|
|
|
HOME » GTRForums Features
Nissan Finally Finds the G Spot
Author: James Tate
Page: 1
|
Photography courtesy Nissan Motor Co.
My late arrival into Tokyo’s Narita airport means I’ve been relegated to the back of the bus, and I’m not a good rider. Rain is roaring down on my thin glass window and it’s nosebleed cold outside. Thanks to the inexplicable Japanese need to set every thermostat they can get their hands on to about 125 degrees, it feels like a sauna in hell back here. Let the vomiting commence though, because I’m on the way to a place I’ve wanted to see since 1989.
My eventual destination is Nissan’s famed Yokohama plant, where the company has churned out 35 million engines since 1936. The vast majority of that work is now done by robots, of course, which work with the kind of speed and precision that make it easy to see why humans will soon be made extinct by Terminator androids. As I walk through flying sparks and hissing hydraulics, I’m constantly dodging computer controlled carts, called AGU’s (Automatically Guided Units), with payloads like tens of thousands of valves, or a couple dozen cylinder heads. As their revolving yellow lights cast robotic shadows on racks of newly minted engine blocks, they play tunes like Beethoven’s Fur Elise, giving them an eerie, almost human air. This is what “whistle while you work” means in Yokohama. And we’ve heard this one before – they don’t get tired and they don’t need smoke breaks.
Despite the futuristic coolness that is the modern assembly line, the 3.8-liter VR38DETT that powers the new GT-R will see nothing of the sort. Massive output demands tight tolerances, and there’s no room for error. Thus, each engine is hand-built; one by one, by the most senior and highest ranking workers in the plant, called Takumi. After going through an intensive training regimen, each Takumi gets his own engine, which is built from start to finish, then autographed and entered into a database that allows the company to keep an extra special tab on operation throughout engine life. Currently, there are just 13 Takumi, but Nissan has plans to expand this number to 20 in the very near future.
Nissan has built a pressurized, temperature-controlled clean room in the south side of the factory for the sole purpose of creating GT-R engines. I’m not allowed in, but i can look into the sterile environment through large windows in the viewing room. It’s like watching a hospital operation, each Takumi a careful doctor with air tools as his scalpel. This is the first use of a clean room for a production car (leave it to the Japanese). The team of Takumi is able to build 27 engines per day (each one takes 200 minutes, start to finish), but by the time you read this, that number should be boosted by about 50%, thanks to the aforementioned seven additional craftsmen.
Amazingly, the finished VR38DETT actually meets Japan’s U-LEV standards, thanks to stuff like “plasma-sprayed cylinder liner bores,” which reduce internal friction. After confirming each engine’s power output on an engine dyno (472 horsepower at 6,400rpm, 434 ft-lb. of torque from 3,200rpm to 5,200rpm), the extra special mills are loaded into trucks and shipped. If you’re curious, each one, including IHI turbochargers and the integral exhaust manifolds required by said snails weighs 220kg, or about 485lb.
Tochigi
Before I can fill a memory card with pictures, it’s time to get back on the bus and head off for one of Japan’s biggest industrial centers. Tochigi houses huge factories from more than a few huge companies, including Honda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Canon, Sharp and Komatsu, to name a few. I’m here to see just one, though, and I only care about one car there.
If Yokohama is the place where skilled craftsmen adoringly create the heart of Nissan’s new GT-R, Tochigi is the place where the entire rest of the car gets banged out on assembly lines, right next to its more plebian brothers and sisters, like the G35 and the 350Z. Despite the assembly line (the car costs a bargain $69,850 for a reason), there are several processes that are unique to the GT-R.
For example, there isn’t another car at built at Tochigi with the consideration of “take your hands off the wheel” stability at 300km/h (about 186mph). Nissan achieves this goal by eliminating every possible bit of slop in the suspension. No big surprise there, but while this is a relatively straightforward process in a race car, pulling it off in a car that must remain streetable and even luxurious on a daily basis is a different story altogether. So the company has developed a “high-precision alignment” for the rear suspension, which allows tolerances three times as precise as those in any other Nissan. After the rear suspension assembly has been bolted together, hydraulics are used to test the precision of the system under load – a team of workers adjust and readjust until things are just right. Also of note, both camber and toe are adjustable, front and rear. When the assembly is finally bolted into the rear subframe, it’s secured with six additional weld points, for increased stiffness.
All in all, 83% of GT-R assembly is done by robot, with much of that automation occurring on the assembly line. A quick look around the factory confirms it – Nissan is banging these things out. And that’s despite the Japan market being entirely built-to-order. No, you won’t have that option, so you can just stop hoping right now.
