This has been one of the most debatable questions since the almighty GT-R came out in 2008 for many who spend their time participating in competitive race competitions. The GT-R has highly advanced electronic features and modes that arguably make it easier to drive such as: launch control, and its Yah and G sensors to monitor the dampening of the suspension to self-adjust its shocks and All Wheel Drive system. Because of this, it raises the question to some of whether the Nissan is considered cheating to use in race competitions against other cars that do not have these features.
Some who spend time in competitive race events, argue these electronic features and modes make the GT-R easier to drive on the race track because it does much of the work for you. For example, with the launch control, by simply putting the gear box into ‘race mode,’ left foot on the brake and holding the revs to thirty five hundred rpm’s, voila, it will give you a perfect zero to sixty time of 3.5 seconds or less every time. Other supercars such as the new Corvette ZR1 that do not have this feature, requires more skill and input from the driver as he has to determine how far to hold the revs before it just does a smoky burnout. Another feature is the ‘Bilstein Damp Tronic’ self-adjusting suspension system which monitors eleven different elements such as: acceleration, torque, engine rpm’s and braking. While the system monitors these behaviors, it will automatically adjust the suspension and the AWD system to get the most power to the ground effectively while stabilizing the suspension to keep the car to be in the most controllable state as possible. In other words, the system does its complete best to insure that you will not go into a slide and crash your beautiful investment.
Many people view the GT-R as an unrealistic ‘driver’s car,’ or not an enthusiast’s track car. Andrew, who works for Sachi&Sachi, and a long time participator in automotive race events states, “If you know what line to take, it's not hard to get quick lap times at any track your at.” Many view a true enthusiast’s track car as one that does not have any electronic features that do any of the self-assist driving work for you. Some like to see a car that demands much more work, skill, and involvement from the driver in order to achieve fast lap times. Because of the plethora of electronic driving assist features, it arguably makes it easier to drive, especially for a novice driver. This makes for an arguable case because other track car drivers feel the electronic features make it easier to drive making it an unfair competition against the other cars on the track that do not have the features and modes the GT-R is equipped with.
“Unless we want to live in the dark ages and caves, we all want to advance our living standards” says John Holden from the North American GT-R Owners Club. This pretty much sums up how most GT-R owners feel as they would like to see more advanced technology to be put in place in modern high performance cars. When the Nissan GT-R first debut, it revealed to the world how far automotive technology has come, and has been a prime example of a technological advancement for the high performance car industry. Perhaps it has set the bench mark for other high performance car manufacturers to catch up to its standard in technology. As Brad puts it, a member from the North American GT-R Owners Club, “Our desire is to go further and be better, this is why we can enjoy pushing the envelope of racing performance ... we want to go faster without killing ourselves and breaking our backs in discomfort.”
Owners of the Nissan think of it as an example of what the future holds in store for upcoming technology to be placed in high performance cars. They feel that the technology and features the car has, create it to be a safer car to drive on the track and a car that anybody can drive easily which allows for a broader range of driving skill. An owner of a GT-R wants to see the car industry advance to its furthest potential with the newest technology available, and not to hold on to the dated technology of years ago. Now that is one area the GT-R most certainly shines in! As one member of ‘NAGTROC’ put it, “some say the GT-R defies the laws of physics, but is that cheating?”
“At the highest levels of driving, the GTR does not drive itself.” As Brad believes, from NAGTROC, since the GT-R is AWD and can transfer up to 50% of its power to the front wheels, the car can both under steer and over steer while most cars will only do one of the two making the GT-R less predictable. Depending on how your are driving it, one of the two could occur in which case the driver could be expecting it to over steer in a particular situation, while it actually under steers, thus making it more unpredictable.
So, you must ask yourself, are you an enthusiast who wants to see away with any electronic features and modes that improve the driving nature of the car that make it arguably easier to drive? Or, do you believe that advanced technology and Playstation-like features the GT-R is equipped with is the wave of the future for the high performance car industry, making the GT-R to be the bench mark for other car manufactures to catch up order to compete with it? At the end of the day, unless rules and regulations for competitive race events change, the Nissan GT-R is still accepted at all race events that it can participate in its class.
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