Feature
2009 Nissan GT-R: Dyno Testing Godzilla
First Test of the 2009 Nissan GT-R on a Chassis Dyno
The 2009 Nissan GT-R is strapped to the floor, but it's tugging at its leashes with all the power its twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 can muster, moaning to itself in the way a car does when it's at full power. We can feel the air vibrating.
Only a few engineers at Nissan know what the true output of the 2009 Nissan GT-R's engine really is, and so far they're not telling. So we're inside a futuristic dynamometer cell at Harman Motive in Torrance, California, to find out. It's part NASA space lab and part Dr. Frankenstein's lab, as a huge intake duct blows air across the car and two big fans in the ceiling suck the engine exhaust out of the room. A rack of computerized hardware is poised next to the driver-side door, reading the GT-R's vital signs.
We can hear the hollow rasp of the twin-turbo V6's intake, the low resonance of the exhaust, the rush of the big tires on the dyno's rollers. Finally the long, hard pull from the engine is done, and for an instant we can feel a bubble of heat against our skin as the GT-R seems to exhale in exhaustion.
Through the window in the silver, soundproof wall of the dyno cell we can see the anxious faces of a small crowd. They're peering in at the computer as it processes the power curve from the first 2009 Nissan GT-R in the United States.
We're Done With Hype
Forget the hype surrounding the coming of Nissan's new 2009 Nissan GT-R, nearly a decade's worth of showcars, spy photos and video clips of prototypes ripping around the Nürburgring. What's floored the world has been the substance of the GT-R's performance. Just how much raw thrust has produced the new GT-R's staggering speed? Why won't Nissan give us a definitive definition of the twin-turbo V6's output?
We were the first to pin down the 2009 Nissan GT-R's with real performance numbers recorded during an exercise in guerrilla testing on an airport runway in Japan, so we feel a responsibility to get to the hard numbers of the GT-R R35's new powertrain. So we put a GT-R on a chassis dynamometer. Twice.
Daryl Alison of JSpecConnect.com and Kaizo Industries brought the first two Nissan GT-Rs into North America. It wasn't easy, and only a longtime GT-R fanatic would undertake it. First, Alison imported two complete right-hand-drive R35 GT-R bodies ("drivetrain delete," read the order form) to California. Then he mated them to two R35 GT-R drivetrain assemblies that he secured from independent sources and imported separately. It's not the easiest way to get a GT-R in this country, but it is the quickest and it's legal.
Alison brought this black R35 up from his shop in Costa Mesa, California, to the all-wheel-drive Mustang dyno at Harman Motive in Torrance and then transported it to the Dynapack dyno at Road Race Engineering in Santa Fe Springs, California.
World Domination
As we discovered in Inside Line's exclusive first test in Japan, the 2009 Nissan GT-R will rocket to 60 mph in just 3.3 seconds and blow through the quarter-mile in 11.6 seconds at more than 120 mph. This makes the GT-R R35 the quickest accelerating production vehicle we have ever tested. Quicker than any Ferrari. Quicker than any Corvette. Quicker than any Viper. And quicker than the Porsche 911 Turbo that was the yardstick against which Nissan measured all aspects of the GT-R's performance during its development.
If you look at the official Nissan power figures for the GT-R's twin-turbo 24-valve DOHC V6, such performance shouldn't be possible. Nissan rates this engine at 480 horsepower and 434 pound-feet of torque. (These are the figures announced for the GT-R in the Japanese domestic market as tested here, though Nissan promises that all GT-Rs planetwide will produce essentially identical power.) This all-aluminum beast is the most powerful engine ever installed in a production car from Japan, but the GT-R weighs more than 3,800 pounds, and such performance just doesn't add up with these numbers, whether you're using a supercomputer or an abacus.
In contrast, the Porsche 911 Turbo's turbocharged 3.6-liter horizontally opposed six is rated at 480 hp, while the car itself weighs less than 3,600 pounds. And yet the all-wheel-drive Porsche's gasp-inducing 3.4-second wallop to 60 mph is only a tenth-of-a-tick behind the all-wheel-drive Nissan's effort.
The dyno answers our questions. (All the data that follows is uncorrected for weather or altitude.)
Mustang Corral
Harman Motive is one of Southern California's top tuning houses, with a focus on BMW, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Subaru. And the tool that gives Harman its edge in the high-performance market is its Mustang MD-AWD-500-SE chassis dynamometer. Harman's dyno cell is a cost-no-object showpiece, complete with an oversize, soundproof enclosure, twin ceiling-mounted air-extraction fans, and even windows for spectators.
