The Spec-V Commeth: Not Much of a Surprise

  • Thread starter Thread starter YSSMAN
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Stotty
Something like...

GTR owner walks in to Nissan dealers and stands in a queue for 15 minutes surrounded by 'people with considerably less wealth than he has'. Eventually he gets to the desk and meets the miserable receptionist....

Nissan service receptionist: 'What do you want?'

GTR owner: 'Just brough my GTR in for a sevice'

Service receptionist; 'Oh, I'm terribly sorry for being so rude sir, I thought you were another Mirca driver. Please have a seat in the special GTR service area where you get free quaility coffee rather than the usual vending machine rubbish our regular punters get.'

;)
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/Typical Porsche owner mentality.
 
Stotty
$150K for a Nissan... LMFAO, you're having a joke.

Thats about £100k at current exchange rates... for which you can buy...
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Is the GT-R built in America? will it be imported to Europe rfom its factory in America? I think you'll find the answerto thoes questions are firmly no. With that in mind, why are you using a assumed US price to base an assumed UK price on.

2007 Gallardo... Spyder or coupe, less than 10k miles... you can also get a 2004 Murciealego, but the running costs would scare me to death
2007 AM Vanquish S
2007 F430 coupe or 2006 Spider
2008 997 Turbo (though I heard from a good source Porsche are now offering discounts and you may get a brand new one for c.£100k)
2007 997 GT3RS with just 2k miles and £30K change to buy a nice daily driver
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For the love of god let's not start comparing brand new cars to second hand deals, they throw every compaison into chaos. You compare like for like, new with new.

Now the GTR may be quicker than all of these, but I know which I'd rather be getting behind the wheel of every morning... who in their right mind pays £100k for a Nissan?
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Maybe maybe not, I can see people playing £100k for a great car that happens to be a Nissan though.Badge snobbery does exist, but it doesn't count for everyone. There is a big market for

Greycap
Me too. The Nissan. When the car has to be able to be driven every day in every weather it has to be something else than a super thrilling track rocket. The GT-R is a car designed to be as easy to drive as the run-of-the-mill Primera when the performance isn't needed but it can still run with the "real" supercars if needed.
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And this is something I find desirable in a car, especially if I want to use it regularly. I don't want to have back trouble in my 40's because I drove a stiff car for all thoes years, especially over all the pot holes and speed bumps that litter the UK's roads. The GT-R is the car for everything. You can argue that you can have a daily driver and then a supercar, but some people don't want that, if a car can be two things at once that's a big plus for some.

YSSMAN
People complain all the time when "lesser" brands build expensive cars. Look at the reception that the otherwise awesome Passat W8 and Phaeton had for VW in the States, not to mention the origional balking that Chevrolet received for the notion of a $100K ZR1. It always depends on what kind of car, who is making it, and what the rest of the field looks like.

The GT-R is a technical achievement, there isn't any way around that. But after the dust has settled, I'm back to the point where I just say "who cares?" I'm just not moved by the car... at all... in any form. Certainly, I respect it and its performance, but if I'm in the market for a car in that price range, I'm likely shopping elsewhere.
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Personally I don't find the GT-R an appealing car, for some reason despite the fact I recognise that it is a fantastic car I'd still be more inclined to buy something else. This has nothing to wit hthe badge, I like Nissans in general, or rather I have no reason to disslike them but the GT-R just doesn't interest me for some reasons. It's a fantastic car and if I was in the market I'd force myself to consider it purely because of how good a car it is and who knows maybe after a test drive I'd want it. In terms of what the car does, it's everything I'd want for £60k.
 
I still would (very much...sorry everyone who seems to hate it) like a standard version, even over a Corvette or Porsche, (and DEFINITELY over a Ferrari or Audi,) but I'm not gonna pay that much more for a titanium exhaust and some Volks.

Granted, the last V-spec wasn't a huge jump in power, either.
 
So the big-ticket item is HUUUUUGE brakes?

Uh...I'ma jus' gonna stick with the standard model, thanks.
 
I could just by the regular GTR, custom paint it that special purple or blue and stick some aero bits on it and have what looks like a V-Spec. For that price I would seriously buy a more exotic car.

Robin.
 
