All of the lucky customers who have secured themselves a new Nissan GT-R will be professionally tutored by qualified racing instructors at some of the world‘s most famous tracks.
Instructors from Silverstone International have entered the final stages of a Pan-European driving programme to introduce the Nissan GT-R to 1,300 customers.
The 19-date run at Germany‘s Nurburgring follows the successful debut of the experience at the home of the British Grand Prix in August, where more than 500 owners got to grips with the supercar saloon for the first time.
Under the logistical arm of Silverstone International, the initial two stages of the ground-breaking ‘Best in Class’ Nissan Academy allowed customers to experience the phenomenal performance of the GT-R as well as learn important advanced driving techniques.
“Half of those who attended had been on other drive experiences, but 98 per cent of them were unanimous that the Academy was their best one yet,” explained Jonathan Tait from Silverstone International.
Darren Cox from Nissan added: “This is not your average car and this is not your average driving experience. Nissan has set its sights high with this breakthrough customer focused launch; in partnership with Silverstone those ambitions are being delivered in spades.”
Further sessions, including the opportunity to take a full race licence test, will be held during 2009. Nissan and Silverstone are working on an even bigger offering of driving experiences for Passionate Sports car driver’s that will be rolled out in 2009.
European deliveries of the GT-R supercar will start in April 2009 and the waiting list is 18 months in the UK.
There’s no doubt that Nissan is serious about the GT-R – mainly because, unlike its predecessors, the Skyline GT-R, this is not just a modified road car. Steve Deeks, a racing instructor from Silverstone was a host at one of the launches that DriveWire attended - he told us that this “affordable” supercar was regularly beating Silverstone Racing Academy’s Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Astons in virtually every section of the track.
He went on to say that the GT-R’s levels of grip, straight-line performance and handling are absurdly good, considering this is a car capable of carrying 4 people and their luggage. Steve also told DriveWire that he’d instructed and awarded a racing license to none other than Jeremy Clarkson.
Ironically, the cornering G-Force produced by the GT-R apparently nearly led to the dislocation of the TopGear presenter's head (or something like that) at the Fuji Raceway in Japan.
Better luck next time Nissan.
Photographs 2 & 3 - DriveWire Editor's Bob Hume at the wheel of the GT-R and Bob with Steve Deeks.
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