The headlines for the 2011 Nissan GT-R run thusly: Its power has been upped from 478bhp to 523bhp and its torque is up 18lb ft to 451lb ft. Godzilla is now even more fleet of foot, therefore, with that extra power combining with a new launch control system to catapult the GT-R from 0-62mph in 3.0secs flat, and on to 196mph.
The thing, as anybody who has read a tabloid newspaper will tell you, is that headlines rarely tell the whole story. And so it is with the revised Nissan GT-R, because you really need to delve deep into the minutiae of the changes from 2010 to 2011 to understand why the GT-R feels so different. In short, the revisions to the GT-R are much more expansive than a few more horses for the VR38DETT and a nice new red engine cover.
For starters, that top speed is helped by a drag coefficient that drops from 0.27 to 0.26. Which doesn't sound like that much until you take into account the fact that downforce has actually
This is achieved by a gently redesigned front bumper now has twin 'rectifier fins' that help increase front downforce by around 10 per cent as well as improving airflow to the radiator and reducing air resistance. At the back, meanwhile, there's a new rear bumper with a lower centre of gravity and an LED fog lamp integrated into an extended rear diffuser (the fog lamp doesn't do anything for the aero, by the way, but the diffuser does help both with downforce and with cooling.
As for the actual chassis, the springs, dampers and anti-roll bars have been tweaked, while the front caster angle has been increased. At the rear, a free-piston shock absorber has been developed to help provide more responsive damping and a smoother ride. Larger brakes, a new compound for the Dunlops and lighter, more rigid Rays wheels complete the dynamic tweaks.
After the first few miles, and in isolation (ie without an older model for direct comparison), the difference between old and new is hard to discern. But, much as with the tweaks to the overall looks of the car, the changes gradually mount up to make a noticeable difference.
Basically, the raft of minor-ish adjustments boils down to two main changes; more pace and a new-found measure of refinement. As well as being faster, the engine is now smoother and more linear in its power delivery. It's no naturally aspirated M car or Ferrari, and there's still that rushing burst of forward motion when the turbos spool up to full operating speed (it wouldn't be a GT-R without that), but it's more controlled, more manageable - and easier to drive faster as a result.
Likewise the suspension, which used to bludgeon the road into submission the faster you went, now seems to actually work with the road. You're not going to confuse its ride quality with that of a hydropneumatic Citroen, but there's a certain amount of fluidity to the way the GT-R controls its body and suppresses lumps and bumps that definitely wasn't there before.
It's all a bit hard to define really; it's almost as if the 'maturity' and 'refinement' dials have been turned up by 5 per cent, overlaying the raw, technological turbo nutter character of the GT-R but without diluting it.
I suppose the best example of this is the drivetrain. Below 6mph, the car is now two-wheel drive, so turning out of junctions, or executing a quick three-point turn, no longer elicits a series of graunches and squawks from the differential, but the driveline still grumbles and shunts, especially if you're bumbling along at suburban speeds but have the car in full manual mode.
The 2011 GT-R is very much version 1.1 of the R35 GT-R concept, an evolutionary refinement that smoothes off the edges rather than marking any significant change in the car's ethos. It might be more presentable, more manageable (and a little more capable) but it's still the implacably rapid, hi-tech monster that it always has been. And thank goodness for that.
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