| North Shore based City Nissan is one of two authorised New Zealand Nissan dealers for the one of the world’s fastest super cars the Nissan GT-R. To become the North Island GT-R dealer was no easy task for City Nissan as stringent conditions were laid down by Nissan in Japan. The dealership had to invest in a high performance service bay as well as invest in specialist training for authorised GT-R sales and service personnel. Christchurch-based Cockram Nissan was appointed as the South Island GT-R specialist dealer. City Nissan assistant service manager Alister Wade was appointed GT-R service representative and mechanic Paul Teesdale was appointed the North Island GT-R technician. They were despatched to Melbourne for a weeks training, followed up by another four days induction for Paul at the Nissan head office in South Auckland. “Essentially, we were taught about the new technologies that the GT-R uses, which we haven’t seen in other new Nissan models yet,” says Paul. “It’s the only front-engine all-wheel-drive super car in the world which has its gearbox mounted over the rear axle. Another unique fact about the GT-R is that Brembo allowed Nissan to have their branding on the gold-coloured brake callipers that Brembo supplied, another world first. “The GT-R’s automated dual clutch transmission is a first for Nissan as are the plasma coated bores in the cylinders of the 3.8 litre twin turbocharged V6 engine. Because of this the GT-R uses a special lubricant that was developed by Mobil in partnership with Nissan Japan.” So far City Nissan has sold 13 GT-R super cars to North Island customers with the first vehicle being delivered to its owner last April. Only three City Nissan staff are trained and authorised to drive the GT-R demonstrator, dealer principal Mike Gilmour who is the sales specialist as well as Alister and Paul. The service bay that City Nissan was required to create for the GT-R has a two-post hoist that has special feet to sit exactly under the car’s lifting points, alternatively a scissor ramp can also be used. A nitrogen filling station was installed as the GT-R uses this for tyre inflation instead of air. To check the GT-R engine and gearbox diagnostics, Paul has access to a special GT-R card that plugs into the normal Nissan Console 3 diagnostic computer system. When not in use he says the GT-R card remains under lock and key out of harms reach. Paul says he is still waiting for the majority of vehicles to come back for their 2000km service check. “During the GT-R training session, Nissan told us that the cars need to travel at least 2000km to allow their suspensions to settle and adjust to local driving conditions. We were told absolutely not to adjust the wheel alignment before that mileage had passed. “Of the cars that have returned for their service check, most enquiries from the owners have been about how the gearbox functions but all have been very pleased with their vehicles so far.” Nissan GT-R makes it into Guinness World Records The 357kW Nissan GT-R is known for being one of the fastest cars in the world. Seven minutes, 26.7 seconds was its last record lap time on the Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany, in April 2009. Now, the GT-R has achieved another important goal. It is officially “the fastest four-seater production car in the world in terms of acceleration,” with a zero-to-100-kilometres-an-hour time of 3.5 seconds. Recorded during the lap time at the Nürburgring circuit, this result allowed Nissan to officially register the GT-R with Guinness World Records. The record-keeping company has now sanctioned the result. |
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