What results when film geniuses Clash Productions are combined with a snow camo’d Nissan GT-R, a ski slope, and snowmobile chase cameras? Two and a half minutes of AWESOME that is as pure as…well the driven snow (I make no pun apologies!).
This is one of those occasions in which a “where” and especially a “why” are completely unnecessary. All that you need to know is that a crew out in Sweeden dubbed “Team Ice Ricers” decided to answer the question: “can a GT-R climb a ski slope?”
Having good credit is essential to many financial milestones of life. Good credit is needed for things like renting a nice apartment, buying a house, getting a business loan, even some employers check the credit history of potential employees. However people do not usually associate good credit with test driving a car; financing a car sure but a test drive?
It looks like a new trend is starting to develop among dealerships. If you want to test out their flagship cars then better be ready to have your credit run! User “aj996tt” of the 6SpeedOnline forum (lets call him “AJ”) from Texasfound out the hard way. See, AJ was in the market for a new car. Hes a family man so he had a few trucks and SUVs on the top of his list but he kept his options open for sports cars as well. On his list of potential sports cars was the upcoming Corvette Stingray and the current Nissan GT-R
He stopped by one local Nissan dealership to check out the GT-R for himself. The staff at the dealership seemed to be from the “pinky ring and gold chain” crowd as AJ described it but the manager was nice and gave him a quick tour around “godzilla. Unfortunately, the weather was bad that day so he never went on a test drive.
Later, he was contacted by a sales rep from the Orr Nissan dealership in Corinth, TX. The rep invited AJ to check out a 2013 GT-R they had in stock. The listed price seemed like a good deal so AJ took them up on their offer and went out to the location of the car which was actually a good 50 miles away from Corinth, in Greenville, TX.
Once he reached the location he was told only a manager could show him the car. Once he finally met said manager he immediately informed AJ he could only test drive the car after filling out a credit application and being approved for financing. AJ promptly expressed his displeasure of being subjected to a credit check for a car he wasn’t even sure he wanted and then left the dealership after some choice words were exchanged.
AJ happened to have a friend who works in the legal dept at Nissan corporate and she informed him that the “credit before drive” policy is something being adapted by many OEMs with their dealerships. AJ says he has never been asked to do such a thing when shopping at Mercedes or Porsche dealerships. Frustrated, he vented to his fellow forum members.
Many users agreed that the practice smacks of “poor business etiquette” and that they have never been subjected to such a thing in their past dealings. However a user “YellowBull” who also happens to be a GM of a dealership chimed in and made some good points.
YellowBull’s take is with a car like the GT-R which is just as popular with young broke college kids as it is with affluent older adults, dealerships need to take measures to weed out the “tire kickers” and joy ride seekers, from serious buyers.
But AJ was a serious buyer and the whole experience has turned him off to GT-R’s period. What do you think? Would you be willing to submit a credit application to test drive a GT-R? Or do you think its wrong for dealers to demand such a thing from customers, even if it is in regards to a high-dollar sports car?
Nissan just dropped a new video about the development process of the 2012 Nissan GT-Rand how Cheif Project Officer Kazutoshi Mizuno strived to “fulfill” the promise that they made to enthusiasts to make the current gen GT-R just as beastly and awesome as its predecessors. It’s actually a pretty compelling video even though its only about 5 minutes long. Scroll down and check it out for yourself.
Over the weekend I was invited out to Willow Springs Raceway by Buddy Club for a private media track day. Buddy Club brought out Yasushi Kikuchi (the driver who clicked off a 53.6 second lap at Tsukuba Circuit) to give esteemed media members ride alongs in their 50% carbon fiber bodied Nissan GT-R. They also opened up the “streets of willow” track to us so we could do our best impressions of Kikuchi-san in our own cars. Mitsubishi was nice enough to once again put me behind the wheel of an Evo X for the occasion. This time around instead of an MR I got the good ol’ five speed GSR model.
The downside is that it was raining for pretty much the entire day which made for quite the slippery track. Which made me extra glad that I was behind the wheel of an Evo X! While FWD and RWD cars were struggling to find grip, I could do no wrong in the Evo! Sure I slid around a few times but there was nothing that the Evo couldn’t save me from. The car was literally braver than I was. It welcomed the slippery surfaced off-camber turns of the infamous “omega corners” and asked for more.
