High speed ride now getting dangerous

[WickedOne513]

Look at all the test done for every article done was ran on a track with prefect surfaces designed and maintained for highspeed driving. the issues that tokyogtr is talking about is on normal roads and high speeds where there are pot holes and no uniform road surfaces. so its a completely dif driving experience

[kraath]

Originally Posted by tokyogtr

feel free to come to japan and drive me if you want.

frank, yes, it does not happen on the straigh tline of the aqualine but on the older roads line chuo and tomei. my mate in his RS4, as i stated before, said the back end of my car was bouncing all over the place. i drove behind him and his car was steady as a rock.

yes, it hunkers down BUT the car is SO high up that this is causing some of the problems. aftermarket suspension lowers the car significantly. now if someone can come up with a lowering kit AND springs without changing the suspension then i'll give it a go.

as for whether my opinion matters or not, it's just me giving you all my unbiased opinion. i'll gladly take the car back out with my mate and have him video what happens at around 200kph on slightly bumpy highway surfaces. btw, yes, it's literally on and off. there's nothing gradual about it at all.

and as franks says, it's bounces around like mad sometimes for no apparant reason.

so, the options are: lower the car somehow and keep stock springs and shocks OR change the entire suspension and have it lowered anyway.

they made the car so high up to clear bumps and ramps in carparks which can be quite sever in japan.

i've done 3000kms on it now, some on fuji speedway, lots of hakone turnpike and loads on chuo, tomei, shuto and aqualine. most of this hard driving was done unlimited, no speed limiter. before the speed limiter was removed i never ever noticed a problem.

mate, i can keep my mouth shut in future and just let you all find out all this stuff for yourself instead.

For me your real life reports are one of the best reads on the entire forum.
Keep them up please.

[Mega]

Indeed, please do.......................might i ask how it is in the wet?.......A US car mag thought it was upset by standing water.......i wonder if the Dunlops might be a better choice for UK?
Mike

[WickedOne513]

would like to know also along with are you running runflats or something else?

[tokyogtr]

Originally Posted by Mega

Indeed, please do.......................might i ask how it is in the wet?.......A US car mag thought it was upset by standing water.......i wonder if the Dunlops might be a better choice for UK?
Mike

personally i think it's fantastic in the wet. it's so heavy and the electronics so good that i only really ever had one incident which was a lane change. it tramlined AND i hit some standing water. still, it was pretty easy to recover.

[Mega]

Ok, here's an idea..............Why not get you friend to film you from his car (Behind you). You could then study the footage and try to get an understanding to what is happening.

Ensuring that you plate is covered, you could if you wanted place this on "You Tube". Sites like "Autoblog" would quickly pick it up and Nissan would be asked some HARD questions.

Just a thought.
Cheers
Mike/Liverpool

[WickedOne513]

nice......

[vishnus11]

Originally Posted by WickedOne513

Look at all the test done for every article done was ran on a track with prefect surfaces designed and maintained for highspeed driving. the issues that tokyogtr is talking about is on normal roads and high speeds where there are pot holes and no uniform road surfaces. so its a completely dif driving experience

For your consideration and viewing pleasure.....

2009 Nissan GT-R Ultimate Road Trip - Inside Line 2,000 Mile Road Test

Enjoy

Cliffnotes
- Edmunds drove the car 2000 miles for days on every surface possible in every environment possible. Tracked it/drag raced it/you name it....
- They specifically state that they set the cruise to 112mph for some time (~180kph) - to be fair, OP said that this mythical phenomenon appeared at higher speeds.

This car has been tested ON EVERY POSSIBLE surface by MULTITUDES of tester in MULTIPLE environments. NOT one....NOT ONE person has ever said that the high-speed stability of the car has been anything but faultless.

If I were you, I would get your car checked for faulty suspension components. Until you do that, I find it difficult to believe this 'tale'.

EDIT: This car wasn't designed by children. It was designed by the world's best engineers. Cars in this vein never have 'faults' or 'improper calibration' of key components. They DO sometimes have certain character traits. For example, an S2000, especially an earlier model, was quick to rotate if driven clumsily - but his was a virtue of having calibrated the car to provide this trait - to this day, some people still prefer this version the best. Same story with the Audi TT - it was initially set-up for neutral to oversteer type handling, but Audi's typical clientile have no clue what oversteer is and found themselves spinning out a high speeds. To say the GT-R has a 'problem' after all the exhaustive testing and development, is to very bold, and likely...very stupid.

