Drove the 2013 Nissan GT-R

[PS91195]

Hey guys, I drove the 2013 GT-R a few weeks ago, pretty awesome experience as i never drove a sportscar before.
Thinking about the drive again i got a bit confused by how easy it was to drive that car. I already read that in a few magazines before but that it really is that easy shocked me a bit. where is the thrill driving that car besides hitting the accelerator?
To others that drove the car: Did you feel the same way driving that car?
Btw: my friends shot a little video how i took off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuCZ_XaLido

[Cyder]

PS91195 said:

Hey guys, I drove the 2013 GT-R a few weeks ago, pretty awesome experience as i never drove a sportscar before.
Thinking about the drive again i got a bit confused by how easy it was to drive that car. I already read that in a few magazines before but that it really is that easy shocked me a bit. where is the thrill driving that car besides hitting the accelerator?
To others that drove the car: Did you feel the same way driving that car?
Btw: my friends shot a little video how i took off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuCZ_XaLido

You didn't go round any corners at any great speed did you?
The grip and handling at speed is unreal.

[toppstuff]

Where did you drive the car?

What sort of speeds were you able to do? Open road or in a suburban area?

The GTR is as easy to drive as a Micra. You can pootle about in it very easily and there is no drama.

But if you want, at any time, it can go faster than practically any car on the road. It is the King .

The whole point of the GTR, the very reason it was built, was because they wanted to make a car that was King of all road cars in terms of performance, yet make it so easy to use at low speeds that you Grandma could drive it.

The car is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It is good and evil in one package.

You have only met its good side. The other side of the car, its alter ego, when unleashed will lap a track faster than an MP4 or a 458 and make you shake with adrenalin.

But if you want drama with shock and awe on a trip to Sainsburys, a GTR ain't gonna do that, it's not designed to.

[PS91195]

Cyder said:

You didn't go round any corners at any great speed did you?
The grip and handling at speed is unreal.

To be honest- i drove it mostly on straights, a bit of slalom but at not really high speeds as the owner of the car sat next to me and I did not want to scare him to much. Anyway I would have thought that you'd feel at least a bit of wheelspin or searching for grip when you push the pedal to the floor in 1st gear in R-mode.

[PS91195]

toppstuff said:

Where did you drive the car?

What sort of speeds were you able to do? Open road or in a suburban area?


You have only met its good side. The other side of the car, its alter ego, when unleashed will lap a track faster than an MP4 or a 458 and make you shake with adrenalin.

I drove the car on public roads, speeds up to 160 km/h (100mph), but mostly straight. I guess i should have met the "evil side" by flooring it in 1st gear.
Don't get me wrong, the way this car accelerates is mindblowing, but i kind of missed the thrill. I probably have to drive that car again, this time on little roads with real corners to really understand what the car is about

[probedb]

PS91195 said:

I drove the car on public roads, speeds up to 160 km/h (100mph), but mostly straight.

Then you've not really driven it at all

Saying that I'm not sure what you'd expect from any car that you've just driven on straight roads

[PS91195]

probedb said:

Then you've not really driven it at all

Saying that I'm not sure what you'd expect from any car that you've just driven on straight roads

I think you are wrong on that, you can at least get an pretty close idea what the car is like on its absolute limit.
And here in Germany you can also drive that car at its highest possible speed if you do it carefully

[Robb F]

PS91195 said:

I think you are wrong on that, you can at least get an pretty close idea what the car is like on its absolute limit.

That's quite a skill you have there

[Mastodon2]

I can see how you might misunderstand the awesome talents of the R35 GT-R if your experience was booting it down dual carriageways.

[Cyder]

Robb F said:

PS91195 said:

I think you are wrong on that, you can at least get an pretty close idea what the car is like on its absolute limit.

That's quite a skill you have there

I concur, I've been in one at a vehicle proving ground and done WOT accel runs to 160mph and also been a passenger over a handling circuit and alpine test route with the car close to the limit of grip.
High speed in a straight line is absolutely nothing like the feeling you get as you blast round a track or twisty undulating road at the limit.

[PS91195]

Cyder said:

I concur, I've been in one at a vehicle proving ground and done WOT accel runs to 160mph and also been a passenger over a handling circuit and alpine test route with the car close to the limit of grip.
High speed in a straight line is absolutely nothing like the feeling you get as you blast round a track or twisty undulating road at the limit.

As I am probably not as experienced in driving as most of you are, I guess I have to agree with what all of you said.
I still think that straight line acceleration should be more of a thrill than what it feels like in a GT-R. I once had a ride in a GT3 RS 4.0, and there the straight line acceleration felt really different (not just because is has less power, there was also the feeling of doing something special and not just been thrown in the seat), but as the main purposes of the GT-R and the RS 4.0 are really different that is probably the reason for the difference.
Anyway the GT-R is still a mindblowingly quick car, I hope that I can drive it around a track one day.

[toppstuff]

Different types of car.

The GT-R is super fast but does not make a fuss of it.

That is the whole point of it.