Dave A
And this is something I find desirable in a car, especially if I want to use it regularly. I don't want to have back trouble in my 40's because I drove a stiff car for all thoes years, especially over all the pot holes and speed bumps that litter the UK's roads. The GT-R is the car for everything. You can argue that you can have a daily driver and then a supercar, but some people don't want that, if a car can be two things at once that's a big plus for some.
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I'd call reliability into question before I made my GT-R into a daily driver. The gearbox hasn't exactly proven itself as the most reliable piece of equipment on the road. And I wouldn't be surprised if the engine started having problems before too long because of all the boost from the turbos and things.

Cool car, though. But I'd rather have something else.
 
Stotty
$150K for a Nissan... LMFAO, you're having a joke.

Thats about £100k at current exchange rates... for which you can buy...

2007 Gallardo... Spyder or coupe, less than 10k miles... you can also get a 2004 Murciealego, but the running costs would scare me to death
2007 AM Vanquish S
2007 F430 coupe or 2006 Spider
2008 997 Turbo (though I heard from a good source Porsche are now offering discounts and you may get a brand new one for c.£100k)
2007 997 GT3RS with just 2k miles and £30K change to buy a nice daily driver

Now the GTR may be quicker than all of these, but I know which I'd rather be getting behind the wheel of every morning... who in their right mind pays £100k for a Nissan?
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And how much is a secondhand 2008 GT-R? Which is still quicker than all of these?

Philly
I'd call reliability into question before I made my GT-R into a daily driver. The gearbox hasn't exactly proven itself as the most reliable piece of equipment on the road. And I wouldn't be surprised if the engine started having problems before too long because of all the boost from the turbos and things.

Cool car, though. But I'd rather have something else.
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How many customer GT-R gearboxes have failed, again? Two? Three? (and two of those with at least 50-100 launches and one with over 20). On another note... how many Boxsters have eaten their engines, by the way? Or Corvette? Or...

By the way... JohnTurbo over at NAGTROC has finally broken his transmission. 600+ hp and over 100 drag-strip launches on the stock transmission. After a day at the racetrack doing half-a-dozen 10-second passes with massive wheel-hop. Yup. That's pretty fragile. :lol:

In normal driving, without launch control, the car won't break, does 0-60 mph in under 4 seconds (you need a drag-strip to do that with a rear-driver... standard street surfaces don't have enough bite) and has no greater problems than a tendency to wear down tires quickly. I'd say it's not so bad as far as semi-supercars go.

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The GT-R is not my cup of tea... mind you... I'm a fan, but if I actually had to spend my own money for a car in this range, I'd likely get a BMW M3 or a Mercedes C63... more aural drama and swagger. But let's keep things in perspective here and not turn this into another GT-R thread... because we already have a pretty epic one.
 
Greycap
Me too. The Nissan. When the car has to be able to be driven every day in every weather it has to be something else than a super thrilling track rocket. The GT-R is a car designed to be as easy to drive as the run-of-the-mill Primera when the performance isn't needed but it can still run with the "real" supercars if needed. I've recently been in situations in which the combination of a front mounted engine, RWD, 115 bhp and studded tyres has given nowhere near enough grip so I certainly wouldn't want 400 bhp pushing through the rear wheels equipped with all season tyres. Much less with the engine behind the seats aiding the pendulum movement when the rear steps out.
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You do realize that we are no longer in the age where a supercar can only be driven on a nice, sunny day, right? Audi's R8, Lamborghini's Gallardo, Porsche's Turbo, all of these are just as capable as a GT-R for being a daily driver. I highly doubt the GT-R has any of these beat as a daily drive besides potentially gas & luggage space.
 
Dave A
And this is something I find desirable in a car, especially if I want to use it regularly. I don't want to have back trouble in my 40's because I drove a stiff car for all thoes years, especially over all the pot holes and speed bumps that litter the UK's roads. The GT-R is the car for everything. You can argue that you can have a daily driver and then a supercar, but some people don't want that, if a car can be two things at once that's a big plus for some.
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I thought the GT-R's ride wasn't all forgiving?
 
Not to disclaimer, I am not expressing my opinion here.


The brakes are expensive, but my goodness, minus 2 G's in stopping power?!?!? Your eyeballs would surely be left stuck on the windsreen with that kind of stopping power.:lol: I am very interested to see how much faster it is though since it has no extra peak power, and increased mid-range only.
 
