Porsche accuses Nissan of cheating at Nurburgring

[monaroCountry]

Porsche accuses Nissan of cheating at Nurburgring

30 September 2008
Paul Gover


Porsche has accused Nissan of cheating in the GT-R's record bid at the Nurburgring racetrack.

Porsche has just run its own back-to-back tests with the Japanese company's GT-R supercar and says it could not get within 25 seconds of Nissan's claimed record time of seven minutes 29 seconds in April.

It also found its 911 Turbo and GT2 were both quicker than the GT-R.

"This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car," says August Achleitner, the 911 product chief for Porsche, speaking to the CARSguide at the Australian press preview of the latest 911 Cabrio.

"For us, it's not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tyres."

He believes the time achieved by Nissan with ex-Formula One driver Toshio Suzuki would only be possible with a semi-slick race-style tyre.

Achleitner says Porsche took a standard GT-R, running on regular road tyres, and ran it around the Nurburgring within two hours of its own cars, on the same day with exactly the same weather conditions.

He says there was no tweaking of any kind and the GT2 and Turbo both ran on regular Porsche road tyres, the Michelin Sport Cup.

"We bought the car in the US. We drove a GT-R with new tyres," he says.

Achleitner was initially protective of the exact lap times, which were run during a program when Porsche also compared its upcoming four-door Panamera with a range of potential rivals.

But he eventually revealed his team clocked the GT-R at 7 minutes 54 seconds, with the 911 Turbo managing 7:38 and the GT2 getting down to 7:34.

The laps were not run by Porsche's usual hot-lap specialist, former world rally champion and race winner Walter Rohrl, but one of the company's chassis development engineers who is an expert on the Nurburgring.

Achleitner says the back-to-back comparison was run because Porsche was concerned by Nissan's claims for the GT-R, which is heavier than the 911 with similar power.

"The Nissan is a good car. I don't want to make anything bad with my words," he says.

"It's a very consistent car. But this car is about 20 kilos heavier than the Turbo . . ."

In the end, Porsche believes its testing has achieved the right lap times for the Skyline GT-R and benchmarked it against its own 911 heroes in the right context.

"For us it has been clearly the result. This technical puzzle now fits together. With the other numbers we had problems to understand it," he says.
- Herald Sun




Porsche accuses Nissan of cheating at Nurburgring | carsguide.com.au

[Wouter Melissen]

Ah yeah an experienced chassis engineer is as fast as a former F1 driver.

[zique]

another hater lol.
But in saying that,there has been a lot of doubt over the Nurburgring times of the GTR.
Someone just damn get proper video footage of the damn thing on the track and get this matter settled once and for all!

[fisetdavid26]

Nürburgring lap times are as interesting to me as watching paint dry.

So what if they cheated. It remains an amazing showcase of technology and one hell of a car.

[henk4]

in a recent test issued by Motor Trend (October 2008) the GTR went over 2 seconds faster around Laguna Seca than the 911 Turbo. Both have 480 BHP and the Nissan weighs in over 300 lbs more. I am sure we only have to wait for Porsche to make a complaint here as well.....

[Ferrer]

Originally Posted by Wouter Melissen

Ah yeah an experienced chassis engineer is as fast as a former F1 driver.

Or a former twice World Rally champion...

Originally Posted by fisetdavid26

Nürburgring lap times are as interesting to me as watching paint dry.

x2.

[pimento]

Dear Porsche:



Regards, people.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by pimento

Dear Porsche:



Regards, people.

I am sure you will also want to address such a letter to MonaroCountry....

[Roentgen]

Originally Posted by pimento

Dear Porsche:



Regards, people.

I loled.

Anyway, Porsche is blatantly jealous.

Maybe they should actually spend some time in redesigning the car, rather than trace it then squash it, and say, "IT'S DONE!"

Anyway, I'm not a technical person, so i don't know, but isn't the suspension and stuff for the GTR better than that of the Porsche's? wouldn't that have helped? Also, didn't they say, Nissan got a racing driver? wouldn't that have helped as well?

Still... I don't think Beetles can be faster than GTRs. That I'm sure about.

[2ndclasscitizen]

Originally Posted by monaroCountry

He says there was no tweaking of any kind and the GT2 and Turbo both ran on regular Porsche road tyres, the Michelin Sport Cup.

Yes, Porches' regular road tyres. The same tyres that BMW issued warning letters to CSL buyers about due to their inappropriateness for any road conditions other than hot and dry, those regular road tyres.

[clutch-monkey]

why didn't they use walter rohrl? who drove the porsche cars around the ring? same driver?

Originally Posted by Roentgen

I loled.

Anyway, Porsche is blatantly jealous.

since a plastic glorified kit car and a semi-race car with a truck engine are faster again it would make more sense if their accusations were directed at those cars...

Originally Posted by 2ndclasscitizen

Yes, Porches' regular road tyres.

yeah i was about to say those cars come with semi-slicks how can they be complaining about nissan's tire choice on the runs

[coolieman1220]

thats pretty funny but in the end of the day, Porsche is the way to go.

911 Turbo 997 > GT-R

of course thats if you have the money.....

[NSXType-R]

Originally Posted by clutch-monkey

why didn't they use walter rohrl? who drove the porsche cars around the ring? same driver?


yeah i was about to say those cars come with semi-slicks how can they be complaining about nissan's tire choice on the runs

Yeah, it makes sense to use the best drivers....?

Stop whining, seriously.

Maybe Porsche will complain that God decided to drop rain from the sky that day.

[092326001]

this is stupid....
porsche should build a stupidly fast supercar akin to the GT1 to prove it's ring superiority instead

[IBrake4Rainbows]

All this story is doing is giving more airtime to the Nissan Skyline GT-R & it's fantastic technology.

(Delibrately antagonises MonaroCountry who offers nothing to the forum but pitiful attempts to ridicule a car we've, for the most part, stopped talking about)

Learn the rules of the internet - the more you hate something, the stronger it becomes!