At first glance the R35 Nissan GT-R is a physical paradox. The 3,800lb car's 480hp twin-turbo V6 just shouldn't be able to move it around like it does, and the base model's 20-inch Dunlop Sport tires shouldn't let it be thrown through the corners with such abandon, either. But the physics books are wrong, and Nissan has videographic proof.
Filmed by a fan at what appears to be a Nissan event or factory garage, the video below shows the GT-R, as reported earlier this month, running the Nurburgring's Nordschleife in a blistering 7m29.03s - within 1.5 seconds of the rather more extreme Pagani Zonda F. The GT-R's previous best time, a still-impressive 7m38s, was set in semi-wet conditions, but this lap was completed in perfectly dry, sunny weather, enabling optimum traction and times. Nissan claims the car is a perfectly stock model in street-going retail trim.
Despite its video-of-a-video nature and the irksome background noise overriding the music of tires and turbos, the video is strangely mesmerizing. Watching test driver Tochio Suzuki pilot the gargantuan machine around the 73 corners also gives some insight into the car's on-the-limit handling.
Based on Suzuki's steering inputs, the car appears to tend toward mild understeer, with just a hint of throttle-on oversteer at corner exit, which is natural for a rear-biased drivetrain. Still, both Suzuki and the car appear to handle the tires' slip angles very well. The Bridgestone Potenza RE070Rs that come as standard on the Premium and 'Black'-spec GT-Rs are believed to be quicker in the wet, but the Dunlop SP Sport 600 DSST tires used for this run, made April 8th, shave 4-5 seconds per lap off the GT-R's 'Ring time, according to Suzuki in an interview with Drivers-Republic.
