EVO: Nismo GT-R Club Sports review

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12-13-2010, 01:04 PM

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EVO: Nismo GT-R Club Sports review

"For the price of a brand new Nissan GT-R and a 370Z you could have this, the Nismo Club Sport GT-R. Quite subtle, isn’t it? The changes to the driving experience are subtle, too, but while the naked maths don’t look good, the Nismo GT-R is an undeniably well-judged package of upgrades. You’d expect nothing less of Nismo (Nissan Motorsports International Co Ltd) given that it has worked side by side with Nissan’s GT-R engineers, jointly developing a number of components – wheels, exhaust, seats – for Nissan’s ultra-expensive GT-R Spec V.Elsewhere in the world the Nismo upgrades are available in three packages but here in the UK, Middlehurst Motorsport, the Nismo-trained and approved dealer, is selling only the total conversion, complete with Nismo numbered chassis plate. For your £28,500 you get those Spec V alloys finished in grey (they save 1kg a corner), bespoke road springs and three-setting Bilstein dampers, a pair of carbon-shell Recaro seats that save 12kg and a titanium exhaust worth another 5kg. The price includes fitting, setting-up and VAT.

Visually, the Nismo is distinguished mainly by its wheels, which, to my eye, are different rather than better. Love the tailpipes, though, which have a vaguely aerodynamic, aerospace look. It’s almost a disappointment that the noise that comes out of them is the stock V6 growl. As soon as you get behind the wheel you appreciate that the new, manually adjusted Recaros are perfectly sculpted, and while they come into their own in high-G cornering and make the standard items feel a bit armchair-like, they’re everyday comfortable too.

The suspension pulls a similar trick. It’s a set-up that has been configured to shine on track but, unlike the Spec V’s non-adjustable set-up, it retains three settings and copes with the mundane very effectively. Initially the Nismo feels just as stiff as the regular GT-R, moving with the bumps you find in ruckled urban roads rather than smoothing them over, but pick up the pace just a little and there’s less agitation. The springs are a bit stiffer all round but by less than 20 per cent, reckons Andy Middlehurst, accomplished racer, Skyline and GT-R expert and boss of Middlehurst Nissan. What makes the difference, he says, is that the Nismo Bilsteins have both bump and rebound control, rather than just the bump of the standard dampers, and this gives more positive wheel control. He also says the rear dampers have longer travel, helping keep the rear wheels in better contact under heavy braking."

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Nismo GT-R Club Sports review | evo