Porsche accuses Nissan of foul play on GT-R record lap time

According to a report on Australian web site "CarsGuide", Porsche has accused Nissan of having fudged its published lap time of 7:29 min. for its supercar GT-R on the Nürburgring Norschleife.

August Achleitner, the product manager for the 911 model line, was quoted saying: "This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car. For us, it's not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tires," while speaking to CarsGuide at the Australian press preview of the latest 911 Convertible.

He further stated that Porsche conducted its own tests with a GT-R they purchased and that they were "not getting within 25 seconds of Nissan's claimed record time of seven minutes 29 seconds in April", and they also found both the 911 Turbo and GT2 to be faster.

CarsGuide further reports:

”Achleitner says Porsche took a standard GT-R, running on regular road tires, and ran it around the Nurburgring within two hours of its own cars, on the same day with exactly the same weather conditions. He says there was no tweaking of any kind and the GT2 and Turbo both ran on regular Porsche road tires, the Michelin Sport Cup.

[..] He eventually revealed his team clocked the GT-R at 7 minutes 54 seconds, with the 911 Turbo managing 7:38 and the GT2 getting down to 7:34.

[..] Achleitner says the back-to-back comparison was run because Porsche was concerned by Nissan's claims for the GT-R, which is heavier than the 911 with similar power.

"The Nissan is a good car. I don't want to make anything bad with my words. It's a very consistent car. But this car is about 20 kilos heavier than the Turbo," he says.

In the end, Porsche believes its testing has achieved the right lap times for the Skyline GT-R and benchmarked it against its own 911 heroes in the right context.”

Should the Japanese automaker decide to respond to the accusations, be sure to find the statement here at streetdrift.net!



(Source: CarsGuide)