It's no secret weight is the enemy of performance, but the creator of the R35 GT-R says his supercar can carry the load.
In attendance at this week's launch of the MY11 GT-R, Nissan's Chief Vehicle Engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno wearily fielded the obvious question about weight with a reminder that the "GT-R is a multi-performance supercar."
That includes good performance in all conditions, for all drivers, at all times: "Anyone, anytime, anywhere" is the company's current slogan for the GT-R.
Nissan's customers for the GT-R include those living in snowy, sandy conditions.
"Tyre contact, pressures and the conditions are the most important factors for control," he said. "An F1 can't perform in the snow; it's too light.
"Other car designers develop a car as a unit. I develop the car's essentials. I decide the tyre size. The most effective contact pressure decides the amount of kilograms we should include; for the best tyre grip. From these situations I calculate and decide car weight.
"Always [motoring] journalists say: "Lighter is better, lighter is better..." I don't necessarily think so. The most effective tyre contact is essential, and it's these essentials that decide things like weight."
He argues that if the GT-R had been trimmed to match or better its apparent rival, the Porsche 911 Turbo, the car's performance "wouldn't be better, but worse."
"Maybe on a dry road or track but not on the snow, and its 0-100km/h acceleration time wouldn't be as good."
Asking Aussie journalists to reconcile with markets that are affected by snow might be a big ask, but accommodating our roads isn't the highest priority on Nissan's agenda: Rather, its wealthy, influential local buyers -- for example a revered doctor living in Hokkaido -- and expanding interests in the Middle East with its sandy roads are of more interest.
Nissan claims the GT-R's sprint time is now three seconds, and a lap of the Nurburgring can be done in 7min24sec.
Mizuno says downforce also makes a fast car, and is arguably more important than controlling weight. And downforce in part relies on tyre grip load: weight...
The Nissan engineer says the GT-R can carry more corner speed, at 10km difference to the Porsche Turbo. "It's a way to make a message."
According to Mizuno the GT-R weighs 1730kg; over the Porsche by "about 100kg".
"But actual clocked lap time is very different," he was quick to add.
Mizuno says the Porsche isn't even on the GT-R's radar in terms of development benchmarks.
"Already that [argument] is finished," he said. "All our standard models can already get 7:24 or under... There's no comparison."
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