At the end of the assembly line sits a batch of freshly cooked GT-R’s. Cars don’t get newer than this, and photos don’t do this one justice. Like the R33, the R35 looks menacing – like a blunt weapon. Not like a sniper rifle or a 9mm pistol, but a sawed-off shotgun. Also like the R33 GT-R, the R35 is a gigantic car. It’s more than 183 inches long, and it’s almost 75 inches wide. You just have to see it in person to understand the respect it commands. And while it may look like an aerodynamic brick when compared to, say, an Audi R8, many hours of wind tunnel testing have net it an incredible 0.27 coefficient of drag. If that weren’t astounding enough, the car actually produces downforce while posting that number.
Product Chief Designer Hiroshi Hasegawa is quick to point out that the GT-R isn’t an example of function following form. While most cars (multi-hundred thousand dollar exotica included) use one path to direct airflow to cool critical components (engine, radiator, brakes, etc) and to create downforce/minimize lift, the GT-R has dual cooling paths, allowing a fully functional carbon fiber undertray the sole task of reducing the coefficient of drag and creating downforce.
 Before it’s sent off to its lucky owner, each GT-R must complete eight laps of an all-encompassing test track, which allows 10 engineers the time to dial in the complex shift action of the dual-clutch transmission and bed in the brakes. According to Nissan, proper break in procedure for the fully floating 15-inch Brembos (that’s front and rear, thanks) is critical – after the procedure, the 100-0km/h braking distance improves by about 30 meters. (That’s almost 100 feet from 62mph!) The eight-lap shakedown also allows one last opportunity to tweak the rear wheel alignment.
The catch of these incredibly tight tolerances, if there is one, is that the car must be serviced at a “Nissan High Performance Center,” which more than likely means that there will be significant cost involved with this proprietary servicing. Nissan’s picking up the tab for the first three years of ownership, though, which includes measurement and adjustment of the engine, transmission and wheel alignment after the first 1000 km, and again annually.
| Both the intake and the exhaust plumbing are symmetrical, which serves to reduce backpressure through the dual intercoolers and throttle bodies. |
Sendai Hi-Land Raceway
 One more bus ride, but this one will serve to squelch the incredible anticipation that has been growing since I set foot in the engine room at Yokohama. This trip takes me high into the mountains, to a track that is said to exhibit many of the same frightening characteristics of the legendary Nurburgring (on which, if you didn’t already know, the 2008 Nissan GT-R managed a 7:38’ lap time, partially wet). Hi-Land Raceway is located in Sendai, Japan, atop one of the taller mountains in the region. Hi-Land, get it?
It’s freezing cold when I’m shuffled off the bus, but I couldn’t care less, thanks to the squadron of GT-R’s lining the pit wall. I haven’t even driven one yet and I want one. Bad. A long safety lecture and Japan-sized racing suit later (Nissan’s engineers are happy to inform me that I look “rike sausage” with the fireproof ensemble plastered to my body), I’m aimed down pit road with a paddle shifter at each hand. Before I get to launching down the runway, three switches must be set right. They’re located right beside each other, like you’d picture the missile launch controls in a fighter jet.
One controls the grip of the VDC-R electronic stability control. Screw the lecture, that button’s going to the “off” position. Then there’s the suspension, which I’ve set to “R” mode. Though R mode is the ass-kicking of the bunch, “Sport” and “Comfort” are actually the most complex, adjusting the Bilstein DampTronic setup real-time, based on speed, g-forces, steering angle, steering abruptness, estimated torque, torque requested by the driver, engine rpm, brake fluid pressure, wheelspin (front to rear), and ABS. So yeah, it’s smart. Last, there’s the aggressiveness of the transmission – we’ll put that on “R” too, which equates to 200-millisecond shift times, or much faster than you can blink. It’s worth mentioning that Nissan measures the shift time from the moment you pull the paddle back, to the moment torque actually reaches the wheels. So if you’re overly excited about some of the existing systems on the market, which claim 100ms shift times and lower, it’s time to reconsider.
Switches set correctly, it’s time to blatantly ignore all of the advice given to me by Nissan’s super-qualified engineers and pin the pedal to the floorboard. BANG! Head smashed into the headrest and 10.9psi is dialed up before I can wonder about turbo lag. What ensues is an unending wall of reckless, explosive torque, totally unaffected by each hard pull on the right column-mounted paddle. Before I pull for each new gear, the twin-clutch transmission has preselected the correct gear. This is because odd gears are on a completely separate shaft than even gears, and the car guesses that, because I’m flooring it, I’m going to want the higher gear, not the catastrophic engine explosion.