Paulie
I am very interested to see how much faster it is though since it has no extra peak power, and increased mid-range only.
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I'd have thought the changes made would only really be noticeable in a 'on track' environment. The mid-range boost is only available at the press of a button and then only for 80 seconds. Think of it as a push-to-pass button like in A1GP or Champ Car.
 
niky
How many customer GT-R gearboxes have failed, again? Two? Three? (and two of those with at least 50-100 launches and one with over 20). On another note... how many Boxsters have eaten their engines, by the way? Or Corvette? Or...

By the way... JohnTurbo over at NAGTROC has finally broken his transmission. 600+ hp and over 100 drag-strip launches on the stock transmission. After a day at the racetrack doing half-a-dozen 10-second passes with massive wheel-hop. Yup. That's pretty fragile. :lol:

In normal driving, without launch control, the car won't break, does 0-60 mph in under 4 seconds (you need a drag-strip to do that with a rear-driver... standard street surfaces don't have enough bite) and has no greater problems than a tendency to wear down tires quickly. I'd say it's not so bad as far as semi-supercars go.
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Do most other supercars experience these problems so quickly after they were released, driven hard or not? Or daily driver cars cars for that matter, since I was talking about using the GT-R as a DD. Sure it may have had only three transmissions go so far, but the car has only been out a year. I would bet that quite a few will eventually wear down in a few years, especially since the average GT-R driver will probably drive a little harder than most drivers, even if they're not racing.

But then again, I just can't trust DSG-style transmissions to last very long until they've been out for a while longer and have been proven to last.

And Boxters and Corvettes have both been around a lot longer and have been built in far higher volumes than the GT-R. You're bound to see far more engines go in those cars than the GT-R.
 
Oh please don't start this again. There is no solid evidence to suggest that the GT-R is in any way fragile compared to it's rivals. 3 broken gearboxes with at least two of them with over 100 full bore launches recorded with no information on how the car was treated otherwise (ie cold starts or not etc) is no indication of a reliability problem. Like I said in another thread, the Ferrari enzo's only managed 6 full bore launches, and there's a lot of supercars that would struggle one they're into double figures. If you want to beleive the GT-R is fragile, be my guest but don't try to suggest this as fact because the facts at present don't suggest that.
 
I'm not believing the GT-R is fragile, just doubting it's ability to stand up to everyday use over the course of a few years.

It'll probably be just fine as a garage queen that you take out 10 times a year. If you want to race it, apparently that's pretty risky, and you should be ready to be doing repairs. But if you buy it to replace your 350Z and intend to drive it every day, I'm thinking it won't last forever.
 
I'm thinking it'll probably last a lot longer than an M5.
 
Reventón;3269304
Audi's R8, Lamborghini's Gallardo, Porsche's Turbo, all of these are just as capable as a GT-R for being a daily driver.
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People are crazy up here in Michigan, and I'll occasionally see Corvettes and 911s (rear drive 911s at that) out in the snow. Technology has overcome obstacles enough to where it really comes down to how fancy the computer is, what kind of suspension it has, and how good the tires are for daily use.

The GT-R is likely a brilliant and usable daily driver, but so are dozens of other sports cars that can be had for far more, or far less, on MSRP alone.
 
YSSMAN
911s (rear drive 911s at that)
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Well, that's the only manly way to do it.


Back to the GT-R: I was under the assumption that the top-o-the-line model was supposed to shed hundred of pounds, add a few dozen horsepower and become the bane of supercar owners everywhere. Now its essentially a wheel and tire package? What is this, Ford in the 1980s? Or are they being cheeky and are going to make a Spec-V and V-Spec model?
 
-> Hmm, a SpecV (basically a handling package) AND a V-Spec model (power & handling package); I can see that. In the past (R32/33/34), they featured a V-Spec and a V-Spec II. That can be possible. ;)
 
Toronado
Well, that's the only manly way to do it.


Back to the GT-R: I was under the assumption that the top-o-the-line model was supposed to shed hundred of pounds, add a few dozen horsepower and become the bane of supercar owners everywhere. Now its essentially a wheel and tire package? What is this, Ford in the 1980s? Or are they being cheeky and are going to make a Spec-V and V-Spec model?
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The top of the line model is yet to come, this version was never meant to be anything more than a more performance oriented version of the regular GT-R. Basically the regular GT-R with a few smaller mods that on thier own might not do much but all together will likely make the car noticably quicker on a track.

