I was asked to order a new GTR for a client in December 2007, so I went down to my local Nissan dealer and plonked down a deposit, chose gunmetal premium edtition with a few other options.

Due end of March I was told but because of gearbox manufacturing problems in Germany this was delayed until end of April. Apparently a lot of the boxes are not meeting Nissan’s margin of error so until that is sorted expect long er waiting times. I was told 6 months when I picked mine up.

Couple of gripes with Nissan as far as customer service. The salesman thought I was coming down at 3pm, I thought they would come pick me up or drop the car off, i.e how do I get there if I have to drive the car away, catch a a taxi? Don’t think so. He called and I told him I was waiting, so he came over. Then how ’s the next joke. If you are paying about $90,000 for a car you think they would fill the tank for you, right? Wrong. As soon as I got in the car and started it the fuel warning light is on and the computer says I have 5kms range! WTF! Running on fumes to the nearest station. Also a cheap and nasty plastic cover for the manual etc. sort of thing you get with a Micra not a GTR! Gees Nissan lift your game cutting corners like that, you’d expect a nice leather edition with GTR embossed…

Japan’s Best Car supposedly has yet another scoop on the
Nissan Silvia revival, and while the image gracing the mag’s cover is
little more than a photoshopped pipedream, the information presented
within deserves note.

According to one of the publication’s
editors, a source at Nissan has suggested that the front-engine,
rear-wheel-drive coupe could benefit from the Nissan/Renault alliance
and fitted with a 2.0-liter engine lifted from the French automaker.
Speculation is that the 225 hp turbocharged four-pot powering the
Renault Megane Sport could be mounted up front, sending power to the
rear wheels on a modified Z platform. Not only would that keep
production costs low, but the motor could be shoved far back into the
firewall, making it a competent corner carver in the process.

Best Car expects the S16 Silvia to be priced between $18,000 and $21,000 if and when it goes on sale in 2010

 Our take on this is it’s the usual Best Car bollocks. They have previously said the new GTR would be out 3 years ago with a 4.5 V8, that the new NSX was imminent (5 years ago) also with a V8 - yeah Honda with a V8. ..

Yeah another sensational headline. Most of you will probably already know the new GTR is pretty big. 

Here’s a photo to help. Pretty wide across the hips isn’t she, up there with the Ferraris etc. she was aimed at to beat.

190cm wide. Problem is for most of the Japanese market that’s too wide. To buy a car here you have to have a carparking space by law. The majority of people in the major citys such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe live in apartment buildings with mechanical lift style carparks to save space. A lot of these have a max permissible width of 180cm. Some like mine have 185cm. If it’s 1mm over you can’t register the car and therefore can’t buy it.

There are a lot of guys here who have bought every GTR since the 32 in 1989. It’s almost religious. They have been waiting for the 35 for a few years now only to discover they won’t be able to buy the thing. I think these traditional owners are quite pissed off at Nissan. Surely they could have shaved 5cm off it? However I think with this GTR Nissan was not going after the local market but had it’s eyes firmly fixed on the USA, Europe and Australia and stuff the GTR true believers. Bit ironic when Nissan’s CM plug for the car is "the Legend is Real". Yeah real if you have a wide carpark. Auto Salon in Osaka is next month so I will have a chance to gauge the reaction of some of the major tuning shops and get their thoughts.

In the last two years the number of recalls on Toyota vehicles has risen dramatically. In the US the numbers were up ten fold over the previous year and in Japan the numbers were up 100 times, mostly because Toyota never had recalls. So what’s the problem? Is Toyota quality dropping in their quest to become the world’s dominant manufacturer, slashing supplier costs and raising retail prices, cashing in on their reputation to build up a huge pot of money to further their expansion plans? Yes that certainly has something to do with it but there is more to the story.

In 1990 Toyota declared a profit in Japan of about $500 Million on a huge sales volumn pushed along by the late 80s bubble economy. In 2000 they reported a profit of $1 Billion on less sales volumn. How do you do that? No big secret, make your cars for less and sell them for more. Lot of people in the car business in Japan still believe that the first Lexus LS400 or Celsior was the best ever made, the 20 series had cost cuts and the 30 series even more. A Toyota salesman told me that. A few extra gadgets but the build quality and construction were gone. If you can pick up a 1993  or 1994 first model then hang onto it and look after it.  

Suppliers to Toyota are being squeezed with every new model release. Friend of mine owns an electrical engineering firm that does a lot of work for a top level Japanese electronics giant. He used to do a bit of work for Toyota until they just became impossible to deal with. Essentially they wanted him to supply them at below his cost, to lose money to do work for them. He told them this, that this was not an equitable deal. Their arrogant response was that he should be proud to have the chance to do work for Toyota, it was an honour and if he had to lose money then so be it. Arh.. hello..Earth to Toyota, come in Toyota, what planet or what century are you living in? He gave them a big foreign F#$% YOU! And they are doing this to suppliers all over Japan who have loyally supplied them for 50 years or more. Any doubts on why quality is going out the door? I’ll save my blurb about the new range of Lexus for another time.

