweight alloys, even if the paint detailing on the bodywork is a bit over the top. Eight-pot, yes eight piston, brakes at 405mm in diameter ensure the crazy speeds this car can achieve can also be brought to a halt.

But that’s not all, there is a race version in the pipeline as well. This will have over 455kW (620hp). Cool! Stay tuned for more info when the car hits the market sometime in the second quarter of 2009.

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Nissan

Nissan GT-R image gallery – Australian delivery from April 2009

R35 Nissan GT-R

Well, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock you’ll be well aware of the hype and publicity created by the Nissan GT-R. Now, in an official capacity at least, the GT-R will be heading down under. The country that gave the car its Godzilla nickname (courtesy of Wheels magazine) will be in Australian Nissan showrooms in April 2009. Okay, a select few Nissan showrooms—the GT-R will be sold at just 11 Nissan High Performance Centres.

The GT-R will be available in two specifications, GT-R ($148,800) and GT-R Premium ($152,800). The Premium model doesn’t add any extra power, just a few bling items like smoked alloy wheels, better sound system and the like. There will be a choice of six colours, Super Silver, Vibrant Red, Gun Metallic, Black Obsidian, Titanium, and Ivory Pearl.

Orders will be taken at the Australian International Motor Show from 9 October. For Nissan’s full release and a massive image gallery, comprising of 30 pictures at 2000x1320px, make sure you read below…

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Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania in pictures – part 1

2008 Targa Tasmania prologue

Here is my first installment of Targa Tasmania articles. There’ll be a few popping up over the next few days—a few picture essays like this one, and I’ll finish the series with an account of my experience working as a service crew member for Andrew Robinson in his 2002 MINI Cooper S. In the meantime, please enjoy this selection of pictures taken from the George Town prologue on Day 0. The town stages were the only real opportunity for us to get a look at the cars in competition and I’ll also be posting up some images from the Longford town stage on Day 2.

Featured above is the Close/Close entry, a 2000 Porsche 911 Turbo, which took outright honours for the prologue in the modern category, completing the 4.81km course in 3:12.72. Very impressive indeed, considering the Richards/Oliver entry—making the world competition debut for the new 390kW Porsche 911 GT2—was back in third place with a time of 3:16.64. Other cars making their world competition debut were the new R35 Nissan GT-R—14th, 3:22.78—and the Corvette Z-06—51st, 3:34.16.

The fastest outright time in the classic category was 3:22.12 by the Pye/Geelan entry in a 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera RS. Unfortunately, this was as good as it got for car #531 as they encountered mechanical issues coming back into the service area, and their withdrawal from the event was confirmed when we saw the car parked on a trailer in our motel car park the next morning. Still, they fared a bit better than the stunning looking BMW 2002 which missed the first corner of the prologue and crashed out of the event with damage to the front left wheel assembly. Oops!

I hope you enjoy these pictures, as always you can click each image for a larger version, and keep en eye on the site over the coming days for more Targa Tasmania coverage.

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Nissan

R35 Nissan GT-R written off

Nissan GT-R write off

Spotted via CarAdvice and the NAGTROC forum was the sad news that a newly delivered R35 Nissan GT-R had met an early demise. It seems the Singaporean driver was on his way to Sepang for a few track thrills. Too much ah beng and not enough talent I guess, poor bloke. There’s more pics on the NAGTROC forum for you to have a gander at if twisted metal gets you off. I think the damage to this car is sufficient enough to declare, no, it won’t buff right out.

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Chevrolet Nissan Porsche Targa Tasmania

Three icons to make world debut at Targa Tasmania

The iconic nameplates of Porsche GT2, Nissan GT-R and Corvette Z06 will all make their worldwide tarmac rally debuts at the 2008 Targa Tasmania, held from 15-20 April. The newly launched R35 Nissan GT-R, to be driven by Tony Alford, is one of the most keenly anticipated new cars in recent years and Australia is very lucky to be having the car running in such a high profile local event.

The Corvette will be driven by Neil and Daniel Ford, and there will also be a second Z06 to be used as a support vehicle. I wonder how many spare parts will be removed from that car before the event is over!

The other big name, the Porsche GT2, will see Targa Porsche stalwarts Jim Richards and Barry Oliver in the cockpit. Expect this experienced team to be fighting for outright honours. The GT2 and GT-R will most probably be duelling in this event just as they have been trading Nürburgring Nordschleife lap times. Just another interesting sidenote to this year’s Targa.

Stay tuned for some detailed reports on the event from AUSmotive, more on that later.

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Fifth Gear

Fifth Gear – Series 13, Episode 6

Fifth Gear 13x06Episode six of the current series of Fifth Gear featured the highly anticipated Nissan GT-R and Audi RS6 (see youtube clips below). In fact, Fifth Gear claimed theirs was the world’s first TV clip to review the GT-R. Jonny and Tom had a camp-off, erm, pun intended, with a pair of Volkswagen vans. The second hand star was the R33 Nissan Skyline GT-R. And Tom stacked a Renault Laguna into a big old tree. Vicki kicked off the episode by punting a Fiat 500 and MINI One around Anglesea.

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