The top version is the GT-R Evolution which so far we've only read about, it's probably at least a year away but that will be a fully stripped out racer type version with more power and less weight than the Spec-V. nissan outlined thier plans for the Spec-V and the Evolution before the standard GT-R went on sale.
 
Philly
Do most other supercars experience these problems so quickly after they were released, driven hard or not? Or daily driver cars cars for that matter, since I was talking about using the GT-R as a DD. Sure it may have had only three transmissions go so far, but the car has only been out a year. I would bet that quite a few will eventually wear down in a few years, especially since the average GT-R driver will probably drive a little harder than most drivers, even if they're not racing.

But then again, I just can't trust DSG-style transmissions to last very long until they've been out for a while longer and have been proven to last.

And Boxters and Corvettes have both been around a lot longer and have been built in far higher volumes than the GT-R. You're bound to see far more engines go in those cars than the GT-R.
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Multiple Corvette engines versus... no GT-R engines? 1% is still more than 0. :lol:

You've just answered your own question, though. In a population of X, how many premature failures equals unreliability?

The GT-R trannies that have gone have seen around a hundred launches. On the drag-strip. Only one was reported to go with 20... but that was undeniably hoonage, since it was twenty within the break-in period in unknown conditions. Other cars with launch-control are guaranteed for only 5-15 launches. There are many daily-driven GT-Rs with no problems at all.

Granted, there are problems... the solenoid problem with first-batch transmissions... but these are non-lethal warranty items.

Most supercars are not driven daily... yet some suffer mechanical gripes. I remember a local magazine test of a relatively new Murcielago. The car is hardly ever driven, but during the test, the clutch gave out. In traffic.

And this isn't to mention burning Ferraris... and whatnot. If there are, say, merely four or five F430s in the whole country (mine), and one bursts into flames... that's a catastrophic failure rate of... 25% :lol:

Cars driven hard break. Pure and simple. Since I have access to press units, I've seen damage and wear-and-tear like you would not believe on cars with less than 20,000 miles on the clock. Busted engine mounts, scored brakes, slipping trannies, power loss(!), fuel pump issues... and we haven't even gotten to the fast cars, yet! One BMW we drove suffered a mechanical problem after a day at the racetrack... another had a slipping LSD. And here I thought "M" cars were supposed to be able to drift all day long? In all the tests in magazines, we see M3s doing long, glorious powerslides, so we should be able to do that daily without breaking stuff, right? Wrong.

I understand your sentiments about DSGs... and there is indication that the GT-R's gearbox may not be able to stand the strain imposed by huge torque loads moving through the box under wheel hop (100% traction -> 0% -> 100% + huge torque is a recipe for disaster) during Launch Control, but there's no indication that it's any more fragile than any other high-powered supercar.

And it has not, as yet, shown a tendency to randomly burst into flames. :lol:
 
Dave A
...but that will be a fully stripped out racer type version with more power and less weight than the Spec-V.
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If the rumors are true that they're reading a LeMans effort with the GT-R, I'm willing to bet that this would otherwise be the "street" version of this race car.
 
Hang on, so there is still a V-Spec on the way? A lot of people are probably thinking this is the final and top of line model. If you guys are saying that V-Spec is a year or 2 away, then we will never get to see it verse the ZR1, which I'm betting will be out of production by then.:(
 
As far as I'm aware this is the V-Spec or Spec-V as it's now called. They won't make a V-Spec and a Spec-V model, that would be deemed too confusing to pass the marketing guys. The Spec-V though, as I said before is not the planned top of the line model, that honour goes to the GT-R Evolution which is at least a year away, which YSSMAN just pointed out could even be a holomogation special for a LeMans effort.
 
But then given the sticker price this Spec-V is the ZR1 fighter right? An "Evolution" model would be more of an ACR fighter if anything yes?
 
I think we should wait until we get the right sticker price first. I'm guessing it will be cheaper than the ZR1 in the UK, I couldn't guess as to how it would compare in the US. But we don't have US or European prices yet.
 

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