Bob, shake the cobwebs out of my head for a minute. Wasn't the Skyline GT-R originally based off a different car (other than the Z), or am I thinking of a different Skyline?

 

Well, it’s all conjecture right now but the word on the street is that the next Z will be in the 400HP range; perhaps with the 4.5L V8 (or some derivative of it) currently in the M45. Likewise the G35 may get the same but the G35 is not quite intended for the same audience as the Z.
The 3.5L VQ engine (versions of which are currently in the Z, G35, Maxima and Altima to name a few) has already been significantly re-worked (with about 80% new components) for the ’07 G35 and part of the reason it was so extensively reworked was, so the reasoning goes, to prepare it for the GT-R.

At any rate, to keep everything in line in terms of HP and Price the GT-R is not going to be cheep. Whether the GT-R will be worth the premium price or not everyone will have to decide for themselves but the technology and components as well as the performance should put it in the upper end of sports cars where people don’t mind spending the money (if they have it).

FWIT, I’d also say that while some will shop between the BMW M and the GT-R; the G35 is probably close to the M’s target market than the GT-R will or is intended to be.

And as a final thought, HP/Torque are often “king” on boards like this but not everybody makes their buying decisions just based on a HP/$ ratio…people who buy the GT-R will want it and buy it partially because it’s the GT-R even if you can get a Cadillac with more HP for less money and there are any number of reasons why they’ll do that.

 

The 1999 R34 was already 3700 pounds, and some specs for the 2002 R34 Nur put it at 3900. I don't know if those are 'official' weights or not, or how they were measured.

 

Until this coming version the GT-R has always been a derivative of the Skyline; a four-door sedan sold in Japan and shared much of the Skyline’s sheetmetal (just as the the BMW M3/M5 is based on the BMW 3 and 5 series).

 

You know, I probably spoke out of turn when I said the Z06 has left out a lot of the frills…I remember Scott S. saying (a few Bowling Green reunions ago) that the original concept for the Z06 was a Corvette with all the luxury stuff removed; in another words, a “no frills”, very performance oriented car; he even mentioned a white C5 that was at the museum at that time was sort of the first example of that.

I guess what I’m saying is that I haven’t kept up with all that is and isn’t on the Z06 so maybe it’s DNA has changed a bit with time!

 

The FRC was definitely along that line. As per what some forum members have stated, the Z06 was conceived as a remedy for poor sales of the FRC; although I have to say that the rumor mill did state that the FRC was supposed to get a new motor after a few model years even before the FRC hit the showrooms.

 

nah!!! no new Firebird could be found in 1992 in Australia unless you're looking for the 70's or 80's style Fbods. so what's wrong with the 105kw 2Liter Pulsar SSS??? when a Holden Commodore VL with the Nissan 3L inline6 is 114kw, and the 5L commodore V8 available is 122kw. it was a pretty fun car to drive around....still, what I would have given to have owned a skyline GTR back in those days...

 

It was suggested to me from a certain "eternal Camaro variant" that the IRS on the VT-VZ Holden may have been lighter than the Camaro live axle. That was in the context of the new IRS adding somewhere around 30kg to the new Commodore.

It's interesting to note that the AWD penalty in the latest G35 is apparently less than it was in the old, at least according to the specs on the infinitinews.com website.

Regardless, I don't see how you add AWD, turbos, and drivetrain, brakes, suspension, etc., upgraded to take another 150hp, without adding a few hundred pounds.

 

Looks like Nissan insiders are saying the price will be around $85,000

http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/12/maga...ion=2006101309

 

That's as much "data" as I've seen anywhere about the price and pretty much in the ballpark of what I've heard all along.

What it will finally cost is truly a guess at this point...pricing of a car, at least one on the upper end of the spectrum is as much a matter of marketing and voo-doo magic as it is raw numbers.

 

It that thing costs $85K, there is good reason why companies like GM exist. To look after those customers who seek value, not just 'ultimate performance'. Long live the GTO, Camaro and Corvette!!!

 

At some point, we need to start making vehicles out of something more sophisticated than sheetmetal that's been folded and then tacked together with a series of tiny spot welds. The amount of wasted material on a modern automobile is disgusting.

Add in the huge number of drivers who take a "mutually assured destruction" approach to safety - simply selecting the biggest vehicle they can in an attempt to survive an collision - and matters have simply gotten worse, as now an average-sized car needs to be able to absorb crash energy by a three-ton behemoth. Shockingly enough, vehicles really aren't getting any safer as they get bigger.

OK, rant over. I'm curious to see what happens with the next-gen Skyline. I suspect that even if does approach two tons, even if it is $85K, and even if it's not as fast as a Z51 Vette that costs tens of thousands less, it'll be a success if it carries with it a level of technological sophistication that its fans expect. The Skyline is not a direct competitor to the Vette, Viper, or any other vehicle to which we might try to compare it. The Skyline is more of a fetish object, and that defines rationalization.

 

I would say that the closest comparison to the Skyline that is out right now would be something like the BMW 6 series or a coupe version of the Audi A6.

 

"Ultimate performance" ain't on the agenda with this $85,000... ummm... Nissan.

 

Unfortunately there are a lot of people who do not understand the GT-R and never will – they will criticize and deride it even if such criticisms are based only on conjecture and will never let a fact get in the way of their opinion.

They wouldn’t care if the GT-R were to beat every other production vehicle made in every performance category by a factor of three either because of their blind hatred of anything "not GM” or a lack of intellectual capacity or a closed mind.