Rich B 5,000+ posts
CarAudio.com Veteran
TOKYO — Nissan finally quit teasing and showed the production version of its super-high-performance GT-R sports coupe, unveiling it at the big auto show near here Wednesday.
It's a car designed to give Nissan the kind of halo the Corvette gives to Chevrolet.
GT-R will go on sale here in December and in the U.S. — to the cheers of impatient auto enthusiasts — in June or July. U.S. auto buffs have been clamoring for the car more than a decade.
Nissan hasn't sold previous versions of the road rocket in the U.S., deeming it too small for American tastes and too hard to re-engineer to meet U.S. safety and anti-pollution regulations.
The new one, though, was developed with the U.S. in mind.
The car will start at 7.77 million yen here, equivalent to about $68,000//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif at recent exchange rates. Nissan hasn't announced the U.S. price, which could be higher if the U.S. model is equipped differently.
The bottom line: GT-R is supposed to be quicker than the $124,000 Porsche turbo at little more than half its price. And if the U.S. price is roughly equivalent to the Japanese price, GT-R will be several thousand dollars less than the least-expensive Porsche 911 sold in the U.S.
Still, the price is lofty by Nissan's mainstream standards, and a potential challenge, at least in the U.S., to the car company's marketing skill.
Despite the huge advance buzz surrounding the car, it is uncertain if buyers easily will part with $70,000 or $80,000 in a showroom that also sells $15,000 economy cars and $30,000 SUVs.
Corvette starts at $42,000, but the high-performance Z06 that's a closer rival to GT-R starts at $71,000.
Nissan is confident, pointing out how easily Chevy dealers sell Corvettes cheek-by-jowl with plain-Jane work trucks and Korean-built Chevy economy cars.
Nissan believes the GT-R's performance numbers — and touches such as silver paint that's hand rubbed in the factory for an extraordinary sheen — should wipe out buyer resistance.
GT-R has a twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V-6 engine rated 473 horsepower at 6,400 rpm and 434 pounds-feet of torque starting at 3,200 rpm.
All-wheel drive is standard, spreading the power among four tires instead of between just two to help keep the car stable during hard acceleration. Nissan expects it will jump from a standstill to 60 mph in well under four seconds, as quick as some motorcycles.
GT-R is a small coupe, just 183.2 inches long, 74.6 inches wide and 53.9 inches tall, riding on a 109.4-inch wheelbase.
It's designed to seat four, but rear-seat dimensions are tight and total passenger space is just 79.4 cubic feet — about the same as some subcompact sedans.
The trunk, though, is 8.8 cubic feet, relatively generous for the car's size.
Nissan will manufacture just 12,000 a year. The U.S. allotment hasn't been set yet.
The anticipation was so great that auto journalists began filling seats in Nissan's display area at 9 a.m., willing to wait nearly five hours until the unveiling. Latecomers couldn't get close, filling aisles and spilling into other automakers' display areas.
Two hours after the presentation, the area in front of the Nissan stage was still three-deep with photographers clicking away and others just trying to get close enough to see the car.
If there's a problem with such a striking car, it's that environmental activists complain vigorously that high-power cars are antithetical to good fuel economy and low pollution.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-10-24-nissan-gtr_N.htm?csp=1
