Not that Nissan’s Chief Product Planning Officer and Executive Vice President Andy Palmer didn’t know why they built a Nismo version of the GT-R, but to give him a first-hand demonstration of what the car is capable of, Chief Vehicle Engineer Noboru Kaneko took him for spin around the Tochigi Proving Ground.
So if you too were wondering if the extra power, stiffened suspension, and the new red bits make Nissan GT-R Nismo worthy of the extra dough you have to shell out for it, which is actually quite substantial, join Andy and Noboru in this video:
Nissan GT-R Nismo is powered by a 600 horsepower and 650 Nm version of the 3.8-litre V6 VR38DETT engine, and features custom-developed Bilstein DampTronic dampers, specially-developed Dunlop tires and a 17.3 mm hollow rear anti-roll bar which raises roll stiffness while reducing weight. It also comes with revised aerodynamics.
All this makes it a pretty quick car that is capable of going round the Nurburgring in 7:08.679. Great, but it costs a whopping $150,000. Never in the history of sports cars was it harder to justify the price difference between a standard model and its factory-tuned cousin.