You gotta love the latest stats on the Nissan GT-R: it just lapped the grueling Nürburgring in 7 minutes and 29 seconds, and we have learned that 2400 Godzillas will be sold in the U.S. in the first year.
The white-hot Nissan GT-R goes on sale in North America in July, having been on sale in Japan since December. The European rollout will continue over the next year. Here in the U.S., we had previously been told only that our allotment was 1500 a year, on average, over five years.
While trackside with the GT-R on the Estoril circuit in Portugal, however, we get a firm number for the first time as Car and Driver learns that the need to skew production higher in the first year translates to 2400 coupes up for grabs. That’s the good news. The bad news is that more than 1400 orders have already been taken.
We expect 2400 could be the magic number again in the second model year, and Larry Dominique, Nissan North America vice president in charge of product planning, says he thinks the first two years of production will sell out quickly.
Dominique says the plan, quite simply, is for demand to outstrip supply—Nissan produces 1000 globally a month—for five years.
While this is the fifth-generation GT-R, it is the first to be sold in the U.S. Dominique says there has not been a backlash to the lack of a traditional manual transmission, given the lightning-quick response time of the dual-clutch automated manual channeling the 480 hp from the twin-turbo 3.8-liter V-6.
Record Ring Performance
The performance was just proven with this week’s announcement that a standard Japanese-spec GT-R on factory tires and driven by Nissan’s test driver Tochio Suzuki achieved a lap time around Germany’s Nürburgring of 7 minutes and 29 seconds. That is nine seconds faster than the previous best time turned by the supercar on the Ring a year ago, amid reports two corners were damp at the time, preventing Suzuki from going all out. And the time almost rivals that of the Porsche Carrera GT—a $440,000 car before it was discontinued in 2006.
The new GT-R time was recorded April 16 and 17, according to Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn who is in Portugal for the Nissan 360 program that showcases the automaker’s full global lineup. Fresh from his achievement on the Ring, Suzuki was at the Estoril track to take the media on a wild ride showcasing what the car can do. Despite the excellent all-wheel-drive system, the quiet Japanese driver was able to drift the car throughout the course, and showcase the car’s stellar braking capability.
All of which must have Nissan dealers seeing even more dollar signs. Dominique acknowledges price gouging will always be a problem. Dealers are being asked to resist the temptation to sell the $70,475 car to the highest bidder, but the reality is dealers are private business people and ultimately will do what they want.
The car goes on sale in July. Dominique says he expects to see a GT-R show up on eBay by August.
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