If you want to have noise and vibration then you either tune the GTR and fit a sports exhaust or get a different car. The GTR is more comparable to a 911 Turbo than a GT3.

Of course, if you spent the same money on GTR that a GT3 costs, then you could buy a stage 5 or even a stage 6 GTR and start chasing Bugatti Veyrons ! If that isn't exciting enough, you are probably dead.

[PS91195]

toppstuff said:

Different types of car.

The GT-R is super fast but does not make a fuss of it.

That is the whole point of it.

If you want to have noise and vibration then you either tune the GTR and fit a sports exhaust or get a different car. The GTR is more comparable to a 911 Turbo than a GT3.

Of course, if you spent the same money on GTR that a GT3 costs, then you could buy a stage 5 or even a stage 6 GTR and start chasing Bugatti Veyrons ! If that isn't exciting enough, you are probably dead.

That also would be the main reason for me to buy a GT-R. But as you don't see to many veyrons or cars that are equal fast, I'd go for the Gt3

[W8PMC]

PS91195 said:

That also would be the main reason for me to buy a GT-R. But as you don't see to many veyrons or cars that are equal fast, I'd go for the Gt3

Having owned a Stage 4.5 GT-R for over a year, i can totally agree that it may not provide the same raw driving experience as say a GT3 RS. What i can tell you though is regardless of how the GT-R feels in a straight line, on a track the GT3 RS would be left chasing the GT-R's dust (admitting that my experiences were in my 620ish bhp car).

The other difference is that the GT-R would drive to-from the track with me in total comfort. I'm not a big fan of dramatic driving on UK roads or drifting round roundabouts as prefer to keep that to the track, so I like a car that can do everything extremely well but may not be perfect at anything (what car is?).

[PS91195]

W8PMC said:

Having owned a Stage 4.5 GT-R for over a year, i can totally agree that it may not provide the same raw driving experience as say a GT3 RS. What i can tell you though is regardless of how the GT-R feels in a straight line, on a track the GT3 RS would be left chasing the GT-R's dust (admitting that my experiences were in my 620ish bhp car).

The other difference is that the GT-R would drive to-from the track with me in total comfort. I'm not a big fan of dramatic driving on UK roads or drifting round roundabouts as prefer to keep that to the track, so I like a car that can do everything extremely well but may not be perfect at anything (what car is?).

Your comment really explains me why the GT-R wasn't as pure as i had thought. As the car is also meant to be comfortable and every-day driveable, the driving experience can't be as pure as in the GT3. Nice to hear that from an owner of that car, again.
I think I still have to drive the car on track or a lonely back road to meet it's real character.

[OldBob]

PS91195 said:

I drove the car on public roads, speeds up to 160 km/h (100mph), but mostly straight. I guess i should have met the "evil side" by flooring it in 1st gear.
...

In the dry, on the straight, probably with TC turned on you would not get any drama at all by flooring it. It would just dig in and take off..that's what it's designed to do, it's all wheel drive will kick in even if the the TC doesn't kill the power too much. All the rear wheel spinning screeching nonsense doesn't make a good car, and is usually only associated with a big powerful RWD Yank... in a movie.
Now get it in R or TC off on a track and see how it demolishes corner apex -> exit, or alternatively see what gives first in a fast bend..traction or your bottle.

[ROB_GTR]

From reading this thread im guessing you had a very uneventful plod down a few straights and tickled the throttle a bit?
The GT3 is slow in comparison but still a great car. It will be more rattly, loud and bumpy due to its nature.
A bog standard GTR is very subtle but still rapid and as said before it will feel slower / less dramatic due to it being more comfortable / quieter etc.
The lack of changing gears in the GTR make it even more less driver focused but speeds up gear changing a fair bit!

Now, if you want GTR but with the excitement, noise, rawness etc that you would get in the GT3 for example then you need to try a R32, R33 or R34 that have been tweeked a little

My R33 GTR V-Spec for example is currently 650ish BHP, noisy, rattly, raw and loud. That would feel twice as quick as a similar power GTR due to the previous reasons and would be much more of a handfull but still the GTR (assuming same power etc) would be quicker around a track with a lot less drama.

[turboman786]

The OP clearly has not had a proper drive of the GTR....

I recently bought a GTR and can honestly say it is beyond thrilling, it is breathtaking! Albeit mine has the 650R conversion...the car is staggeringly quick, and feels a lot more exciting than anything I have ever driven...I had a 997, M3, M5 etc etc, and driven pretty much every fast BMW, Merc and Audi out there, and nothing compares to the GTR...I'm in love!!

[mwmackenzie]

I drove a 2009 one a good bit and to be honest also found it boring, very quiet in cabin, so big, no real sense of dram or ocassion and your at silly speeds in no time, so prepare to lose your licence without knowing it as the sense of speed is very muted.. Give me a Lotus Elise or Exige any day you really know what is going on with one of these pups!

[terenceb]

Shame you weren't there earlier during this week,for only another €40 you could have driven a maclaren.
Admittedly the gtr is a very quick bit of kit,but being so easy to drive,they can flatter the most incapable driver.