There’s no question this car moves the game forward – in fact, it does so in a way that’s hardly thinkable. It’s ruthlessly fast – Edmunds Inside Line got repeatable 3.3-second 0-60 runs out of it, and rumor has it the car will pull off occasional 3.2-second runs. And the great part is, you can crack those runs off all day long, because more onboard computers than a space station have finally eliminated any chance of you messing it up. Stay on the gas and listen to the noises – whooshing and hissing, combined with a whine from the transmission that should go in a touring car. The exhaust could stand to be louder, and throatier, too, but by the time you read this, HKS and GReddy will in all likelihood have remedied the issue.
By the time I can muscle my eyeballs out of the back of my skull, it’s time to nail the brakes for corner one. I’ve just downshifted three gears in two seconds and I’ve got the wheel turned. Now, the problem with using the word “otherworldly” to describe the way a car handles is this: journalists have used the word for years, and every time, the car they were referring to has eventually been eclipsed by something that handles better. That said, the handling is otherworldly. The ridiculous grip I’m experiencing despite the ridiculous curb weight is in large part due to the ridiculous tire sizes. This GT-R is equipped with its summer tire offering – 255/40ZR20(F) and 285/35ZR20(R) Bridgestone Potenza RE070R run-flats (filled with nitrogen), but the car can be had with Dunlop SP Sport 7010 all-seaon tires in the same giant size.
The steering ratio is quick and well chosen, helping the big car belie its massive curb weight, and the feel is closer to that of a driving simulator than an actual, physical car. If I were going to be really picky, I’d say the rack could be a tad weightier, which would make it a bit more resistant to the jolts and bumps that come from an incredibly stiff chassis. Often times I find myself correcting the line mid-corner, which would never be the case in, oh, say, a Lotus Exige.
And if you’ve had any schooling, the handling takes a while to get used to. Yep, you’re best off abandoning everything you may have learned about car control – or if you never did, great news for you! Instead, try to drive like you’re an eager 14-year old kid who’s been handed the controller and a copy of Gran Turismo 5 for the first time. Pitch the 3,858-lb. car into a corner a tad too quickly and wait for the understeer. Then nail the gas. Yes, the gas. Don’t lift – we already know that doesn’t make two-ton cars turn. Throttle pinned, the giant GT-R will shuffle torque around its four wheels like a magician, tuck its nose into the corner and just rotate. And if you’ve got the stability control off, you’ll exit in a quick and tidy four-wheel powerslide. Damn you’re good!
As we already know, your alleged and sudden expertise is due to a system Nissan calls ATTESA E-TS. It’s essentially unchanged from R34 to R35, but it does benefit from one extra sensor, which checks your desired yaw rate by noting the steering angle, and compares that to the actual direction of travel. And let’s be honest – super high tech mechanicals are what the Skyline GT-R has always been about. From the moment you stab the gas pedal, you’re summoning more computing power than you might find in a couple of space stations. You’re saying: I don’t really know what I’m doing, can you figure it out for me? And the good news is that the car will happily oblige. Maybe Nissan says it best: “…advanced performance for secure and enjoyable driving by minimizing the effects of climatic, road condition or driving technique limitations.” If you’re looking for the best learning tool you can buy, this might not be your bag. But keep this in mind: while you’re out driving that learning tool, the 14-year old kid in the GT-R is going to be running rings around you – no matter how quick of a learner you are. Accept it or not, this is the future.
Should you choose to hold the g-forces steady, there’s a scavenger pump that maintains a steady flow of oil (Mobil-1 RP 0W-40) to the turbochargers and a collector inside the fuel tank. The future tech doesn’t stop there. In the interest of weight distribution, a primary driveshaft feeds engine torque to the transmission, mounted in the rear of the car, which then spits up to 50% back to the front wheels, through a secondary driveshaft. That makes this the world’s first independent rear transaxle in an all-wheel drive car. In addition to weight distribution, says Kazutoshi Mizuno (also known as Mr. GT-R), having a transmission that moves independently of the engine is a great aid to handling, enabling the two ends of the car to move independently of one another.
You’re sold, but how do you get one?
 Nissan makes optioning out your new GT-R easy – there are only two models. The base model costs $69,850 before the horrendous dealer markup (to buy one today, you’ll shell out between $80,000 and $140,000), and the premium model, which adds heated seats, side airbags and a Bose stereo for $71,900. The grim reality is that if you want to buy one of the scant 1,500 cars Nissan’s bringing into America in less then a year, you’ll shell out between $80,000 and $140,000 after dealer gouging.
|
