Hi Everyone!

This is the latest GT-R video from AutoCar. For those who haven't watched it, GT-R recorded 1.436 lateral G in a 3rd gear corner, which is absolutely astonishing to me. Personally, this is much more impressive than its 0-60mph time.

As impressive as all the electronics are on GT-R, this must be mostly due to the tires and a very low center of gravity...but these are street tires! How is this lateral G achieved? How is it even possible?

Can anyone explain?

Also, has there been any other production cars, regardless of price, recorded this high of lateral G with street tires?

Thanks.

 

The speed of that thing in 3rd gear made that lateral G possible.
The more speed you carry into a corner, the more lateral G you have. Something like this.

 

Pretty stupid comparision if you ask me. Two completely different cars

 

If I'm honest my opinion is that Autocar needs some free publicity, so they make up this, may I say stupid, comparison between a saloon and a dedicated sports car (close to supercar status).
This kind of comparisons are only made to stir things up, so people can comment about it, get intrigued and get more curious about Autocar, giving them free publicity with any post and so on.
Tomorrow: Nissan GT-R vs Panamera Turbo. Just as relevant. Or maybe: BMW 320d vs Mini Cooper S.

 

Well, I don't think that answers the question. You can have same speed but a tighter radius to generate more G's, too.

My point is the lateral G reading on any high performance cars with street tires rarely exceeds 1.2g steady state. Since the M5 in this comparison has a reading of about 0.9g, all things being equal between the 2 runs, it's safe to say that 1.4g is not a 'spike' in the recording.

How this is achieved without slicks or semi-slicks and without downforce is really mind boggling to me.

Thanks.

 

I see your point but my question is strictly about the performance of the GTR, which is mighty impressive, regardless of any comparisons.

A while back, Steve from AutoCar drove and compared a GTR with a Formual 3 car. It was fun to watch and it goes to show the gulf between a super fast car and a dedicated race car.

Thanks.

 

I don't have in-depth expertise on how the GT-R does it, otherwise I'd be working for Ferrari, Lambo, whomever pays me in gold, but what's obvious here is that the GT-R has a very high mechanical grip. Also, the power helps in achieving that lateral acceleration.
On that same curve, if the GT-R had more lateral G than the M5 I can see this:
-the GT-R has more grip, which is obvious even to a child. AWD does that.
-the GT-R has more speed, 550PS does that.

I suppose you understand how circular speed is calculated and how lateral G is obtained.
Honestly, besides grip and speed, the rest is getting into technical details which I'm quite sure can only be explained by someone working at the project. That is, on how the GT-R has that immense grip.

 

The real question is what is the MAXIMUM available grip from the tires that are used on GTR? If you were to perform a test in a lab, on a tire dyno for example. Obviously this information would not be open information. My guess is what GTR gets out of these tires is pretty darn close to what is possible in the lab and this is where GTR kicks butt.

In the real world, there are 4 tires. How do you manage all 4 tires so the maximum available grip from each tire is attained?

This is normally done by minimizing weight transfer to avoid overloading any of the tires...low center of gravity, wide tracks, etc. Obviously all this is very complicated and I was just curious if there is one single stand out item from all the GTR trickeries that makes this work.

After talking to a friend of mine, the active differential system may just be the main reason for this. Whatever the active differential system does, it obviously is able to help redistribute the grips among its four tires to help achieve (or get close to) the MAXIMUM available grip in a steady state.

AWD alone will have little to do with this because in a steady state corning, you are not putting down the power. It will help in the exit as the tractions from all FOUR tires are maximized when power is applied.

Thanks.