Earlier this month we reported on accusations hurled by Porsche towards Nissan, accusing the Japanese carmaker of falsifying the blistering Nurburgring lap time of 7m 29s recorded for the GT-R back in May.

The accusations managed to reach the upper echelons of Nissan management, prompting representatives at last week’s Paris Motor Show to state emphatically that the times recorded for the GT-R around the Nurburgring were achieved "on absolutely standard tires which are available to customers in the showroom," and that any sort of slick tires were never used.



A Porsche chassis engineer took a standard GT-R bought in the United States with regular road tires, and tested it on the same day against a Porsche 911 GT2 and a Porsche 911 Turbo. According to Porsche, the GT-R posted a time of 7m 54s, with the 911 Turbo managing 7m 38s and the 911 GT2 getting down to 7m 34s.

Porsche's contention that the GT-R takes 7m 54s to lap the 'Ring adds a rather significant 25 seconds to the lap time recorded by Nissan's chief test driver Tochio Suzuki. Nissan stated that they were at a loss as to why Porsche was unable to replicate the GT-R's blistering time around the Nurburgring, putting it down to differences between the drivers.

Speaking with Drive, Nissan's European spokesman Neil Reeve stated that Nissan continues to "absolutely maintain (that) Tochio Suzuki pounded thousands of laps and got to know every inch of the Nurburgring and hence set that fabulous lap.”

Reeves went on to comment that it was "flattering that Porsche have bought themselves a GT-R and flown it to Germany" for testing, but that "the people who'd buy a GT-R or 911 Turbo are not the type of people to make a purchase like that lightly.” He also reaffirmed that the GT-R has beat the 911 Turbo during a number of independent tests for both acceleration and circuit lap times.

Nissan has now released an image of the actual tires used for the test plus a second video of the lap as proof that its 7m 29s lap time is legitimate. In an official statement Nissan claims that “there are some important facts that were not accurately represented.”

Nissan has revealed that the GT-R used in the official lap time was actually at a disadvantage due to up to 50kg of testing equipment. According to GTRblog, Nissan has also offered free driver training for Porsche if it wants to attempt a second lap.

If I was Porsche, I'd set up a tent in the parking lot of some high-profile Nissan dealership (Manhattan or Los Angeles) and offer transmission services

I'm sure nissan did this with VDC off.

Am I understanding this correctly, Nissan will void your warranty the moment you turn the VDC off? I thought they voided the warranty if you used the launch control too many times....?

This warranty does not cover damage, failures or corrosion
resulting from:
...
Operating the vehicle with the Vehicle Dynamic Control
(VDC) off, except when rocking vehicle when stuck in
mud or snow (see GT-R Owner's Manual).

Nissan has responded angrily to Porsche’s claims that it faked its astonishing GT-R Nurburgring lap time, and has suggested that Porsche’s test drivers need to ‘get a bit quicker’.

Back in May, Nissan reported that its production GT-R had lapped the Nurburgring Nordschleife in an near-unbelievable 7m29s in the hands of its test driver Tochio Suzuki: a full three seconds quicker than a Porsche GT2, and one of the fastest-ever production times on the ‘Ring.

Despite video evidence, Porsche was sceptical, and last month claimed that Nissan posted the quicker times because the GT-R was running semi-slick race tyres. Which would mean it wasn’t production-spec.

In fact, Porsche went as far as buying a US-spec GT-R – worth $77,000 – and shipping it out to the ‘Ring along with a 911 Turbo and a 911 GT2. In the hands of a Porsche test driver, the GT-R posted a time of 7m 54s, with the Turbo clocking 7m38s and the GT2 managing 7m34s.

Nissan’s top brass are rather cheesed off that Porsche’s top brass are calling them fibbers, and have emphatically stated that the GT-R was on production rubber.

Nissan’s European spokesman Neil Reeve said in Paris that they were at a loss to explain why Porsche couldn’t replicate Nissan’s own lap time.

He said that Nissan was ‘flattered’ that Porsche had bought themselves a GT-R and flown it to Germany, but reaffirmed that the GT-R has beaten the 911 Turbo in a number of independent tests.

And Nissan has also released a photo of the actual tyres used for the test, plus a second Nurburgring video as evidence of its claims. Even better, Nissan has offered free training for the Porsche test drivers if they want to attempt another lap in the GT-R.

Reckon we’ve heard the last of this? Us neither. There’s only one way to settle this.

The Stig.

Enough said.