RSS_Auto_Poster
Well-known member
Written by Vijay Pattni
It began with an innocent promise. We"ll give you a passenger lap in one of our GT cars," they said. "It"ll be fun," they said.They that"s Nismo clearly read from a different dictionary, because hearing the bloody thing from a mile off, fun" is the last thing it sounds like. It sounds like Mount Fuji ready to erupt. It sounds painful.The GT car in question is Nismo"s R35 GT-R Super GT GT500 racer; a pared back, hunkered down, wide-arched agent of destruction with lots of GTs in its name, and a few titles too.It took the 2011 and 2012 Japanese Super GT championships, and was brought out of hibernation for the annual end-of-year Nismo Festival in Japan.Step forward, Fuji speedway; that glorious, old school track nestled in the foothills of Mount Fuji or Fuji-san as nobody says.You know the one; immortalised through Hunt and Lauda"s epic 1976 Formula One title battle and the grandstand of many bleary-eyed, late night Gran Turismo sessions. It"s a marvel. It"s also bone dry, clear and ripe for Italian racer Ronnie Quintarelli.Quintarelli, it turns out, is a triple Japanese Super GT champion, who happens to be proficient in (a) Japanese, and (b) scaring unsuspecting passengers senseless. TG is beckoned into the passenger seat. Game time.So, comically oversized race suit on and heart pounding, I"m dumped into a racing seat far narrower than I am. The low, wide carbon fibre sill, narrow entry and multitude of switchgear in the large centre console make it near impossible to get in without looking like an idiot.I hit a few switches as my hands fumble around for leverage. Ronnie isn"t impressed.We shake hands, cordially vice-like racer"s grip? Check and wait for our turn to head out of the pit lane. A moment"s breath then, to understand what we"re sitting in.This Super GT racer is the last of the V8 breed. Based loosely on the underpinnings of the current, R35 GT-R, it is shorn of its four-wheel-drive system, and over 500kg of road-things things like the rear seats, air-con, insides, and other such guff. It"s basically a DTM car.Out goes the road-car"s 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V6 too, and in its place sits a race-bred, 3.4-litre V8 producing around 500 horsepowers. Angry, loud and spiteful horspowers, it turns out. There"s a six-speed sequential gearbox with a 5.5-inch triple-plate carbon clutch, sending power to the rear wheels alone. It"s two metres wide, 4.7 metres long, weighs just 1,110kg (versus the road-going GT-R"s 1740kg), and sits on 330-section 18s up front, and 17s on the rear. Looks magnificent, too.
Date: 7 Dec 2015
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 545
It began with an innocent promise. We"ll give you a passenger lap in one of our GT cars," they said. "It"ll be fun," they said.They that"s Nismo clearly read from a different dictionary, because hearing the bloody thing from a mile off, fun" is the last thing it sounds like. It sounds like Mount Fuji ready to erupt. It sounds painful.The GT car in question is Nismo"s R35 GT-R Super GT GT500 racer; a pared back, hunkered down, wide-arched agent of destruction with lots of GTs in its name, and a few titles too.It took the 2011 and 2012 Japanese Super GT championships, and was brought out of hibernation for the annual end-of-year Nismo Festival in Japan.Step forward, Fuji speedway; that glorious, old school track nestled in the foothills of Mount Fuji or Fuji-san as nobody says.You know the one; immortalised through Hunt and Lauda"s epic 1976 Formula One title battle and the grandstand of many bleary-eyed, late night Gran Turismo sessions. It"s a marvel. It"s also bone dry, clear and ripe for Italian racer Ronnie Quintarelli.Quintarelli, it turns out, is a triple Japanese Super GT champion, who happens to be proficient in (a) Japanese, and (b) scaring unsuspecting passengers senseless. TG is beckoned into the passenger seat. Game time.So, comically oversized race suit on and heart pounding, I"m dumped into a racing seat far narrower than I am. The low, wide carbon fibre sill, narrow entry and multitude of switchgear in the large centre console make it near impossible to get in without looking like an idiot.I hit a few switches as my hands fumble around for leverage. Ronnie isn"t impressed.We shake hands, cordially vice-like racer"s grip? Check and wait for our turn to head out of the pit lane. A moment"s breath then, to understand what we"re sitting in.This Super GT racer is the last of the V8 breed. Based loosely on the underpinnings of the current, R35 GT-R, it is shorn of its four-wheel-drive system, and over 500kg of road-things things like the rear seats, air-con, insides, and other such guff. It"s basically a DTM car.Out goes the road-car"s 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V6 too, and in its place sits a race-bred, 3.4-litre V8 producing around 500 horsepowers. Angry, loud and spiteful horspowers, it turns out. There"s a six-speed sequential gearbox with a 5.5-inch triple-plate carbon clutch, sending power to the rear wheels alone. It"s two metres wide, 4.7 metres long, weighs just 1,110kg (versus the road-going GT-R"s 1740kg), and sits on 330-section 18s up front, and 17s on the rear. Looks magnificent, too.
Date: 7 Dec 2015
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 545
