[E82tt6]

Well, they do determine something. On certain tracks, they determine a lot!

The Nurburgring is a very, very highspeed track, and if you look at lap times, you will generally see a corelation with power:weight ratio. There are lots of long straights, in addition to challenging technical sections, which makes power a very important factor. There's a reason the cars you see running below 7:40 have obscene P:W ratios... It's simply required to move that fast around that track.

Furthermore, I don't think anyone in their right mind will tell you that a GTR can achieve higher cornering speeds than a GT2, CGT, Zonda, or Enzo. Extra 1000+ pounds, with a lot less tire. The supercars can corner faster, end of story. Fancy AWD is nice for removing driver error, and getting the most out of the grip you have available, but if one car can sustain 1.1+ Gs through a corner, and the other 1G, the car that sustains 1.1 Gs WILL get through the corner 10% faster, assuming both drivers take the optimal line.

IMO, Nissan's 7:29 number is absolutely silly. I don't see how they can expect anyone to believe it. The facts just don't add up. There is absolutely no way it can beat cars around a track like the NRing that not only outaccelerate it by a huge, huge, insermountable margin, but also outcorner it. I just doesn't work that way.

Originally Posted by Markoni

Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of automobiles knows that power-to-weight figures alone do not determine anything. The fact that the GT-R is heavier or less powerful than a certain car means nothing. There's so much more that goes into how a car performs.

I'm not defending Nissan's claims and saying they're true, but if I'm not going to take Nissan's word for it why the hell would I take Porsche's?

As for the "independent" test that was run by some sports car magazine, what is that supposed to tell us? You could put me in a Formula1 car and I'll probably come in over a minute later than a pro F1 driver.

The skill and ability of the driver plays a huge part in the results. You're trying to tell me that Nissan didn't have their guy practically sleeping in the car for weeks on end, driving that car lap after lap trying to shave down lap times? The guy who set the record practically knows the car and track better than he knows himself. It probably broke up his marriage because he got more attached to the car than he was to his wife and kids.

You're expecting some guy to cash a check from a magazine, show up for a day, and do the same thing Nissan's guy did? Dream on. That magazine test in no way denigrates Nissan's accomplishment. The only way to prove Nissan's time false is to prove that the car Nissan used was not stock. Can you do that in an objective manner, instead of "Well, we put Joe Schmo here behind the wheel and he was x amount of seconds off the time, thus it's a lie."?

[BForbes]

^^^So what will you say when that GT-R spec V comes?