Essentially, the Mustang dyno is a set of front rollers and a set of rear rollers that are mechanically linked to one another. The rollers are hooked up in turn to a single eddy-current absorber for the electricity that's produced. By measuring the amount of DC power applied to the coils and measuring the rpm of the spinning rotors, engine power is easily computed.
Even at a shop as hard-core as Harman, the GT-R attracted a crowd as it was strapped down onto the dyno. "God," said one, "that's one big, mean-looking car."
We topped off the GT-R's tank with a blend of 91 octane pump gasoline and enough 100 octane unleaded racing fuel to wind up at around 94 octane, close to what's commonly available in Japan.
The Rollers Tell the Truth
Though the GT-R has sizable exhaust tips, the four exhaust outlets themselves are surprisingly small in diameter, so the car isn't very loud. Nonetheless, the sound of the big tires against the rollers sets up a terrific banshee wail that seems to turn the air into jelly.
It's not an easy deal. All Japan-spec cars are equipped with a top-speed limiter at 180 km/h (112 mph) and we keep banging into it when we use 4th gear in the GT-R. Finally we select 3rd gear and get some clean pulls.
When the computer finishes crunching the numbers, the data tells us that the 2009 Nissan GT-R is putting out 406 hp at 6,400 rpm and 414 lb-ft of torque at 3,800 rpm. Once you factor in the parasitic losses of the all-wheel-drive system, these numbers are wholly in line with Nissan's claim for the engine's power at the crankshaft. During one pull, the horsepower perked up to 414 hp, but it wasn't repeatable and torque production through the midrange suffered.
Earlier, Harman tested a 997-generation Porsche 911 Turbo on the same dyno, and we discovered some interesting things when we overlaid its power curve with that of the GT-R. The Porsche's variable-geometry turbos give its six-cylinder engine a significant advantage in torque output over the GT-R below 3,600 rpm. But once these engines reach the range between 3,600 and 5,700 rpm (where the real work of acceleration must be done), the GT-R's V6 has the 911's flat-6 covered.
At the Hubs
There's more than one way to arrive at a reliable measurement of horsepower, though, which brings us to the Dynapack dynamometer.
A Dynapack dyno consists of four separate units that bolt directly to a vehicle's wheel hubs, replacing the wheels and tires. Each unit contains a hydraulic-load brake and electronics that report back to a central computer. As a result, the Dynapack effectively eliminates any possibility of slippage between the vehicle's tires and the rollers. It's all about minimizing variables, so the result is power at the hubs, not power at the tires.
Road Race Engineering (RRE) in Santa Fe Springs, California, has recently purchased a Dynapack dyno to help develop its range of Mitsubishi performance parts. With RRE's long history of motorsports development for such cars as the all-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Evo, the all-wheel-drive Nissan GT-R seemed like a natural fit.
The GT-R Throws a Fit
Unfortunately, a technologically advanced machine like the GT-R knows when its tires have been removed. So we are able to only make two clean pulls with the Dynapack system before the GT-R refuses to perform. We put the wheels and tires right next to the dyno units so the tire pressure sensors can transmit to the car, but that doesn't seem to help. Even worse, the whole car shimmies dangerously on the rig, like Godzilla trying to escape its bonds. Angry, red Japanese script flashes on the GT-R's instrument cluster.
We quickly remember that Daryl Alison and JSpecConnect.com have a fair amount of commerce wrapped up in this enterprise, and some catastrophic realignment might be an issue in a car that doesn't go on sale in the U.S. for another six months. So that's it; we unplug the run and put the wheels back on the car.
Despite our problems, the two good runs on the Dynapack verify our testing with the Mustang dyno. According to the Dynapack, the output of the Nissan GT-R's V6 peaks at 452 hp at 6,350 rpm and 448 lb-ft of torque at 3,865 rpm. These higher numbers are due partially to the elimination of the tires, and the rest comes from internal variations in the way power is calculated by the Dynapack. The result vividly demonstrates why comparing results from different cars on different dynos leads to diabolical confusion.
One World, One Godzilla
Nissan has long insisted that the 2009 Nissan GT-R will be available only in a single specification across the entire planet. There might be a few software tweaks to adjust for fuel quality in various markets, but for the most part the American-market GT-R that's coming here soon will differ from JSpecConnect.com's GT-R only slightly.
What the dyno charts suggest is that the GT-R's performance advantage isn't solely in the power generated by its twin-turbo V6. Much of the GT-R's edge lies in technology like its launch control system, its dual-clutch automated manual transmission and the awe-inspiring way the all-wheel-drive system ensures that so much of the power makes its way to the road.
The 2009 Nissan GT-R isn't simply a car with a lot of power; it's a car that makes the most out of the power that it has.
