Porsche and Nissan are at it again, trading (unofficial) lap times at the 12.9-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit. Nissan claimed a time of 7:29.03 for the Nissan GT-R in April last year, which Porsche subsequently disputed when they could only achieve a lap time only 7:54 with a U.S.-spec GT-R! Porsche were testing the 911 Turbo, which achieved a lap time of 7:38, and the 911 GT2, which achieved a lap time of 7:34. Nissan of course offered Porsche some driving tips.

Fast forward to April 2009 and Porsche reiterates that they cannot get the GT-R around Nürburgring in under 7:54 when they release an unofficial Nürburgring lap time of 7:40 for the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3. Nissan, mean while, have brought an updated 2010 JDM-spec GT-R with 5 more bhp that the 2009 model, as well as a revised transmission calibration and suspension setup to the Nürburgring. Nissan has reportedly invited international press figures and officials from other car manufacturers to witness their tests and have claimed to have bettered the 7:29.03 lap time set last year by more than two seconds with a time of 7:26.7!

According to Nissan chief test driver Toshio Suzuki the track was sprinkled with dust and sand so there is room for improvement, which would put the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1’s lap time of 7:26.4, and perhaps the Dodge Viper ACR’s production car lap record of 7:22 under attack! And that’s only the base model GT-R; Nissan also has the GT-R Spec V lapping around the Nürburgring!