Clearly, the Germans were not best pleased when Nissan turned up at the Nurburgring in a GT-R this April, clocked a blistering 7m 29 secs lap time and then told the world about it. 
It’s taken a while but recent grumblings from Porsche that the GT-R can’t have been standard, or at least didn’t have normal tyres, have provoked a strong fightback from Nissan which has insisted that a) yes, the car definitely was Japanese market standard, b) ran on spec Dunlop SP Sport 600 DSST CTT tyres, c) was timed around the Ring using the exact same methodology as Germany’s Sport Auto Magazine and d) was actually carrying 50kgs extra weight for video and data recording…
Mein Gott. The fact that Porsche then claimed to have timed the GT-R itself against the GT2 and 911 Turbo around the Green Hell, and found the 7.29 wonder car to be 25 seconds slower produced waves of astonishment, even ridicule.
Maybe it all goes back to 1995 when Nissan claimed to have cracked the 8 mins 'Ring record with an R33 Skyline GT-R. To this day, there are rumours as to how “standard” it really was, which is perhaps why Nissan has bent over backwards this time to refute the cheating claims. 
But anyway, apart from tweaking Porsche's nose, what’s the big deal for Nissan labouring to make the GT-R so fast around the Ring?
“Circuits like the Nurburgring and Sendai in Japan have been used extensively for the testing of GT-R not for the sake of setting records, but as the most challenging courses in the world recognized by consumers and manufacturers as the acid-test of a true supercar," comments Nissan spokesperson, Simon Sproule.
Privately, though, company insiders are both bemused and flattered that Nissan’s caused such a shock wave in the supercar performance world with the new Godzilla.
Just wait until the lighter, powered-up GT-R Spec V comes out…..
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