However this is all becoming fairly common knowledge in the mainstream, what is not perhaps is the power of Toyota over the years to suppress recalls. When you are as big as Toyota you make some very good contacts in the Japanese Transport Ministry. The Old Boy network that pervades Japanese business and industry, retiring bureacrats often getting "consultant" jobs which relate to their former department. Transport Ministry - Toyota. Mitsubishi got taken to task a couple of years ago only because it became a criminal matter when they removed a page from a report about faults in a model of truck.

Sure Toyota have done recalls over the last 15 years on certain models from time to time. The JZX100 Chaser is a good example but these are minor parts which cost a few thousand yen at most. A good example of a recall that should have happened but never did was the ABS braking system that was installed on the later models of the 30 series Soarer or Lexus SC and the Crown Majesta of the same era. Talk to anyone who has knowledge of these and they will tell you they are a timebomb waiting to happen. Not a case of if but only when it will start leaking and stuff up. My Japanese parts supplier was very candid about it. "These things always break, the design was flawed." So why wasn’t there a recall? "Toyota covered it up, that’s an expensive part to replace." Yes it is. And they won’t supply you the offending shaft or part of the unit that is dud. You have to buy the whole brake ABS unit with master cylinder and pump, weighs 18kg and costs Y268,000.

The other disturbing thing about this is the safety aspect that is being ignored. If an ABS unit and pump lose pressure and stuff up while you are on the highway at 100km/h you are going to have to stand on those brakes really hard to stop the car. The cop out is that to do a recall then a certain number of cars have to have the same fault and if sales of these cars were not particularly high, as in the case of the later model Soarer, then that number isn’t reached.  

This is taken from the Nissan blurb that they handed out to the press.

The new Nissan GT-R may well be the most accomplished and technologically advanced high performance car ever made. One of the world’s fastest vehicles (including a production car lap record at the famous Nürburgring in Germany), it is also probably the world’s easiest and most secure high-speed car to drive fast. The multi-performance supercar Nissan GT-R raced through the Nürburgring circuit - where the condition of the most feared high-speed corner, "Kesselchen" was wet - with a record time of 7m38s. It can accelerate from 0-100km/h in 3.6 seconds. The new Nissan GT-R is also striking value, offering much better performance - in acceleration, cornering power and braking - than all equivalently priced sports coupes.

Like previous versions of the legendary race-winning GT-R, the latest model is a showcase for Nissan’s engineering talents. Features include an advanced full-time four-wheel drive system that improves traction and cornering power. This four-wheel drive system uses an independent transaxle 4WD (a world first) for greater agility. There is a brand new 480 PS (353 kW) V6 twin-turbo engine that combines exhilarating power with an ultra-low emission exhaust (Japanese regulation) and the best fuel economy in its sector. The lightweight body, which uses a new package (Nissan’s ‘Premium Midship’), features diecast aluminum, carbon fiber and advanced steel and has a class-leading aerodynamic Cd of just 0.27. There’s a new dual- clutch paddle shift transmission that offers exceptionally fast gear shifts and the facility to drive in full automatic mode, improving ease of driving. The big ventilated Brembo disc brakes offer immense stopping performance.

The new Nissan GT-R is an extraordinary car, a technological flagship for Nissan that demonstrates our passion for cars,’ says Carlos Tavares, executive vice president for corporate and product planning. ‘It is designed for optimal high-speed performance in all road conditions. No car combines such speed, ease of driving, ability to excel in all road conditions, such exhilaration, value-for-money and distinctive style. As with its predecessors that have worn the famous GT-R badge, it is a technological wonder car, with an extraordinary breadth of ability. That’s why we say it’s for anyone, anywhere, at anytime.’ For anyone - because drivers of all abilities can enjoy its extraordinary performance, from professional racing drivers to those who simply want a stylish and exciting car for weekend driving. For anywhere - because here is a supercar that’s been developed around the world, from the twists and turns and dips and crests of the famous Nürburgring racing circuit in Germany, to Nissan’s high-speed hot weather circuit in Arizona, to the snowy roads of Michigan. It is the world’s only supercar that’s just at home on dry tarmac, snow and on wet rainy roads, helped by its advanced four-wheel drive system that offers superb traction and safety. Unlike previous versions of the GT-R, this one will be sold in both right- and left-hand drive forms around the world, including the North American and mainland European markets. At anytime - because it is just as capable on hot summer days as snowy winter ones, by day or at night. Technological highlights include:

