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New Models
DRIVEN: The Astonishing Nissan GT-R
The 2013 version of the 545-horsepower super coupe is an uncompromising performance car of the highest order.
Nissan GT-R gets more powerful for 2013, along with race-handling and remarkable finesse. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
“Intense” was the word of the day for the 2013 Nissan GT-R, voiced by my regular road-test buddy, artist/car-guy son Paul, who looked every bit as astounded as I felt by the stunning performance of the latest version of the Japanese supercar.
With almost supernatural muscle, precision and response, the acclaimed GT-R coupe returns for 2013 after its 2012 makeover with even more horsepower and torque, strongly maintaining its credentials in the exclusive 500-plus-horsepower club.
As such, GT-R once again proves to be an uncompromising performance car for the street or track. Uncompromising in that to accomplish its mission, it is raucous and hard-edged, but as thoroughly inspiring a driving machine as has ever been devised.
The coupe is extraordinarily responsive to every throttle, steering or braking action, at times feeling more like a mind reader than an automobile, truly an extension of driver intent. Its rapid-fire reactions make it highly confidence inducing, such as when you’re blithely throwing it into a very sharp downhill curve at breakneck speed.
Yet GT-R is also accessible and shamefully easy to drive fast, partially due to its many high-technology applications, and it’s readily capable of being driven every day through traffic at subsonic speeds. Despite its sharp responsiveness, GT-R’s drivability doesn’t even approach being jittery in any way.
For 2013, GT-R was bumped up 15 horsepower to 545 and 15 pound-feet to 463, mainly through improvements in intake and exhaust flow. With that, GT-R jumps from zero to 60 mph in a blistering 2.9 seconds, according to Nissan.
All that power comes from a somewhat unlikely source, a hand-assembled 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 linked to a high-performance six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. It’s fed to the pavement through what Nissan calls the world’s first independent-rear-transaxle all-wheel drive system.
The near-perfect balance of such a system becomes quickly apparent. The handling is nothing less than amazing.
The correct venue for testing such a machine is the no-limits environment of a race track. I missed out on that, but I was able to put it on my favorite diabolically twisting stretch of road, where I was able to roar through the tortured hairpins and sharp inclines so much faster than I ever was able to before.
Besides the strong power from the engine is how it is managed through the dual-clutch automatic. The long, narrow paddle shifters are about perfect, thankfully attached in fixed positions to the steering column race-car style instead of moving around with the steering wheel. In manual mode, they provide sharply quick response with nearly instantaneous gear changes up or down, with downshifts matched by engine revs.
On full automatic, the transmission also delivers superb response, upshifting very quickly at normal driving speeds, holding a lower a gear as needed at slow speeds and downshifting agreeably whenever requested by throttle input. Manual mode is engaged simply by pulling back on one of the paddles.
GT-R was designed to be as lightweight as possible, using a mix of steel, die-cast aluminum and carbon fiber, and skimping on such weighty matters as sound insulation. So occupants are treated to the mechanical noises of that amazing transmission, plenty of road noise and the insistent whine of the twin-turbocharged V6 that produces all that power.
The racket is easily masked, however, via the superb 11-speaker Bose sound system.
The ride is pure race car, thumping over small bumps in the road, even tiny lane markers, with lots of tire rumble from the aggressive 20-inch Dunlop Sport Maxx GT 600 DSST CTT ultra-high-performance run-flat tires, which are filled with nitrogen. Among the performance switches in the dashboard is one for suspension control: comfort, standard and pure race track. They could have well been labeled: stiff, stiffer and stiffest.
Still, the performance of this car is simply so enjoyable that the buffeting ride is totally acceptable. Besides, GT-R is a fairly comfortable highway cruiser, aside from the road noise, that gobbles up the miles with amazing grace. Wind roar is pretty much absent even at high speeds. A taller six gear would be appreciated, though, for more-relaxed highway speed and improved fuel mileage.
With almost supernatural muscle, precision and response, the acclaimed GT-R coupe returns for 2013 after its 2012 makeover with even more horsepower and torque, strongly maintaining its credentials in the exclusive 500-plus-horsepower club.
As such, GT-R once again proves to be an uncompromising performance car for the street or track. Uncompromising in that to accomplish its mission, it is raucous and hard-edged, but as thoroughly inspiring a driving machine as has ever been devised.
The coupe is extraordinarily responsive to every throttle, steering or braking action, at times feeling more like a mind reader than an automobile, truly an extension of driver intent. Its rapid-fire reactions make it highly confidence inducing, such as when you’re blithely throwing it into a very sharp downhill curve at breakneck speed.
Yet GT-R is also accessible and shamefully easy to drive fast, partially due to its many high-technology applications, and it’s readily capable of being driven every day through traffic at subsonic speeds. Despite its sharp responsiveness, GT-R’s drivability doesn’t even approach being jittery in any way.
For 2013, GT-R was bumped up 15 horsepower to 545 and 15 pound-feet to 463, mainly through improvements in intake and exhaust flow. With that, GT-R jumps from zero to 60 mph in a blistering 2.9 seconds, according to Nissan.
All that power comes from a somewhat unlikely source, a hand-assembled 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 linked to a high-performance six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. It’s fed to the pavement through what Nissan calls the world’s first independent-rear-transaxle all-wheel drive system.
The near-perfect balance of such a system becomes quickly apparent. The handling is nothing less than amazing.
The correct venue for testing such a machine is the no-limits environment of a race track. I missed out on that, but I was able to put it on my favorite diabolically twisting stretch of road, where I was able to roar through the tortured hairpins and sharp inclines so much faster than I ever was able to before.
Besides the strong power from the engine is how it is managed through the dual-clutch automatic. The long, narrow paddle shifters are about perfect, thankfully attached in fixed positions to the steering column race-car style instead of moving around with the steering wheel. In manual mode, they provide sharply quick response with nearly instantaneous gear changes up or down, with downshifts matched by engine revs.
On full automatic, the transmission also delivers superb response, upshifting very quickly at normal driving speeds, holding a lower a gear as needed at slow speeds and downshifting agreeably whenever requested by throttle input. Manual mode is engaged simply by pulling back on one of the paddles.
GT-R was designed to be as lightweight as possible, using a mix of steel, die-cast aluminum and carbon fiber, and skimping on such weighty matters as sound insulation. So occupants are treated to the mechanical noises of that amazing transmission, plenty of road noise and the insistent whine of the twin-turbocharged V6 that produces all that power.
The racket is easily masked, however, via the superb 11-speaker Bose sound system.
The ride is pure race car, thumping over small bumps in the road, even tiny lane markers, with lots of tire rumble from the aggressive 20-inch Dunlop Sport Maxx GT 600 DSST CTT ultra-high-performance run-flat tires, which are filled with nitrogen. Among the performance switches in the dashboard is one for suspension control: comfort, standard and pure race track. They could have well been labeled: stiff, stiffer and stiffest.
Still, the performance of this car is simply so enjoyable that the buffeting ride is totally acceptable. Besides, GT-R is a fairly comfortable highway cruiser, aside from the road noise, that gobbles up the miles with amazing grace. Wind roar is pretty much absent even at high speeds. A taller six gear would be appreciated, though, for more-relaxed highway speed and improved fuel mileage.
The Lyonheart K
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