This further solidifies my opinion that the Evo X in any trim, is worth the money. It really is a great all-around car. It has livability, nice features, looks, and performance that is more than enough for the street and just enough to have loads of fun on the track (wet or dry).
Unfortunately I couldn’t take a ton of pictures because of the rain (I have but a lowly rebel which isn’t weather sealed) but I did snap a few shots and some shots of my ride for the weekend. Enjoy!
According to Nissan, the 2012 model year Nissan GT-R will go from zed to 60mph in just 2.9 seconds. It’s official: The Nissan GT-R is trying to kill you…
Nissan Announces 11MY Nissan GT-R’s Acceleration Time
YOKOHAMA Japan (December 1, 2010) – Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today announced the 0-100km/h acceleration time for the 11MY Nissan GT-R.
The acceleration time was measured during the media test ride event held at the Sendai Hi-land Race Way on November 12th, Friday and 13th, Saturday. On both days, the GT-R clocked in with a time of 3.0 seconds.
Date: November 12th, Friday and 13th, Saturday, 2010
Place: Sendai Hi-land Race Way
(12 Nikkawa Hayasaka, Aoba-ku, Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture)
Vehicle used: 11MY Nissan GT-R Pure edition
Specification/accessories: Standard specification (including tires and wheels) without optional parts
Set-up switch: R mode for the suspension and VDC-R
Weather Sunny/Cloudy Sunny/Cloudy
Temperature 14.9°C 18.6°C
Check out the final product of what our boy Ernie Manansala did with a GT-R with help from MVP Motorsports and Wraptivo. This is one of the sickest GT-R’s I’ve seen in a while! I love what he did with the wheels! Click the thumbnails below.
Count down starts .. its official 17 days till dooms day .. but i have some of the best builders on the east coast on my side to build the gtr .. joe, has taken car off all my cars since i was about 21, granted for those that know him think he is just a baller “dub” builder but really what is comes down to is that he can take on any project .. so but the really magic happens with the team at 66MVP.com .. Jimmy and Chris are honestly some of the best on the east coast. With Joe spear-heading the entire build they make me feel really at ease hitting the dead line to SEMA….
In the end its all in good stress to get the car done for sema and wraptivo and our other sponsors .. building a car isn’t all its seems to be .. you have to manage allot and build relationships it really takes over you entire life .. this is my 9th sema build granted some people are a fan and some aren’t but now you can see the amount of time and work that goes into getting this done let alone document the whole experience.
RJ linked me in with George at KW suspension, witch was a blessing … allot of you mentioned that he rendering didn’t do much for you .. but like i said there is much more to the car then just wheels .. when RJ mentioned that he would be able to talk to George and see where we can fit in KW into the project i was ecstatic there really isn’t any suspension systems out there that would be able to let us have a hellaflush stance and astatine our “Grip”performance.
As soon as we got the suspension in i drove up to MVP to shoot and film the entire install .. here was my office for the day on a hand made 2 step stool. It was rather comfy!
Here is the Wraptivo / MVP GTR at stock height.
All the proper tools you need to complete this project.
Time to jump into it!
I have to admit, this is my first set of KW ever .. i have always been eibach, b&g, and tien guy .. but i have to admit, these KW coilovers are no joke the work and amount of R&D put into the product really comes out when its in your hands.
Vast in its glory .. when i deiced that we are going to slam the car hellaflush status. It wasn’t for any other reason but the followers of this site. People that own a Nissan GT-R may or may not love this car when it is done but its just because they aren’t “hellaflush” Long live our stance!
The sound of COBB Tuning’s GT-R time attack car is pure music! Check out this in car video of driver Brian Lock’s hot lap of Spring Mountain Motorsports Park at Round 8 of the Redline Time Attack series.
While we were sleeping the tuning geniuses at AMS have been hard at work creating “Alpha” packages for the Nissan GT-R. Earlier today they dropped some footage displaying the power of their “Alpha 9″ package. As you may assume the “9″ stands for 900 as in 900HP. Scroll down to the video below to see the Alpha 9 in action.
If you’re looking to tighten up your Nissan GT-R’s handling beyond factory levels then you should probably pay a visit to COBB Tuning. They just released these new adjustable end links to help sharpen steering response for various conditions and situations. The best part is they will bolt right up to the OEM sway bar with no modifications needed. The only catch is that COBB did a super limited run of the endlinks and once they’re sold out they will not re-stock. So get them while you can!
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