Nissan GT-R sets another Nurburgring Lap Record

Though being criticised by some senior motoring journalists as lacking "character", Nissan's GT-R continues to take all before it in the real world, and there is no greater testimony to this than yet another lap record at the infamous "Green Hell" - the renowned Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit. We reported a few weeks back that the GT-R had created a new lap record of 7 minutes 27.56 seconds on April 15 and was continuing to attack the record. It seems Nissan is as adept at manipulating the media as it is at building cars because today it announced that it set a new record of 7 minutes 26.70 seconds - the record was set on April 23, a week after it broke the last one and a full three weeks ago!

The winner of more than a dozen awards globally including Car of the Year from CAR Magazine in the UK, and Car of the Year by both Motor Trend and Automobile Magazine in the US, plus the 2009 World Performance Car of the Year, the GT-R’s performance and price give it more bang per buck than almost anything on the road.

"This record demonstrates our commitment to the continuous evolution of the Nissan GT-R," says Kazutoshi Mizuno, Chief Vehicle Engineer and Chief Vehicle Specialist. "We would like to continue delivering the passion and pride of ownership to our customers by improving its performance every year."

While the Nissan GT-R benefits from a strong image and heritage amongst performance car aficionados, the updated 2010 version will be the first to be sold globally. It was launched in Japan in December 2008, in the US in March 2009 and in GCC, Australia, New Zealand, and Taiwan in April 2009. Nissan Europe is currently in the process of delivering the first GT-Rs to more than 2,200 pre-order customers.

The model R35 GT-R was first launched in Japan in December 2007, selling 5,900 units until March 2009. It went on sale in the US in July 2008, where 2,100 have been sold so far. Since going on sale in the UK on 9 April 2009, over 1,200 orders have been taken.

The GT-R's previous recorded lap times at the ‘Ring’ were 7 minutes 27.56 seconds on April 15, 2009, 7 minutes 29 seconds in April 2008 and 7 minutes 38 seconds in September 2007.

As for the Nissan PR department sitting on a story for three weeks? It's disrespectful to the media that ran the previous announcement in our humble opinion!

Mike Hanlon