The Nissan GT-R: Design & Engineering of a Supercar

One of the most desired awards that a vehicle manufacturer can receive is the Motor Trend Car of the Year.  Generally, these cars are fresh, new, and, while not necessarily overwhelming, at least a break vis-à-vis mainstream models.  If you look at the last 10 years, you’ll find: 1999, the Chrysler 300M, a stylish, cab-forward design; 2000, the Lincoln LS, the vehicle that was the break with the Town Car approach; 2001, the Chrysler PT Cruiser, the retro segment buster; 2002, the Ford Thunderbird, Ford chief designer J Mays’ tribute to the ‘50s; 2003, the Infiniti G35, the sporty-but-affordable sedan; 2004, the Toyota Prius, the game-changer; 2005, the Chrysler 300, the serious senior sedan; 2006, the Honda Civic, the sixth generation of the compact; 2007, Toyota Camry, the perennial best seller; 2008, Cadillac CTS, the second generation of Cadillac’s rebirth model.  Respectable.  Reasonable.

But this year, it is something rather astonishing.  A car that, in Motor Trend’s testing, went from 0 to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds.  That ramped to 121 mph in 11.5 seconds.  A supercar that looks solid and substantial, not sleek and sylph-like, the Nissan GT-R.  A car with an MSRP of $76,840, so it is not completely unreachable by mere mortals.  On a personal note: I’ve had the opportunity to drive at courses including Infineon Raceway (previously Sears Point), Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca, Road America, Mid-Ohio, the Paul Ricard Circuit.  More importantly, I’ve been driven around those courses by professional drivers.  One I will never forget was being driven by Nissan factory driver Tochio Suzuki around the Estoril Circuit in Portugal in the GT-R.  Numbers are one thing.  Experience is something else, entirely.  Twenty minutes later my knees were still shaking.

So what’s behind a car that is anything that’s ordinary?

Although one might imagine that a high-performance car would have curved surfaces around which the wind would slip, that’s not the case of the GT-R.  As chief designer Hiroshi Hasegawa explains, “What makes a Nissan GT-R boils down to two ideas: ‘design backed by function to realize exceptional performance,’ and ‘continuation of the original design heritage.’  In terms of high performance and function, the Nissan GT-R body was forged by its air stream.”  They worked for two years with Group Lotus and Yoshitaka Suzuka in order to achieve a coefficient of drag of 0.27.  Hasegawa continues, “Landmark features from the Nissan GT-R design history that the new model maintains are the edgy box shape of the PGC10 GT-R of 1969”—the first in the line—“the four round taillamps of the KPGC110 GTR [1973], and the grille opening of the R34 GT-R [1999], a symbolic use of the cooling feature in the design.”  In addition to the heritage that he worked to maintain, he says, “I also designed it to express the flavor of modern Japanese culture.”

Kazutoshi Mizuno, the chief engineer for the GT-R says that he wanted to create a supercar that could be not just something that would perform at the track—and development included testing at the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit, where it turned a time of 7 minutes, 38 seconds (with the aforementioned Tochio Suzuki behind the wheel)—but one that could be driven by “anyone, anywhere, at any time.”  Yes, a daily driver--and he uses one to commute to work, although it should be noted that during the 1990s he worked for Nissan as a racing systems developer, racing team developer, and consequently has driving capabilities beyond the common commuter.  Muzuno says, “Racing cars remain stable under any condition by applying downforce and distributing the load equally to all four wheels.  They offer both comfort and a feeling of stability described by drivers as ‘the tires are sucked to the ground.’  Beyond that, they are very safe, keeping the driver from harm even in high-speed accidents.  Why aren’t these technologies applied to mass-production cars to benefit customers?”

Which he set about to answer with the GT-R.  First, worked on the development of the platform architecture, the underlying structure and layout, for vehicles including the Nissan 370-Z, known as the “FM package” within the company.  Then it was on to the Premium Midship platform for the GT-R.  “This package came about as we focused on the fundamental principle of cars, without dividing them into categories like racing cars, mass-production vehicles and the like.  It’s the ultimate development of two core ideas: First, airflow can become power.  Second, when weight is evenly distributed to the four wheels, the tires grip the road surface, so grip limits can be determined by how we distribute weight.  Based on these ideas, every component in the Nissan GT-R, the body, engine, transmission, suspension, tires, everything, was newly developed exclusively for the Nissan GT-R.  We concentrated on the creation of performance through vehicle packaging and the development and utilization of an overall vehicle measurement system for unified technology communication.  Members from planning, designing, testing, and production have come together as a dedicated team to develop this vehicle and create a whole new sales and service structure.”

While many cars in this class have engines with a minimum of eight cylinders, the GT-R has a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6.  It produces 480 hp @ 6,400 rpm and 430 lb-ft of torque at from 3,200 to 5,200 rpm.  And while some people might think there is a conflict between speed and the environment, the VR38 engine meets the ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV) standards.  Rather than having cast-iron cylinder liners in the aluminum block, there is a plasma spray used to reduce friction while reducing weight.  The engine is hand-built in a clean room in the Nissan Yokohama engine plant by a single technician.  There is an all-new paddle-shifted six-speed dual-clutch rear transaxle.  Like the engine, there is a single technician that is responsible for monitoring the transmission machining and who performs the assembly in the Yokohama plant.