Porsche accuses Nissan of cheating at 'Ring

[Hugo]

Porsche has accused Nissan of cheating in the GT-R's record bid at the Nurburgring racetrack.

Porsche has just run its own back-to-back tests with the Japanese company's GT-R supercar and says it could not get within 25 seconds of Nissan's claimed record time of seven minutes 29 seconds in April.

It also found its 911 Turbo and GT2 were both quicker than the GT-R.

"This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car," says August Achleitner, the 911 product chief for Porsche, speaking to the CARSguide at the Australian press preview of the latest 911 Cabrio.

"For us, it's not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tyres."

He believes the time achieved by Nissan with ex-Formula One driver Toshio Suzuki would only be possible with a semi-slick race-style tyre.

Achleitner says Porsche took a standard GT-R, running on regular road tyres, and ran it around the Nurburgring within two hours of its own cars, on the same day with exactly the same weather conditions.

He says there was no tweaking of any kind and the GT2 and Turbo both ran on regular Porsche road tyres, the Michelin Sport Cup.

"We bought the car in the US. We drove a GT-R with new tyres," he says.

Achleitner was initially protective of the exact lap times, which were run during a program when Porsche also compared its upcoming four-door Panamera with a range of potential rivals.

But he eventually revealed his team clocked the GT-R at 7 minutes 54 seconds, with the 911 Turbo managing 7:38 and the GT2 getting down to 7:34.

The laps were not run by Porsche's usual hot-lap specialist, former world rally champion and race winner Walter Rohrl, but one of the company's chassis development engineers who is an expert on the Nurburgring.

Achleitner says the back-to-back comparison was run because Porsche was concerned by Nissan's claims for the GT-R, which is heavier than the 911 with similar power.

"The Nissan is a good car. I don't want to make anything bad with my words," he says.

"It's a very consistent car. But this car is about 20 kilos heavier than the Turbo . . ."

In the end, Porsche believes its testing has achieved the right lap times for the Skyline GT-R and benchmarked it against its own 911 heroes in the right context.

"For us it has been clearly the result. This technical puzzle now fits together. With the other numbers we had problems to understand it," he says.

- Herald Sun

Porsche accuses Nissan of cheating at Nurburgring | carsguide.com.au

WTF!

[xaero1]

Well how can they explain the results of countless magazine tests where the GTR is quicker than the 911 turbo around other tracks?

[R33_GTS-t]

This is crazy. Going round internet forums it's pretty obvious that Porsche actually have some people on the payroll trolling for them. It's crazy funny. Having an inferior car is one thing but turning your company into a laughing stock is another.

[RSVFOUR]

Originally Posted by xaero1

Well how can they explain the results of countless magazine tests where the GTR is quicker than the 911 turbo around other tracks?

Well obviously as part of a global conspiracy Nissan have details of every test and comparison that is going to happen .

They have commissioned a number of special holographicly camourflaged vans full of special tyres which turn up and change the tyres before each test.
Whilst the the testers are kept busy by scantily clad japanese models (hidden in the van) these tyres are swiftly replaced without anyone realising it .

Obvious surley

[Yakozan]

ex F1 driver versus engineer?
Ofcourse he'll be slower. Not to mention he's very familiar with Porsches and probobly not the GTR.

they also compare US model versus JDM model.
What tyres did the car have? Bridsgestones? running 95Ron fuel?

I think it's pretty pathetic by porsche to do this. But I guess they have to do something about the GTR.

[Armed English]

They were tested within 2 hours of each other. But it was snowing when the GTR went round.

[R33_GTS-t]

Sport Auto ran 7:50 in the GTR on a partially wet track anyway. That's within 21s, and that was before the Euro suspension tweaks, i.e. with the 7:38 car. So what exactly is Porsche's point here? Why don't they invest in improving their car instead of PR campaigns, or at least put the money into baby oil to ease their pain.

[moleman]

Interested to hear Cem's thoughts.

[Bodi]

In an around about way all they are doing is giving the GTR more exposure. People will now go out to prove them wrong again and again and show what the GTR is capable of doing and giving Porsche a spanking time and time again.

It's a toys and pram issue

[thb_da_one]

It'd be good to hear what Nissan has to say about that... But with the "Nissan conspiracy" all around the world I was surprised that the article appeared on the internet!

[kismetcapitan]

obviously, Porsche is taking a page from the Ferrari F1 playbook...if you can't be faster on the track, whine and complain that you've been cheated!

[Howsie]

The fact that they have gone to press with this in the first place says something about the GT-R...

[gtrlux]

Originally Posted by moleman

Interested to hear Cem's thoughts.

He was the engineer driving the lap . . . .

[DCD]

LOL this is so funny

[trondhla]

Did Top Gear cheat too when they managed 1'19,7?