• An independent transaxle and advanced four-wheel drive system that continuously adjusts torque front-to-rear (and vice versa) depending on dynamic needs
• New six-speed paddle shift dual-clutch gearbox featuring the exceedingly quick gearshift plus full automatic function for ease-of-driving
• New high-efficient 3.8-litre twin turbo V6 engine, mating great horsepower (480 PS / 353 kW), a wide torque spread (maximum torque 60gm / 588 Nm), good fuel economy and low emissions (ULEV in Japanese regulation). New technology includes plasma coating bores to improve cooling efficiency and boost both power and economy
• Aerodynamic body of just 0.27 Cd - so it’s one of the world’s slickest cars. This is specially unusual on a supercar that offers high downforce front and rear
• New body using lightweight steel, carbonfiber and diecast aluminum construction
• Brembo drilled ventilated disc brakes and Brembo opposed monoblock calipers that offer immense stopping power
• Dampers, gear shift and VDC-R are all manually adjustable, by simple switches on the dashboard, offering maximum comfort with ease of driving, or maximum performance
• Multi-functional instrument display, designed by the people who did the graphics of the Sony PlayStation Gran Turismo game
• A g-force meter in the instrument display, showing both lateral (acceleration and braking) and transverse (cornering) forces.

‘The challenge is to build a car that is stable and quiet at that speed, a car that is comfortable and easy to drive at that speed, a car that has excellent straight-line stability at over 300 km/h (186.4mph), a car that can handle snow and ice and rain at high speed, a car that is also environmentally sound and has very high safety standards. It is my belief that no car mixes these abilities like the new Nissan GT-R.’ says Kazutoshi Mizuno, chief vehicle engineer and chief product specialist for the Nissan GT-R, and former racing team director and racing chief engineer for Nissan.

Mizuno describes the Nissan GT-R as a ‘multi-performance supercar for the 21st century.’ ‘I believe it creates a completely new car genre. It inherits the DNA of past great GT-Rs and packs it with the very latest and best technology. The key factors are the utilization of the earth’s natural forces and the high technology for human-machine interface, developed to control the ultimate performance. Our objective was to create a flagship model to promote our technology but also to develop a new type of supercar. Supercars have traditionally been aimed at drivers with advanced skills. But our new "multi-performance supercar" can be driven fast and skillfully by just about anybody in just about any road condition.’

Despite the extraordinarily high level of technology, the GT-R has some old-fashioned sports car features, not least that much of the assembly of the car, made at Nissan’s Tochigi plant, is done by hand. Each engine is hand assembled by a single engineer (at Nissan’s Yokohama factory) and so is each transmission.

I traveled up to Tokyo on October 23rd and met up with Jeff Ash of C-Red Tuning for the Tokyo Motor Show 2007. Jeff had organized some press passes so we got the royal treatment with plenty of handouts and CDs including an excellent, fact packed, picture loaded and video filled one on the new GTR.

Because of the amount of information collected and interesting new releases, not just supercars but also Japanese makers are finally entering back into the domestic market with common rail diesels of their own, I’m going to spread the show over several entries so come back from time to time to get the Auto Insider’s take on the new releases at TMS 2007.

Well of course I’m going to lead off with the star of the show. Yes we saw the unveiling by Carlos of what will be without doubt not just another Japanese icon to follow the previous GTRs but a supercar that will cause every other manufacturer to pause and take note. It is one of those cars that will show up on a timeline. Pre GTR, post GTR, a bit like the release of the 32GTR in 1989 but on a worldscale this time.

Nissan have issued a challenge. Their sales pitch is Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime referring to anyone can drive this car in any location at anytime. However I got the distinct impression from Carlos’ presentation that he was throwing down the gauntlet to other supercars - we’ll take on anyone, anywhere, anytime and judging by the performance more than likely thrash the pants off them. I doubt there is a more complete supercar with such dramatic performance at all let alone for around US$70,000. Couple that with Japanese reliability instead of the usual supercar "personality problems" and you have a formula hard to beat.

I saw on the news last night that Porsche tripled their profits this year to 4.2Bn euros. I suppose all the dorks paying through the nose for Cayennes contributed to that. But make hay while the sunshines because apart from Porsche diehards with more money than sense, the GTR is going to make a big dent in that once it is released in the US in June 2008 and other world markets by the end of 2008. It was rather poignant that the crowd around the Nissan stand was 20 deep to get a glimpse at the new GTR while over at the Porsche, Ferrari etc. stand you could have driven a semi trailer through it and nobody would have blinked. I have a photo somewhere. For further pics of the GTR I have uploaded some to the Gallery under the subname GTR.