One Lap of America, the successor to the Cannonball runs of years past, pits competitors against each other and themselves in eight days of challenging competitive events scattered throughout North America. In all, the event covers thousands of miles and encompasses everything from skid pad competitions to time trials with competitors being forced to use only one set of tires - regardless of conditions. Attracting some of the most capable sports car platforms made, this unique, real world test of performance is in many ways the ultimate challenge for a street car and its driver. But any test that randomizes conditions and challenges a driver's and car's abilities to the maximum brings out the best in the GT-R. This year's One Lap of America underscored that with GT-Rs giving a supreme showing, not only winning the event outright for the second year in a row, but also taking the top three podium places and five of the top eight places overall- despite over 70 teams entering the competition.
For the third consecutive year, Top Speed Motorsports won the event outright, marking the second consecutive overall GT-R victory. Within the rankings, the only GT-R to have placed outside of the top 10 was the Tangerine Associates GT-R, which did so for technical reasons and had been consistently been performing near the very top. Despite its retirement half way into the event, it still outranked more than a majority of the cars that entered. Another very commendable result this year was the AOKNetworking GT-R, "the car that NAGTROC built", which placed eigth outright but was a very impressive result considering the fact that its lead driver had no track experience prior to preparing for One Lap of America. Also notable was the Sleeper Racing Team's performance which fielded a stock 2013 GT-R to great effect - winning the stock class outright and in the process coming in 7th overall. Todd Treffert's 2009 GT-R and Chariots of Palm Beach 2012 GT-R both put in fantastic performances as well, to place second and third overall, securing the GT-R only podium against over 70 competing teams.
A very big congrats to all GT-R teams and a special congrats to Top Speed Motorsports for bringing home the trophy for the GT-R community!
The #23 Motul Autech GTR today at Fuji Speedway made its first podium appearance of the year after missing out by 1 position in round one last month. Below is a video diary released by Nissan showing a race overview as well as pit highlights of both the GT500 and GT300 GT-Rs
The Nissan PlayStation® GT Academy 2012 contest goes ‘LIVE' today. The fourth installment of the highly acclaimed virtual-to-reality racing competition is open to anyone with a PlayStation®3 console by simply downloading a free and brand-new GT Academy qualification challenge themed around the hugely popular Gran Turismo® game. With the ultimate racing prize at stake - an intensive Driver Development training program that has helped turn previous winners into professional racing drivers with Nissan - a huge entry list is expected for this year's competition.
GT Academy 2012 can be downloaded for free in the playstation store and will feature 8 weeks of qualifying rounds
NAGTROC members join in the discussion HERE
A new stock GT-R 1/4 record had been set by NAGTROC member FikseGTS(Brooks). We have previously reported on a handful of 2012 GTRs reaching the "10's" with only changes to the OEM midpipe(10.95) or tires (10.94). The average 1/4 mile time seen in private tests showed to be around 11.0. The 2013 as most know by now features just 15 more HP than the 2012 but it comes with a revised launch control system that allows for a slightly better all important initial 60ft time that has translated to this record breaking improvement. Brooks was able to acheive multiple runs in the high 10 sec range including his fastest of the night 10.87@125
here is a video of the accomplishment and a Link to his time slips and analysis
Marking the release of the latest model year GTR, Nissan has organized 3 track days in their largest GTR Markets dubbed "2013 GTR Experience." These events are to reward select GTR owners with a track day aswell as giving these owners and prospective buyers a chance to compare the 2013 GTR to their current GTR or even to give first timers a taste. The first of these events was held last month in Palm Beach FL while the 2nd was a few weeks ago at the famous Leguna Seca Raceway in California. NAGTROC members had a very strong presence at the event so much so that nissan added a second day to accommodate as many as possible... NAGTROC member FlyByNight has put together an amazing video that is a compilation of videos and photos of the event from our own member base. It is a great representation of what the attendees got to experience.
