great captures Rod, and the editing looks awesome! and big ups to our boy Ryo!

amazing footage and amazing car for sure! although i would hesitate to call it a Nissan Skyline GTR...the only thing thats original is the A and B pillar that have been extensively modified and the roof. I loved it more when the JGTC series was running factory motors on their cars [at least on the supra and skyline]

This is the best Speed Tuners video you guys have brought us yet.  Incredible.

This GT-R video is of epic proportions. Well done.　よろしく

That's an absolutely fantastic video, guys. The best one you guys have produced to date! Keep up the amazing work :)

Nice one, i like the style.

nice video, thanks alot Rod

My God, i know what I am dreaming of tonight.

Your videos guys are awesome!!! very interresting.

This was fantastic! Thank you. I love when he was explaining the cars body, I really learned some good stuff!

Damn Rod, that video is amazing. Great work at Suzuka! Ryo, if you're reading it was great to meet you in Japan too!

This is an excellent edit.  The composition was great, the editing was superb, and the color was awesome.

GREAT job!

Great video, and especially interesting to see Maestro Divila himself present the design features of this superb piece of machinery.

V8 Hell Yeah!

sweeeeeeet.

Sweet vid!

HOLY MOLY! What a beautiful piece of engineering! Great work guys and great work Nissan!

I am so happy to finally see some footage of these beautiful Nissans, i wish i could see them race! someone take me =,( !!! lol

the diffusers on it were amazing though, great video good job guys! and thanks for the sweet photos!

:)

What an amazing vehicle. The video itself is great but that car is truly a phenominal piece

<Drools and passes out!>

Absolutely stunning.

So, 40 years ago, Datsun was tired of their SOHC six cylinder car being beaten by all the SOHC four cylinder cars, and they introduced a DOHC six cylinder car so they could win.  Now, they have introduced a super-duper six cylinder car with turbochargers and gameboy electronics so they can beat Porsche.  But the man in the video said their race car is a V8.  Gut the interior, radically modify the suspension, disable all the electronics, but as long as the engine and transmission are the same as the production car, it is still true to the name on the fender.  But these people have put together a carbon fiber skin over a tube frame body, with an engine that doesn't even have the same number of cylinders as the road going super car.  What is this, NASCAR Japan?  Where's the carburetor?  Does Lemans still use real cars?  Because I just lost all respect for Super GT.

That was just jaw dropping awesome. I really liked how he said "its just like an F1 car, except the engine is at the front" I just lol'ed at that part. But wow, 500HP with restrictors and 700-800HP unrestricted. No wonder these cars are just as fast as the LMP2 cars.....

Wonder if they ever run the car unrestricted though, would be really awesome to see the GT-R running at full power.

Fantastic ... very pleasant review is a genius of motoring in total activity. Congratulations to Ricardo Divilla.

" But these people have put together a carbon fiber skin over a tube frame body"

Car is actually a carbon monocoque with a stressed engine, which carries the front suspension.Gearbox at rear, a transaxle, also carrying the rear suspension, hence the "just like an F1 car"

The reason car is like that, is that regulations allow an engine that is from the manufacturers line-up, hence all three manufacturers run the bigger engine as allowed.Also the regulations penalize the turbos, so all also use normally aspirated.

Nascar cars are relatively crude, these are finely polished racing cars, just look at the laptimes=Suzuka F1 (2005) 1:31.540 Ferrari Kimi Raikonnen, GT-R= 1:49.22....not bad with restricted power cars weighing twice as much and with a much bigger frontal area.

Really the ultimate GT...

Such an Awesome and informative video... Superb

Ricardo said to me that it is almost as fast as an LMP1.... that is a pretty crazy thought!

He also mentioned this is the first SuperGT car that has been built like a pure prototype car... full monocoque... the 350Z was the last car that used a unibody....

Currently the car is penalized in order for the Lexus and the Honda to be able to complete.... will be interesting to see what happens when the speeds pick up.

Ricardo also mentioned that it's a LOT cheaper to build these full race cars rather than convert over an existing unibody to full Super GT spec... so in the face of the current economic climate the change to full silhouette race cars is a good one.

Bravo RDV & of course Rod Chong :)

Less expensive for a multi national automobile manufacturer who already has a carbon fiber manufacturing unit in house, or less expensive for a privateer who does not?  There are better ways to control costs than to eliminate any possibility of independent participation for the benefit of the corporate teams.  Preparing a unibody involved equal parts of expensive parts and labor hours.  Racing carbon skin cars drastically reduces the labor costs at the expense of making the parts cost unreasonable for anyone but an automobile manufacturing company.  That thins the field of competition, reduces the overall number of people employed in the field at all levels, and all but eliminates the possibility of undiscovered talent coming out of nowhere to surprise everyone.

JGTC _was_ the highest level of racing of _real_ cars.  But that GTR has all the similarities to a road going car as any of the NASCAR race cars has to the cars sitting in the show room of your local domestic car dealership.  NONE.

Racing composite moncoque cars IS expensive, but it is not completely out of range for privateer teams.  Thats how companies like Lola, Dome, Swift, and Dallara are able to stay in business.  Privateer teams along with factory backed teams purchase the majority of their cars.

I'm not sure how much it would cost to make a unibody car perform as well as a composite car, but speaking from experience, its not completely out of reach for the privateer teams.

The GTR shown isnt the only one in JGTC that is radically different in race configuration in comparison to whats sold in showrooms.  But in the racing world does that really matter?

this was awesome vid and pics! love everything about it and its great to get up close and personal especially with information that isnt available to americans and others who dont speak japanese. btw check out www.gtrcenter.net and www.gtrblog.com for more gt-r goodness. thanks Rod for this!

That thins the field of competition, reduces the overall number of people employed in the field at all levels, and all but eliminates the possibility of undiscovered talent coming out of nowhere to surprise everyone.-Komeko

Lets be quite clear about this=Motor racing as an amateur sport has its own championships and classes.The Japanese GT championship is run as a manufacturers showcase, just as F1 is, for better or for worse.The involvement of manufacturers gives the finance and the promotion that makes it exciting and produces above average cars.All GT500 are factory run or supported cars.

The downside is that as the financial crisis bites there will be less available, cutting back of budgets and a possible collapse of the series.The same goes for F1.

The professionalism and resources required to produce a competitive car tends to make it expensive, but this seems to apply to all racing forms.I can't think of a championship apart from beginners single-make ones that is a reasonable cost, can you?In the lower GT300 class there are some privateers that run bespoke cars and even there the competitive ones like the Shiden and the Garaya have a high level engineering approach.

And finally the myth of undiscovered talent surprising the establishment hasn't happened since the 50's...road racing car technology has advanced into a very complex business, which demands a lot of research and use of expensive tools, like CFD, FEA, wind-tunnels, shaker rigs, K&C rigs, extensive damper technology and engine development, apart from the running of the cars.

For the privateer the exciting area of racing in engineering is in the rallye-raids and the DARPA  Challenge where ingenuity and application can provide interesting projects.

this is a great ride.....i can only imagine how fast it is...

Awesome GTR, not a hybrid in sight, it just gets better.

hello ... is this R35?

favorite skyline kick every car