Porsche and Nissan have been locked in a pitched battle of words and lap times over who has the most super of super cars, the 911 Turbo in the case of the former or the GT-R for the latter.
Rubber has been burnt, the famed Nürburgring has been lapped more time than anyone cares to count and accusations of ringers have been tossed about as vehemently as Tea Partiers railing against the U.S. deficit.
Depending on what you consider a stock production automobile, both companies have been able to lay claim to the fastest lap time round the tortuous 'ring (right now, Porsche is the quicker of the two but to give them credit for the accomplishment, you must consider the GT2 RS a production car; ditto for Dodge's ACR version of the Viper), each seemingly treating the competition as if their very corporate fortunes depended on the outcome.
Call and raise
So desperate is the battle for performance supremacy that one can make the argument that the only reason Nissan boosted the performance of the 2012 GT-R was to outperform the recently-introduced S version of the 911 Turbo.
Certainly, the boost from the previous model's 485 horsepower to 530 is a true case of gilding a lily, the 45 hp hardly noticeable mainly because the original version boasted a surfeit that alternated between sublime and ridiculous depending on how much insanity ran in your family and whether the local chief of police would admit that you're actually a relative.
Trying to tell the difference between the old and the new is a bit like trying to personally judge the different in impact between a plain old 45 caliber bullet and a .44 magnum round from the receiving end; the size of the hole may be different, but you've being outfitted for a cask either case.
Put it this way, if you really needed more of an adrenaline rush than the original's scintillating acceleration provided, perhaps you should be taking up amateur racketeering rather than fooling around with mere automobiles.
Zero to 100 in three seconds
Nevertheless, the 2012 GT-R's acceleration is nothing short of astounding. Thanks to that 45-hp gain and the R mode launch control system, the all-wheel-drive Nissan now scrambles to 96 km/h (60 mph) in exactly 2.86 seconds and to 100 km/h in 3.045 (the Porsche takes 3.3 seconds for the latter).
We know this because chief engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno showed us a data acquisition readout from the GT-R's optional gauge package and insisted on replicating the performance at the Buttonwillow racetrack (time after time; yes, it's seemingly that important).
The best he could achieve was an almost-as-scintillating 2.91 seconds. Even the monster-motored GT2 RS version of the 911 doesn't compare.
Likewise, I can't remember anyone complaining about the previous generation's handling. Yet, 2012 finds some subtle chassis changes - lower-friction shocks, better suspension tower bracing and minor alignment alterations.
Having driven both the old and new back-to-back, however, I can attest that even the supposedly inferior, aged version adheres to tarmac more assiduously than Tea Partiers to extremist ideals.
Think of the desperation with which Paris Hilton clings onto fleeting fame and you have some idea of how assiduously a GT-R - new or old - grips common, everyday tarmac. There's really no such thing as body roll and the brakes feel like they could stop an Airbus.
Civility: The final frontier?
So, if the performance gains are subtle and the handling barely more limpet-like, what is so improved with the 2012 version of the GT-R then?
Well, believe it or not, the really big news about the new GT-R is how civil the new one is. Yes, how civil.
I know that worrying about civility when you're driving 300 km/h is a bit like fretting about halitosis in a Tijuana bordello, but the previous version really did exact quite a penalty for its outlandish performance.
The ride was tooth-jarring, sound insulation non-existent and saying that the dual-clutch transmission was balky was being very sensitive indeed to the engineer's feelings.
Hell bent to break Nürburgring lap records the last GT-R may have been, but it exacted a very stiff penalty in everyday comportment for its amazing turn of speed.
It's still no Lexus, but the new GT-R may finally be the sophisticated supercar Nissan always promised. The ride is now merely firm.
The cacophony - everything from road noise to gears crunching - that was the concert inside the previous GT-R is now much more subdued.
No, the new GT-R is not quite as civil as a Porsche 911. But, its poor manners are no longer so gauche that you can't take it out in polite company. Or take polite company out in it.
Any GT-R you like, so long as it's Black
Canadians will only get one model choice when the GT-R reaches our shores. It's called the Black Edition and differs from the base version sold in Japan by the addition of some Fancy Dan leather Recaro seats and Spec V wheels that Nissan claims are about one kilogram lighter than the standard items.
