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Motorsport

The 2017 Nissan GT-R GT500 has a lot of wing

Nismo tweaks its Japanese Super GT racer for new regulations. It looks evil

  • This is the new Nissan GT-R GT500. It’s Nismo’s race car for the GT500 class of Japan’s Super GT series, which as you can see, runs slightly different regulations to the sports car championships of Europe.
     
    Feast your eyes on the rear wing. The elongated tail. Wheel arches a medium-sized dog could slide down. And some of the geekiest aero additions in motorsport.
     
    Just look at the dive planes on the outer edges of the front bumper. The shelf-like slats in the splitter. The array of winglets running along the side skirts. Our brains would implode trying to compute the science at work here.
     
    The car complies with 2017 GT500 regulations, which actually means a 25 per cent reduction in downforce, though Nissan says “further advances were achieved in power output” of the GT-R racer. Words which we thoroughly hope translate into ‘more power’.
     
    While GT500 cars used to use monstrous V8s (here's the time we had a go), they now use 2.0-litre four-cylinder engines. Worry not, though, for much turbocharging sees them punch out more than 600bhp, which places this GT-R above the road-going Nismo. At a smidge over 1,000kg, it’s also more than half a tonne lighter than the relatively portly GT-R us mere mortals can buy.
     
    Other tweaks for 2017 include “an optimisation of weight distribution”, which has brought about a lower centre of gravity. This, you might be aware, is good for handling.
     
    The GT-R has been fairly successful in recent GT500 history, picking up both driver’s and manufacturer’s titles in 2014 and 2015. But with Lexus picking up honours in 2016, the GT-R has something to prove again.
     
    Over to Nismo boss Takao Katagiri: "We will make further development improvements during off-season tests and aim to create a race car that will shine brilliantly within the history of motorsports."
     
    Click through for a peek at all its details, and tell us how much you want to see that wing in production below..

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  • This is the new Nissan GT-R GT500. It’s Nismo’s race car for the GT500 class of Japan’s Super GT series, which as you can see, runs slightly different regulations to the sports car championships of Europe.
     
    Feast your eyes on the rear wing. The elongated tail. Wheel arches a medium-sized dog could slide down. And some of the geekiest aero additions in motorsport.
     
    Just look at the dive planes on the outer edges of the front bumper. The shelf-like slats in the splitter. The array of winglets running along the side skirts. Our brains would implode trying to compute the science at work here.
     
    The car complies with 2017 GT500 regulations, which actually means a 25 per cent reduction in downforce, though Nissan says “further advances were achieved in power output” of the GT-R racer. Words which we thoroughly hope translate into ‘more power’.
     
    While GT500 cars used to use monstrous V8s (here's the time we had a go), they now use 2.0-litre four-cylinder engines. Worry not, though, for much turbocharging sees them punch out more than 600bhp, which places this GT-R above the road-going Nismo. At a smidge over 1,000kg, it’s also more than half a tonne lighter than the relatively portly GT-R us mere mortals can buy.
     
    Other tweaks for 2017 include “an optimisation of weight distribution”, which has brought about a lower centre of gravity. This, you might be aware, is good for handling.
     
    The GT-R has been fairly successful in recent GT500 history, picking up both driver’s and manufacturer’s titles in 2014 and 2015. But with Lexus picking up honours in 2016, the GT-R has something to prove again.
     
    Over to Nismo boss Takao Katagiri: "We will make further development improvements during off-season tests and aim to create a race car that will shine brilliantly within the history of motorsports."
     
    Click through for a peek at all its details, and tell us how much you want to see that wing in production below..

  • This is the new Nissan GT-R GT500. It’s Nismo’s race car for the GT500 class of Japan’s Super GT series, which as you can see, runs slightly different regulations to the sports car championships of Europe.
     
    Feast your eyes on the rear wing. The elongated tail. Wheel arches a medium-sized dog could slide down. And some of the geekiest aero additions in motorsport.
     
    Just look at the dive planes on the outer edges of the front bumper. The shelf-like slats in the splitter. The array of winglets running along the side skirts. Our brains would implode trying to compute the science at work here.
     
    The car complies with 2017 GT500 regulations, which actually means a 25 per cent reduction in downforce, though Nissan says “further advances were achieved in power output” of the GT-R racer. Words which we thoroughly hope translate into ‘more power’.
     
    While GT500 cars used to use monstrous V8s (here's the time we had a go), they now use 2.0-litre four-cylinder engines. Worry not, though, for much turbocharging sees them punch out more than 600bhp, which places this GT-R above the road-going Nismo. At a smidge over 1,000kg, it’s also more than half a tonne lighter than the relatively portly GT-R us mere mortals can buy.
     
    Other tweaks for 2017 include “an optimisation of weight distribution”, which has brought about a lower centre of gravity. This, you might be aware, is good for handling.
     
    The GT-R has been fairly successful in recent GT500 history, picking up both driver’s and manufacturer’s titles in 2014 and 2015. But with Lexus picking up honours in 2016, the GT-R has something to prove again.
     
    Over to Nismo boss Takao Katagiri: "We will make further development improvements during off-season tests and aim to create a race car that will shine brilliantly within the history of motorsports."
     
    Click through for a peek at all its details, and tell us how much you want to see that wing in production below..

    Advertisement - Page continues below
  • This is the new Nissan GT-R GT500. It’s Nismo’s race car for the GT500 class of Japan’s Super GT series, which as you can see, runs slightly different regulations to the sports car championships of Europe.
     
    Feast your eyes on the rear wing. The elongated tail. Wheel arches a medium-sized dog could slide down. And some of the geekiest aero additions in motorsport.
     
    Just look at the dive planes on the outer edges of the front bumper. The shelf-like slats in the splitter. The array of winglets running along the side skirts. Our brains would implode trying to compute the science at work here.
     
    The car complies with 2017 GT500 regulations, which actually means a 25 per cent reduction in downforce, though Nissan says “further advances were achieved in power output” of the GT-R racer. Words which we thoroughly hope translate into ‘more power’.
     
    While GT500 cars used to use monstrous V8s (here's the time we had a go), they now use 2.0-litre four-cylinder engines. Worry not, though, for much turbocharging sees them punch out more than 600bhp, which places this GT-R above the road-going Nismo. At a smidge over 1,000kg, it’s also more than half a tonne lighter than the relatively portly GT-R us mere mortals can buy.
     
    Other tweaks for 2017 include “an optimisation of weight distribution”, which has brought about a lower centre of gravity. This, you might be aware, is good for handling.
     
    The GT-R has been fairly successful in recent GT500 history, picking up both driver’s and manufacturer’s titles in 2014 and 2015. But with Lexus picking up honours in 2016, the GT-R has something to prove again.
     
    Over to Nismo boss Takao Katagiri: "We will make further development improvements during off-season tests and aim to create a race car that will shine brilliantly within the history of motorsports."
     
    Click through for a peek at all its details, and tell us how much you want to see that wing in production below..

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