[Swiss Frank]

Vishnus11,

I think part of the problem is that Japanese highways vary quite a bit. If you get out to the country, there is so much tax money spent on them, combined with low (and falling) population that the roads are perfect. I've driven many days in Germany and I'd say smoother than the best Autobahns.

The GT-R is quite good there.

However, Tokyo highways are at least 50% "elevated". Because of earthquakes each section of highway is separate, with huge gaps in between to allow the sections to move around. These roads are busy 24 hours a day and hard for crews to service so the surface is also very rough.

I'd say the GT-R is fantastically poor on these roads.



I'm an engineer and I agree with your general point: the car left the factory like they wanted it. Especially after a 6 year gestation period, there is no chance that they didn't meet their goals.

However, I call engineering "the art of tradeoffs". As TokyoGTR says, Nissan wanted a certain amount of ground clearance despite knowing a lower center of gravity invariably helps handling. Nissan also didn't want the space consumption of even a space-saver spare hence the run-flats. In my opinion, the engineers were also overruled by stylists in having 20" wheels. Ghosn's focus on profit (and the marketting plan of releaseing a V-spec later) kept them from spec'ing expensive carbon brakes or carbon-fibre body panels. Finally, the N-ring is important to the R32-33-34 heritage and the engineers had a mandate to make the car fast there even to the detriment of normal driving. (British car magazine editorials sometimes talk about how they wish the N-ring was not so central in carmaker's tuning.)



A final point is that I don't understand why you're saying that no-one's ever said the car is anything but faultless. TokyoGTR and I are both saying this; TokyoGTR says Mine's says alot of customers are complaining; we both have driven the car more than, say, Edmunds; and I can promise you that you haven't read about extended tests on surfaces that we drive on, or you'd be hearing the same complaints we've got.

[Swiss Frank]

TokyoGTR:

I agree with you somewhat, the height is a factor. I agree with you completely that lowering the height can only be an improvement. I agree with Vishnus11 a bit, that just replacing springs (without lowering) isn't going to help much as I don't think an aftermarket company can out-engineer the original manufacturer's engineers. An aftermarket company can choose different tradeoffs, such as lower height, or much more expensive components and materials, or, for most cars, going more sporty/track-focused than the average punter'd want. In this case however, I don't think we want to go more track-focused, do we? And if there was a way to keep the current track focus and price point while magically fixing the highway ride, Nissan would have done that...

... unless it violated another engineering input, such as cost (carbon brakes), a non-negotiable styling feature (20" wheels), or corporate policy (Nissan probably the equivalent of standing orders mandating either spares or runflats for all cars).

So, if you tell me the solution is lowering the car and lower airdam, I'd believe you: you are making a different tradeoff handling vs. ground clearnace thna Nissan could have. If you are telling me it involves an expensive part ($5000 shocks or $15000 carbon brakes) I completely believe this could solve the problem. But there's no way a spring with just a different spring rate or progressive rate is going to help or Nissan would just spec that.



Its a little off-subject but I agree, the car does very well in heavy rain.

[Arch5]

Mine's has Eibach replacement springs available. Since you've gotten other parts from them, may as well purchase a set of these. Or maybe inquire about them.

Kanzen,

Are you familiar with these?

Mine's Eibach Springs - NAGTROC - The Nissan GT-R Owners Club

What's New? Mine's Eibach Spring for R35 GT-R

[winsome]

tokyo can you tell me what tire pressure are u running on? i agree the 070r is nurvous on irregularity though. I am going to speak to a friend of mine who travel long distance to his factory and he touched 295 with the latest 297 regularly. he also has a 996 turbo but he absolutely praise the GTR in all area, and he comment the p-car is now in garage covering in dust. do you thing changing or checking the alignment will help?

[First]

Guys, come on lets not put Tokyogtr down. I am sure he knows what he's talking about and probing him with quetions like, is your tyre pressure correct or allignment correct does not help this topic at all. And I do understand some of you are trying to rule out this entirely down to Tokyo's individual car alone, but though possible I would think its highly unlikely. I of course would hope for the former scenario.

[mindlessoath]

CBA-R35: R35 Suspention Options
read the many suspention choices here. you dont need to spend 1m Yen tho... mines is really nice, but really over priced considering all the options.

the list i have complied hasnt got everything yet. i have to add the amuse coil over conversion kit that changes the stock gt-r shocks into coil overs.

there is also more in development, but the list is pritty good sofar.

[Armed English]

? I seem to remember most of the first reviews of the GTR in the UK said that the car was very bad on public roads. I hope it is sorted for euro cars, our roads in the UK are terrible.