Have you seen any use of aluminum car bodies by Nissan?

Not sure myself, as I don't follow the other Nissan products too closely.

It's possible the GTR could have an aluminum frame, but as GM found out it is very costly and actually saves very little weight. The C6 ZO6 saved about 200 lbs I believe, but put 100 lbs back on in beefier performance parts like bigger brakes, bigger wheels and rubber, intercoolers, etc... almost a wash.

An aluminum GTR would be cool, but I can't see Nissan being able to get the price low enough with aluminum. Especially factoring that the car will be an import, and have more technological hardware than the less complex ZO6.

-AL

 

all R34 GTRs have aluminum hoods.

it would not suprise me if the new GTR has a significant amount of aluminum beyond just the hood. what they're going to go for is monocoque Exige-like rigidity. whatever they do, they're gonna need to keep that puppy as light as possible at the unibody level because the rest of the hardware is going to add up real quick. some of the panels may be carbon fibre, ie, carbon fibre body (or partial body) over carbon fibre tub with rear alloy subframe. sure, my imagination is running away on this, but i suspect something atypical for this new gen GTR.

the car is already at the level of the 997tt according to what they have allowed to be seen on the nurburgring comparison test vids. so it's got something going on. it's already light enough and/or powerful enough to be at that level. so it's either heavy and traditionally constructed and just way powerful enough to overcome this, or it's a bit of both and balanced between not too heavy and not overly powerful. and they somehow have achieved this.

 

Nurburgring video shows flames coming out the tailpipes so the test car is certainly not stock. My guess would be no cats and a hot tune to get some impressive numbers. The emissions cert will likely rob some ponies.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the production model stacks up against it's competitors. The Bugatti Veyron is 4200 lbs and can manage a 68 mph 700 ft slalom speed, and a record breaking 2.6 sec 0-60 time (by M/T). Although it does have over 1000 HP!

Another interesting comparison is the Porsche Carerra GT. It is almost all Carbon Fiber with alloy front and rear subframes, yet it still weighs about 3200 lbs. The Porsche president was quoted as saying that, if you want luxury you take on more weight. The C6 ZO6 weighs slightly less, but is often criticized for being noisy, and rough.

My guess is that the best the GTR can hope for is 3400-3500 lbs. Unless they do like the ZO6 and strip the sound insulation along with a stereo and A/C delete. Anything else is a battle of diminishing returns.

Just my 2 cents.

-AL

P.S. makes me wonder what the record is for the lightest 2+2 sports coupe?

 

consider that a test car is not stock because "stock" has not been established --as that is the whole point of testing! they have not determined what is stock yet. indeed, they're not going to have a flame-throwing production car, but i really doubt the "stock" benchmark has been established. they have months of refining yet to do. and they're already at 997tt level. so they're already hot on that trail. i'm not worried a bit.

 

Ahhh, touche'!

True but I believe the power levels would likely go down not up... entropy and all that. The power and development boys are having fun right now on the company ticket. However, the emissions monkeys are likely to steal away some of their hard earned gains.

-AL

"Call me jaded, but I prefer to think of it as being a realist".

 

good points; we'll see soon enough. i tend to believe the car is more akin to Ferrari in benchmarks than Porsche.

 

I think its too overrated, its gonna lose its novelty factor, i mean the only reason we drool over it because it wasn't sold here and you had to sell organs to get one. So imo its just just another car ill never be able to afford. plus the R32 looks better anyways.

 

I tend to agree.

Based on the limitation of price, and physical contraints I think people are overestimating performance. Given what we know about the new GTR:
- the physical size based on the Proto from Tokyo
- The fact that it is based on the FM platform
- The Fact that it is a 2+2
- The fact that it will be AWD of some sort

Leads me to believe the car will be as Carl Ghosn stated "around 3500lbs." The only concievable way to lighten the car, (and believe me 3500 lbs is light for an AWD 2+2), is to make the frame from aluminum. Unfortunately this adds a lot of cost and saves only a small amount of weight. Honda's NSX was a leightweight aluminum Japanese ultra sport with a high sticker that sold only in small numbers.

If the GTR is around 3500 lbs and has around 450 - 480 hp it will be up against stiff competition. The new Viper gets 600 hp, the light weight ZO6 at 505 hp, the rumored debut of the Corvette SS (a.k.a. "Blue Devil") at 650 hp, and the new Porsche Turbo will all provide tough benchmarks. If the GTR can't best them in performance numbers, will it beat them with luxury? Then the question becomes, at what price?

Perhaps Nissan has some technological tricks up their sleve? I hope so, as it would be cool to see the GTR establish a new standard. Quality, power, and performance on a budget is a tough trick indeed.

-AL

 

Nissan is aware of the competition. HP benchmarks are not a complete picture nor a deal-breaker or deal-maker.

 

In my humble but educated opinion, Nissan would NEVER have waited this long to release the car if they simply wanted to put a high performance GTR on the US market. Obviously they have other cars here and could have thrown together a nice piece already. This is going to undoubtedly be something very special with many trick pieces. You will see, and I stand by saying this with confidence. They are also, without a doubt, waiting to see what their competition will be in the coming year with the horsepower wars as they are. Being a twin turbo as expected with all wheel drive gives them an unbelievable range of tunes or adjustability with rapidly changing market conditions.

If they are serious, which I hope and believe they are, you can forget about this being a so called "budget" car. They cannot compete with the Porsche Turbo and Zo6 effectively for under 80k. It simply is a pipe dream unless their is a range of gtr models which I don't believe will happen.

The frame will be aluminum, as is becoming the standard with the Z06, Audi A8, etc, as it will be expected and the price of producing such is coming down to reasonable levels. Remember all the hoopla and naysayers when the idea of GM having a special edition Corvette with aluminum frame and composite pieces for a reasonable sticker price? Remember that the NSX was the first such aluminum framed sports car for production and that is a reason why it was in part so expensive, with proprietary technology this always is the case. The rest of the GTR will definitely be a technological tour de force with trick pieces never before seen on any car before. Composites are to be expected, at least for certain parts as fenders and hoods, and I will feel disappointed if they don't happen. Even my 335i has a plastic composite front end to lighten up the car. Again, there may be more than one price point on the car but I don't believe so.

Limited production cars, including the new Z06, are hardly budget cars especially with the scarceness and markups . Otherwise why limit their production? Come on people!

Going fast and looking cool takes money. It is that simple.