At any one time, there can only be one king at the top of the hill. And right now, the Nissan GT-R is enjoying that panoramic view.
2009 Nissan Skyline GT-R: The most eagerly anticipated new performance car of the century
Only a few engineers at Nissan know what the true output of the 2009 Nissan GT-R's engine really is, and so far they're not telling. So we're inside a futuristic dynamometer cell at Harman Motive in Torrance, California, to find out. It's part NASA space lab and part Dr. Frankenstein's lab, as a huge intake duct blows air across the car and two big fans in the ceiling suck the engine exhaust out of the room. A rack of computerized hardware is poised next to the driver-side door, reading the GT-R's vital signs.
We can hear the hollow rasp of the twin-turbo V6's intake, the low resonance of the exhaust, the rush of the big tires on the dyno's rollers. Finally the long, hard pull from the engine is done, and for an instant we can feel a bubble of heat against our skin as the GT-R seems to exhale in exhaustion.
Through the window in the silver, soundproof wall of the dyno cell we can see the anxious faces of a small crowd. They're peering in at the computer as it processes the power curve from the first 2009 Nissan GT-R in the United States.
We're Done With Hype
Forget the hype surrounding the coming of Nissan's new 2009 Nissan GT-R, nearly a decade's worth of showcars, spy photos and video clips of prototypes ripping around the Nürburgring. What's floored the world has been the substance of the GT-R's performance. Just how much raw thrust has produced the new GT-R's staggering speed? Why won't Nissan give us a definitive definition of the twin-turbo V6's output?
We were the first to pin down the 2009 Nissan GT-R's with real performance numbers recorded during an exercise in guerrilla testing on an airport runway in Japan, so we feel a responsibility to get to the hard numbers of the GT-R R35's new powertrain. So we put a GT-R on a chassis dynamometer. Twice.
Daryl Alison of JSpecConnect.com and Kaizo Industries brought the first two Nissan GT-Rs into North America. It wasn't easy, and only a longtime GT-R fanatic would undertake it. First, Alison imported two complete right-hand-drive R35 GT-R bodies ("drivetrain delete," read the order form) to California. Then he mated them to two R35 GT-R drivetrain assemblies that he secured from independent sources and imported separately. It's not the easiest way to get a GT-R in this country, but it is the quickest and it's legal.
Alison brought this black R35 up from his shop in Costa Mesa, California, to the all-wheel-drive Mustang dyno at Harman Motive in Torrance and then transported it to the Dynapack dyno at Road Race Engineering in Santa Fe Springs, California.
World Domination
As we discovered in Inside Line's exclusive first test in Japan, the 2009 Nissan GT-R will rocket to 60 mph in just 3.3 seconds and blow through the quarter-mile in 11.6 seconds at more than 120 mph. This makes the GT-R R35 the quickest accelerating production vehicle we have ever tested. Quicker than any Ferrari. Quicker than any Corvette. Quicker than any Viper. And quicker than the Porsche 911 Turbo that was the yardstick against which Nissan measured all aspects of the GT-R's performance during its development.
If you look at the official Nissan power figures for the GT-R's twin-turbo 24-valve DOHC V6, such performance shouldn't be possible. Nissan rates this engine at 480 horsepower and 434 pound-feet of torque. (These are the figures announced for the GT-R in the Japanese domestic market as tested here, though Nissan promises that all GT-Rs planetwide will produce essentially identical power.) This all-aluminum beast is the most powerful engine ever installed in a production car from Japan, but the GT-R weighs more than 3,800 pounds, and such performance just doesn't add up with these numbers, whether you're using a supercomputer or an abacus.
In contrast, the Porsche 911 Turbo's turbocharged 3.6-liter horizontally opposed six is rated at 480 hp, while the car itself weighs less than 3,600 pounds. And yet the all-wheel-drive Porsche's gasp-inducing 3.4-second wallop to 60 mph is only a tenth-of-a-tick behind the all-wheel-drive Nissan's effort.
The dyno answers our questions. (All the data that follows is uncorrected for weather or altitude.)
Mustang Corral
Harman Motive is one of Southern California's top tuning houses, with a focus on BMW, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Subaru. And the tool that gives Harman its edge in the high-performance market is its Mustang MD-AWD-500-SE chassis dynamometer. Harman's dyno cell is a cost-no-object showpiece, complete with an oversize, soundproof enclosure, twin ceiling-mounted air-extraction fans, and even windows for spectators.
Essentially, the Mustang dyno is a set of front rollers and a set of rear rollers that are mechanically linked to one another. The rollers are hooked up in turn to a single eddy-current absorber for the electricity that's produced. By measuring the amount of DC power applied to the coils and measuring the rpm of the spinning rotors, engine power is easily computed.
