2012 nissan gtr
2012 nissan gtr
2012 nissan gtr
Dirk Schoysman is one of those people whose appearance belies his profession. Tall, quietly spoken, gently humorous and perpetually affable, he looks like he should be employed in a thoroughly wholesome occupation. A veterinarian perhaps, or a charity worker. What he absolutely does not look like is the man who, in all probability, knows the Nürburgring Nordschleife better than anyone else alive or dead. When we met him he was about to complete his 19,000th lap of the most terrifying and challenging racetrack on earth, and as that lap measures close to 14 miles, that means he’s driven the distance from the earth to the moon on this track. If there is a better man to introduce me to the 2012 Nissan GT-R, I’ve not met him.
It’s hard to believe it was back in 2007 when the GT-R’s creator Kazutoshi Mizuno first threw the cover off his new hypercar. Harder still to remember is that, at the time, he specifically warned that the car he referred to as “the real GT-R” was still three years away. It all got forgotten, swept away on the ocean of purple prose that greeted his 480-horsepower Porsche-crushing powerhouse. Soon it became known simply as “Godzilla,” a ferocious, insatiable monster before which all bowed.
Except that nothing lasts forever. Rightly or wrongly, the scale of the GT-R’s achievement became measured not by how it felt or looked, but how swiftly it could lap the Nürburgring. At first few could get close to it, as it posted times that would have been respectable for a purpose-built racing prototype when the ‘Ring was still used regularly for racing back in the early 1980s. But others, notably contenders from Chevrolet and Porsche, were quick to meet and then beat it.
Something had to be done and this, the 2012 Nissan GT-R is it. The plan had been to attack the Nürburgring record on the day I drove it and Nissan’s pilot of choice, ex-F1 driver Toshio Suzuki was pacing the pit garage waiting for the weather to come right, which it never did. So instead I went out with Schoysman to find out more.
Article Sources : Insideline.com
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