There are no official Nissan options available and we will not be seeing the Club Track and Egoist editions. One addition that might come handy, however, is a data-recording package available from Nissan's Nismo performance group.
The GT-R's digital dashboard offers display options that includes everything from a basic oil pressure gauge to readouts for turbo boost, lateral acceleration, throttle position and lap times.
The problem is that the car's performance is so violent that, unless you're Fernando Alonso, your attention is being diverted elsewhere.
Being able to call up the statistical evidence of your depravity after the adrenaline has settled would be a boon.
But is it faster than the 911 Turbo?
Of course, the question on every enthusiast's lips is whether the GT-R is faster than a 911 Turbo.
Nissan makes no secret of its desire to usurp Porsche as the thinking man's supercar. I can't remember any car designed so specifically to compete with another as Nissan has targeted the 911 Turbo.
Indeed, the only questions Nissan's public relations folks asked was whether it was as fast as the Whaletail.
With the usual caveats - to be perfectly empirical, one would have to test the cars on the same day on the same track under the same conditions - I'm going to put my money on the Nissan.
Even compared to the slightly invigorated Turbo S version of the 911 (and let's not even pretend that the GT2 RS is a production car), the GT-R feels just a little more muscular, especially in the mid-range where the 3.8-litre V6's twin turbochargers kick in with a fury that seems otherwordly no matter how many times you experience it.
Like the blown 911, the GT-R drives all four wheels and I hesitate to think how manageable either car would be without four-wheel-drivel (actually, I do know how unmanageable, I have driven the aforementioned rear-wheel-drive, 620-hp 911 GT2 RS and never have I felt so mortal).
Like the 911, directing some power to the front axle makes it feel like the front tires are literally trying to pull you out of a turn.
Indeed, the new GT-R may be the ultimate point-and-squirt track weapon as you are able to rush up to corners with almost complete faith in the huge Brembo brakes, fling it into a corner and then hammer on the throttle comfortable in the knowledge that the computerized all-wheel-drive and its traction control system will harness the Nissan's 448 lb.-ft. of torque on the exit. Again, very similar to a 911 Turbo.
For those looking for most dramatic difference between the Porsche and the Nissan, look no further than the engine.
No, not that one is a classic V6 (3.8 litres) with twin turbos and the other an oddball flat six (also displacing 3.8L) also with two turbochargers, but that the former is in the front of the Nissan and the latter in the 'trunk' of the Porsche. The result is that, when pushed, the GT-R will understeer and the 911 oversteer.
Indeed, the tendency to 'push' the front tires is one of the areas chief engineer Mizuno worked hardest to correct, minutely changing suspension angles and damping as well as contracting Dunlop to design a tire specific to minimize the lack of front-end grip that was supposedly a problem in the previous model.
In the end, it matters not. Yes, the new 2012 GT-R is faster than the 2011. Yes, it understeers less when hooning around a racetrack.
But my God, the speeds at which you must drive to notice the difference are almost unconscionable, even on a racetrack. The Nissan GT-R is simply one of the super-est of super cars. It is scary fast in a way only a very few cars are scary fast.
That it costs in the neighbourhood of $100,000 (when its direct competition costs twice and even three times as much) and is now relatively civilized makes one wonder why the über-rich bother with the Ferraris and the like.
2012 Nissan GT-R
Base price: $TBA
Type of vehicle: AWD sports car
Engine: 3.8L, 24-valve DOHC V6 twin-turbocharged
Power/Torque: 530 hp / 448 lb.-ft.
Transmission: Six-speed double-clutch manual
Fuel consumption (city/hwy, est.): TBA L/100 km
Competition: Audi R8 5.2 FSI, Aston Martin V12 Vantage, Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, Ferrari 458 Italia, Ford Shelby GT500, Jaguar XKR-S, Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, Lexus LFA, Maserati MC Stradale, McLaren MP4-12C, Porsche 911 Turbo S / 911 GT2 RS
PREVIEW SUMMARY
PROS
Fast
Really fast
Did I mention fast?
CONS
Still a rough ride
Sometimes abrupt clutch actuation
Did I mention that it's so fast that you're going to need full-time legal representation?
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