Even at a shop as hard-core as Harman, the GT-R attracted a crowd as it was strapped down onto the dyno. "God," said one, "that's one big, mean-looking car."
We topped off the GT-R's tank with a blend of 91 octane pump gasoline and enough 100 octane unleaded racing fuel to wind up at around 94 octane, close to what's commonly available in Japan.
The Rollers Tell the Truth
Though the GT-R has sizable exhaust tips, the four exhaust outlets themselves are surprisingly small in diameter, so the car isn't very loud. Nonetheless, the sound of the big tires against the rollers sets up a terrific banshee wail that seems to turn the air into jelly.
It's not an easy deal. All Japan-spec cars are equipped with a top-speed limiter at 180 km/h (112 mph) and we keep banging into it when we use 4th gear in the GT-R. Finally we select 3rd gear and get some clean pulls.
When the computer finishes crunching the numbers, the data tells us that the 2009 Nissan GT-R is putting out 406 hp at 6,400 rpm and 414 lb-ft of torque at 3,800 rpm. Once you factor in the parasitic losses of the all-wheel-drive system, these numbers are wholly in line with Nissan's claim for the engine's power at the crankshaft. During one pull, the horsepower perked up to 414 hp, but it wasn't repeatable and torque production through the midrange suffered.
Earlier, Harman tested a 997-generation Porsche 911 Turbo on the same dyno, and we discovered some interesting things when we overlaid its power curve with that of the GT-R. The Porsche's variable-geometry turbos give its six-cylinder engine a significant advantage in torque output over the GT-R below 3,600 rpm. But once these engines reach the range between 3,600 and 5,700 rpm (where the real work of acceleration must be done), the GT-R's V6 has the 911's flat-6 covered.
At the Hubs
There's more than one way to arrive at a reliable measurement of horsepower, though, which brings us to the Dynapack dynamometer.
A Dynapack dyno consists of four separate units that bolt directly to a vehicle's wheel hubs, replacing the wheels and tires. Each unit contains a hydraulic-load brake and electronics that report back to a central computer. As a result, the Dynapack effectively eliminates any possibility of slippage between the vehicle's tires and the rollers. It's all about minimizing variables, so the result is power at the hubs, not power at the tires.
Road Race Engineering (RRE) in Santa Fe Springs, California, has recently purchased a Dynapack dyno to help develop its range of Mitsubishi performance parts. With RRE's long history of motorsports development for such cars as the all-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Evo, the all-wheel-drive Nissan GT-R seemed like a natural fit.
The GT-R Throws a Fit
Unfortunately, a technologically advanced machine like the GT-R knows when its tires have been removed. So we are able to only make two clean pulls with the Dynapack system before the GT-R refuses to perform. We put the wheels and tires right next to the dyno units so the tire pressure sensors can transmit to the car, but that doesn't seem to help. Even worse, the whole car shimmies dangerously on the rig, like Godzilla trying to escape its bonds. Angry, red Japanese script flashes on the GT-R's instrument cluster.
We quickly remember that Daryl Alison and JSpecConnect.com have a fair amount of commerce wrapped up in this enterprise, and some catastrophic realignment might be an issue in a car that doesn't go on sale in the U.S. for another six months. So that's it; we unplug the run and put the wheels back on the car.
Despite our problems, the two good runs on the Dynapack verify our testing with the Mustang dyno. According to the Dynapack, the output of the Nissan GT-R's V6 peaks at 452 hp at 6,350 rpm and 448 lb-ft of torque at 3,865 rpm. These higher numbers are due partially to the elimination of the tires, and the rest comes from internal variations in the way power is calculated by the Dynapack. The result vividly demonstrates why comparing results from different cars on different dynos leads to diabolical confusion.
One World, One Godzilla
Nissan has long insisted that the 2009 Nissan GT-R will be available only in a single specification across the entire planet. There might be a few software tweaks to adjust for fuel quality in various markets, but for the most part the American-market GT-R that's coming here soon will differ from JSpecConnect.com's GT-R only slightly.
What the dyno charts suggest is that the GT-R's performance advantage isn't solely in the power generated by its twin-turbo V6. Much of the GT-R's edge lies in technology like its launch control system, its dual-clutch automated manual transmission and the awe-inspiring way the all-wheel-drive system ensures that so much of the power makes its way to the road.
The 2009 Nissan GT-R isn't simply a car with a lot of power; it's a car that makes the most out of the power that it has.
At any one time, there can only be one king at the top of the hill. And right now, the Nissan GT-R is enjoying that panoramic view.
2009 Nissan Skyline GT-R: The most eagerly anticipated new performance car of the century
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