Caption is pretty clear IMO…
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GT-R…. ’nuff said!
Caption is pretty clear IMO…
Nissan’s Next GT-R to deliver 784hp
The Nissan GT-R is one of the fastest coupes on the planet. Boasting a 0-60 mph sprint time as low as 2.7 seconds that shreds far more expensive competition, it rivals the mighty Bugatti Veyron for pure off-the-line acceleration.
2015 Nissan GT R Nismo
Nissan GT R Nismo
Nissan product planners are under pressure to make the car, out since 2007, more desirable.
Why? Because Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who initially took a lead role in green-lighting the GT-R, now says he has no interest in cars that don’t sell in volume and make money. Makes sense. You see, the GT-R is not doing well. Godzilla, as we’ve come to know it, is only selling an average of 90 cars in the U.S. and 60 units in Japan each month.
That’s why Nissan planners are making last-ditch efforts to make the GT-R a more saleable car in showrooms from Los Angeles to London to Tokyo. And to do that, they are pulling out all the stops.
They’re taking a GT-R-branded hybrid LMP1 to the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans next year to highlight improved environmental credentials. That translated, yes, the next-generation road-going GT-R will get a hybrid powertrain.
2015 Nissan GT R Nismo
Nissan GT R Nismo
The LM-spec race-ready “Nissan GT-R LM Nismo” will employ gas-electric technology and join other hybrids on the grid including front-runners Audi, Porsche, and Toyota.
Just as critical as a powerful, fuel-efficient powertrain however, is the car’s exterior styling. With the next car, Nissan wants to make amends. After all, the current GT-R has looks that do nothing to imply its performance.
Never meant to have a sexy exterior, the GT-R is a purpose-built scud missile for the road. When other cars were shopping for designer suits, the GT-R was taking steroids and pumping iron.
Nissan Concept 2020 Vision GT
Nissan Concept 2020 Vision GT
Nissan wants to change that. A source close to the company says the new street-spec car will not only employ full LMP-spec carbon fibre cowling, but take on a form similar to the Nissan Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo (pictured above and below), revealed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June.
While one Nissan designer hinted that this concept points toward a future GT-R design, the styling seems too radical for a road-going car and not radical enough for a race car. “You can expect to see the next-gen GT-R get a toned-down version of the 2020 Vision GT car,” said our source. Our artist’s rendering at the top of the page takes the 2020 Vision concept and tones it down with a more road-going treatment. It still looks like it belongs in a Transformers movie, but at least it’s edgier and boasts better proportions all round.
To keep costs down, Nissan will carry over several strategic components from the R35 GT-R to the new R36 model. The twin turbo 3.8-liter V-6, transaxle layout and 4WD powertrain will remain. What’s different is the electric motor that will be just aft of the engine.
Nissan Concept 2020 Vision GT
Nissan Concept 2020 Vision GT
The latest revision of the R35 GT-R packs a 550-hp punch with the current Nismo model producing 600 hp. Our insider confirms also that the car’s mammoth 442 lb-ft is about as much torque as the current six-speed DCT gearbox can take.
Adding an electric motor will boost maximum torque to the neighborhood of 737 lb-ft, requiring the total redesign of the next-generation car’s transmission, which will be an eight-speed. This will give engineers a chance to attack the current gearbox’s noise level and clunkiness at low speeds.
Our source says that the R36 GT-R’s V-6 will develop around 650 hp, with 134 hp coming from its electric motor, elevating total power output to a very healthy 784 hp. However, one problem that appears to be plaguing engineers is the cooling of the batteries used in the new hybrid system.
This is where the Le Mans experiment next year will pay off as engineers find ways to deal with the huge amounts of regenerative brake energy created under heavy braking, and then the sizable energy expended under hard acceleration.
Nissan bosses will no doubt be paying attention to similar battery cooling issues with new hybrid systems on this year’s F1 cars and Japan’s Super GT championship.
As our source said, “that is why the styling of the new GT-R will have to be so radically different. It’ll have to be penned to enable much more efficient cooling for the hybrid system as well as gain more efficient aerodynamics.”
But unlike many other carmakers who rely on electronics companies for their Li-ion batteries, Nissan designs and builds its own while co-developing next-generation hybrid systems with the Williams F1 team.
Nissan Race Car Teaser
Nissan Race Car Teaser
So all the pieces appear to be falling into place for a hotter-than-ever GT-R. Right? Maybe not. One unexpected development that may throw a wrench in the works is the untimely departure of Executive Vice President Andy Palmer, who resigned in August to take up the top job at Aston Martin. Palmer had been in charge of the GT-R project and was one of its strongest proponents.
Questions are already being asked. “Who will take over?” “Will they be able to convince Ghosn to see the project through?” We think so, although it might be slightly delayed.
If the R36 GT-R does get the green light, and we expect it will, keep an eye out for a concept version at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show and a production model in 2018.
Via MOTORTREND & Peter Lyon
Rendering courtesy of Holiday Auto magazine.
HONDA NSX SHAKEDOWN
We are rather excited about the coming of Honda’s new NSX. It’s been a long while since the S2000 came onto the market – the last time the noble brand pushed whole heartedly into the world of pure sports cars. It’s about time they picked up the challenge.Interesting to see then recently that the Honda (or is it Acura) NSX prototype lapped the 2.4-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, just prior to the running of the Honda Indy 200.
Understandably a lot of energy from the USA has been directed at the project. It is, after all an absolute key market for all luxury items. And we reckon the USA will be THE make or break territory for the new launch.
