Gadgetory

even the most jaded car reviewers wake up and pop an extra viagra when one of these hits the garage the 2012 Nissan GTR it needs a special place instead of terrorizing folks on city streets we brought it here to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma Valley put it through its paces and check the deck last time I drove a GTR its abilities were almost unbelievable its ride almost unlivable and its price almost doable the new version has had work done on all three spotting the 2012 is best done by looking for the LED running lights in the revised front bumper purists may find these sissified and look for the extra five or six grand on the window sticker but as we'll see the GTR has actually become more of a bargain which is a pretty good trick for a supercar now the 2012 GTR hasn't changed in the cabin much at all tiny little tweaks here and there the main player here is of course this 11 screen multi-information display but Lifan e digital there in the game space and Clarion they make the actual head unit have knocked it out of the park here you have four custom views here one two three four that you can set up any way you want the lettered ones are pre-configured by the factory a is acceleration B is braking C just think cornering it's really about steering D is drivetrain gear position in this case efficiency a fuel economy and fuel usage and then F is your stopwatch G is a place where you can mark coordinates where you've been to map out a route now down here the one on the left is the attesa all-wheel drive control our mode of course is the most aggressive this new position here is called save that's a fuel saving mode or one that really D Tunes the delivery of power it can also be used if you're stuck in some mud or snow to kind of gradually rock the car out without spinning them by the way secret trick hold this down for four seconds they tell me until it blinks and now the car should drive in rear-wheel mode only interesting your middle one controls the Bilstein damped Roenick fully adjustable suspension automatically reading the road and making changes millisecond by millisecond up for our mode really stiff and aggressively holding the car in position middle is the down normal mode this is new comfort mode I think they heard my last review and they built this in they actually heard this gripe from lots of folks without a comfort mode before this 2012 this car was unused in everyday driving and the far rights your stability and traction control in the middle is normal if you hold it up you get our mode it still does stability control but it's going to wait until you're in trouble to kick it in and then if you go down and hold you can turn that off okay now if all this stuff doesn't keep you busy enough there is an entertainment system am/fm your satellite choices XM bluetooth streaming audio and Bluetooth hands-free is standard all this comes out of a Bose audio system including a nine speaker rig that has dual subs right between the rear seats ok the shifter right here for the one choice only automated manual transmission it's a 6-speed DCT you've got automatic or manual it's a toggle switch basically now most of your shifting will actually be done up here on the thank you properly placed pedals look I'm moving the wheel and I'm not moving the paddles and they're nice wide ears so no matter where you are if you know how to handle a wheel right there's some paddle to get to a downshift on the left or an upshift on the right the biggest single area of change on the 2012 gt-r is under the hood the engine is really dramatically more powerful it's still a 3.8 liter v6 with twin turbos but they've massaged and emphasized lots of things to get it up to 530 horsepower up from 485 and by the way that 530 is considered to be kind of a low whisper number for what the insurance companies I guess torque on this guy is 448 foot-pounds ample for a car of about 3,800 pounds curve weight zero to sixty under three seconds with the launch control which will sample later yet it's an ultra low emissions vehicle that gets 16 23 mpg for major changes made this engine so much better than the outgoing one first of all they've got better breathing intake apparatus bigger bores going into the cylinders secondly they've changed engine timing they've increased the boost on the turbos up to about 13 psi and finally they record the exhaust system to get it breathing better it's more free flow a GTR has an exotic layout engine in the front but the DCT gearbox transfer case to manage all wheel drive distribution and of course the rear differential all sit in the back wait balance is an unusually lopsided 5347 but it still gets around a corner okay our doesn't end on this cards unbelievable I mean no matter how hard you get into it it's never out of breath the exhaust note is one of nothing but fun all the way around I've cut this guy in the arm mode settings never hang it on the rear end really elegantly with 530 horsepower in the hands of a rank amateur but we all noticed here at seen that car tech was no matter what kind of road we hammered this thing on it felt like all four paws were out there grabbing and to be out there grabbing with the kind of power it's got to deliver it's pretty impressive rarely does it get out of shape I pretzel did a couple times but it was my own stupidity getting to know the car if you have to get to know 530 horsepower not just go on one date in the end what do you say about a car like this that makes any sense its superlative in a lot of ways but I'll tell you one of the things that impressed me the most is the fact that I can do this on the track I can hammer this car pretty hard and then I can get on that freeway right outside and fini on here and have a nice ride home in a spirited daily driver that's the real interesting thing that Nissan has pulled off with this 2012 launch mode works like this put the drivetrain and stability control into our mode stand on the brakes mash the throttle when you get to four grand let off the brakes and you get this bang engagement and then you're off for a sub three second one to sixty you can do this four times in a row before the car locks you out to cool off the gear box and save Nissan a twenty thousand dollar warranty repair on your GTR those Dunlop's Sport Max tires were turning into powder are on 20-inch wheels nine and a half wide in the front ten and a half in the rear these tires are the only approved boots for this car and they cost about five hundred and thirty bucks apiece Nissan tucks the wheel with inboard all around so unless you look under the rear end you don't realize you're basically driving a steamroller okay let's place the car of your dreams 91,000 is base for a 2012 GTR premium and that includes almost everything three options on the list caught my eye one tech - weird the tech one is 600 bucks for that backup camera I think I would do that but the weird ones include 300 bucks for a chrome jack and 46 dollars for a seatbelt extender in case you're a big fat guy no fake coming to you from Infineon Raceway in Sonoma Valley I'm Brian Cooley from scenic Kartik