Nissan GT-R review, price and specs

What is it?

The new 2014 Nissan GT-R, the supercar slayer enjoying its latest model-year update. Prices are yet to be confirmed, but aren’t likely to significantly rise above the current car’s £76,610 entry point.

With the hardcore and around £40,000 more expensive Nismo GT-R taking the fight to the Porsche 911 GT3 and Aston Martin V12 Vantage S, the 2014 GT-R has a new prime directive: to become a more refined and useable machine.

Technical highlights?

To achieve this, Nissan has focused on ride comfort, refinement and overall quality. Chief product specialist Hiroshi Tamura explains that the revised car is more ‘multi-dimensional’, allowing the driver to enjoy cruising and commuting as much as B-road blasting. Tamura’s team have recalibrated the electronic control of the damper valves, modified the front anti-roll bar and bushes, and revised the spring-rates to ‘reduce load fluctuations between the four wheels’ – in other words to ensure that the tyres remain in contact with the road more of the time. The steering has also been recalibrated for a more relaxed helm, particularly at low speeds, so fewer corrections are now needed to keep the 2014 Nissan GT-R keyed into the road.  

The revised GT-R is fitted with tyres with an exceedingly long name: Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT 600 DSST CTTs. This run-flat rubber (255/40 ZRF20 front, 285/35 ZRF20 rear) has stiffer sidewalls and an inner ridge within two of the central grooves to stop the tread blocks from ‘falling over’ during hard cornering.

Other 2014 model year changes include multi-LED headlights with a thunderbolt motif – a nod perhaps to Nissan’s new ‘director of excitement’, Usain Bolt – plus a new Vermillion Red paint featuring a subtle gold flake.

What’s it like to drive?

With the suspension in its default Sport mode, there is indeed a touch more pliancy to the ride. The harder edges have been softened and you no longer make a lunge for the ‘Comfort’ setting after driving over a catseye for the first time. There’s no noticeable effect, negative or positive, on roll control during our drive, and the car contains pitch and yaw just as well as it ever has. We’ll make a final judgment on this when we drive the car in the UK (this first drive is from Sodegaura-shi in Japan), but first impressions relating to the revised suspension settings are good. Very good.

The speed-sensitive steering feels a touch more fluid, though there’s a suspicion that some of the underlying feel has been eroded –a back-to-back drive in the UK with a MY13 Nissan GT-R car will reveal all. The GT-R’s rack always found a way of telegraphing a decent amount of feel through to the driver, so let’s hope it has gained rather than lost in this round of updates.

So there’s a degree of compliance engineered into the 2014 car, but the manner in which it makes progress and the general level of feedback are still vivid. All-wheel drive gives you the confidence to exploit the power of the engine, while the dual-clutch six-speed transmission is viceless. The absolute performance of the engine, and the striking acceleration, remain. The twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V6 engine is unchanged – power (542bhp), torque (466lb ft) and CO2 are the same. This is a fierce, angry and blunt motor; always has been. Nissan benchmarked the Porsche 911 Carrera and the Mercedes C63 AMG in relation to the 2014 GT-R and, while neither rival can muster the same power, both the German powerplants are in another galaxy in terms of sonic range and the manner in which they engage the driver on an emotional level.

The danger inherent in this update was that Nissan could have – by accident or design – tuned out or disguised a lot of the activity down at the road surface and left the driver with a numb, sterile driving experience. However, the key details (grip levels, steering feel, braking force) continue to find their way to the driver’s palms and seat of pants with clarity and information intact.

How does it compare?

The key question, and one we’ll be able to answer soon, is whether this more compliant GT-R is just as tactile and engaging as the old model. Based on this first drive, we’d bet it is. While the Nismo GT-R steals the headlines, the regular GT-R provides most of its fun for two-thirds of the cost, and its sub-£80,000 price tag continues to ruffle feathers. A Porsche 911 Carrera S costs more but is nowhere near as bombastic, an Audi R8 is dripping with desirability but starts at £92,710 in 424bhp V8 form.

For performance to match the GT-R’s quoted 2.8sec 0-60 time and 196mph top speed, and the relentless lunge towards the horizon you feel as you attempt to replicate those figures, you still need to head past £170,000 into the land of theFerrari 458 Italia and McLaren 12C…

Anything else I need to know?

We’ve reviewed the Nissan GT-R Nismo here. And if you crave a Nissan sports car but can’t stretch to the GT-R’s price tag, then fear not – the funky little Nissan IDx concept previews a small turbocharged rival to the Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ.

Specifications

Engine	V6, 3799cc, twin-turbo
Max power	542bhp @ 6400rpm
Max torque	465lb ft @ 3200-5800rpm
0-60	2.8sec (claimed 0-62)
Top speed	196mph (claimed)