Ted Klaus, Chief engineer of Honda R&D Americas, Inc. said: “With leadership from our R&D and manufacturing teams here in Ohio, we are developing a next generation sports car that will be equally at home on the street and on the race track, so it is natural for us to showcase the prototype vehicle here at Mid-Ohio. It is exciting for us to see the prototype running on track, reflecting the great progress we’re making toward the 2015 global launch of the NSX, as we engineer a new sports-car experience for customers around the world.”
…and something North American too…
…and something North American too…
Corporate guff aside it’s interesting to see how the Acura brand articulates all that new, greener supercar technology to the Americans. Will they sneer at the six cylinder setup of the Honda NSX? Targeting next-generation supercar dynamic capabilities with advanced environmental performance, the NSX will be powered by a mid-mounted, direct-injected V-6 engine mated to Honda’s Sport Hybrid SH-AWD® (Super Handling All-Wheel Drive) system. Sport Hybrid SH-AWD® is, apparently, an all-new, three-motor high-performance hybrid system that combines torque vectoring all-wheel drive with advanced hybrid efficiency through the use of three electric motors – one motor integrated with the V6 engine and its all-new dual-clutch transmission (DCT) driving the rear wheels, and two motors driving the front wheels. The system enables instant delivery of negative or positive torque to the front wheels during cornering to achieve a new level of driving performance unparalleled by current AWD systems.
Key to all this positioning is that the NSX will be assembled in Marysville Ohio – playing to the very prevelant ‘Made in America’ movement that is making a serious impact on the internal economy of the post powerful nation on the planet. Globally sourced, Japanese engineered – and made in America. A potentially very powerful statement.
DATSUN 240Z
We’ve had a thing about Datsun’s sporty Z cars since when they were the hottest, newest sporty Jap on the market. Call the designation the Fairlady if you like, but we’ll always think of the long nosed beauty as the Z-car. The popularity of the Z cars is perennial and understandable. I mean just look at the thing. It is automotive prettiness incarnate. We particularly dig the Datsun 240z: the earliest manifestation of the Z car that hit the market right at the start of the seventies.
Despite this appeal, these baby’s are surprisingly affordable. Just look at THIS ONE for sale at a reasonable price, tricked out and apparently clean as a whistle.
We think what’s at work here is simple, plain old fashioned brand snobbery. In this country, the Datsun moniker is, well, less than glamourous, and for some even the upgraded Nissan ident doesn’t do a lot to get the classicist juices flowing. But look: this is an extremely able, relatively rare GT with renowned reliability and the sort of panache that you only get from a Japanese GT of the seventies. We reckon this stock is bound to rise…
CONCEPT CORNER: MUGEN NSX RR
Mugen is amongst the aristocracy of tuning companies.
As the brainchild of Hirotoshi Honda (Soichiro’s son), it has always had a pure bloodline of producing tuned road cars and race vehicles straight out of the Honda factory. And when Honda unveiled this Honda NSX Mugen RR concept at the 2008 Tokyo Auto Salon, anyone who loves the brand was aghast.
We’re suckers for louvres…
Just look at it. It takes all the gobsmackingly futuristic elements of Honda’s Senna-developed Ferrari slayer and just goes large.
For aero oomph is features a widened front, multi-grooved rear diffuser and an adjustable rear wing. But the power unit is where it really got interesting. It came with a modified 3.2L V6 that was mounted in the more traditional longtitudal situation, whereas the original of course had been tranversely mounted. The revert to the trad here allowed the inclusion of a more conventional and barking exhaust system, and would of course had made the weight distribution different.
and bulbous air intakes…
The donor NSX, with that long, low profile and huge rear over hang was not back happy like a 911 – rather in long, sweepy corners it drifts smoothly and controllably. We reckon the longitudal mount would make that controlled drift a little more sketchy.
On the positive side, the re-mount would have allowed for better power transfer to the rear wheels as well as that more conventionally efficient exhaust outlet.
We’d kill for a chance to test THAT particular theory.
We’re suckers for louvres…
and bulbous air intakes…
and fattened wings and red calipers and….
HONDA NSX: TAO OF TECH
HONDA NSX: THE TAO OF TECH
In a project as big and complex as the development of a new supercar it’s hard to isolate the influence of an individual. As time passes the Honda NSX seems to be seen more Ayrton Senna’s supercar than Honda’s.
In truth, the NSX didn’t occupy much of Ayrton’s time and it’s unlikely that its engineers made it fifty per cent stiffer purely on his say-so after his first drive in a prototype between F1 pre-season tests at Suzuka in February ’89.
But he did drive it, and gave his opinion, and drove it again to assess the all-aluminium double-wishbone suspension settings once the design had been frozen.
It was the only road car he had any input into, and he ‘owned’ at least two examples, of which one, with his personal plate, remains in family ownership in Brazil.
And for Honda and Senna fans, that’s enough: the car is the embodiment of the relationship between the utterly un-Japanese Brazilian, and the essentially Japanese corporation with whose engines he won world championships, and which loved him for it.
And Honda’s engineers didn’t really need the help anyway.
Their 3.0-litre, quad-cam transverse V6 with variable valve timing making 270bhp at 7100rpm was hailed, from launch, as ‘one of the world’s finest engines’.
The NSX benchmarked the Ferrari 348 – not a particularly tough target – and ended up the benchmark for the brilliant F355, so it plainly caused Maranello to raise its game.
Younger readers might not remember the years when a Honda regularly, naturally featured in car magazine group-tests alongside Ferraris and Porsches, and beat them. But in its day, the NSX wasn’t just the competition; in many respects, it was the standard.
