Interesting article in March issue of Road & Track:
RoadandTrack.com -- Feature - Countersteer (3/2009)
Countersteer -- by Sam Mitani
GT-R Versus 370Z: Of Nissan's two high-performance children, who does Mom like best?
When it comes to sporty cars from Japan, Nissan has a monopoly on the genre these days. The GT-R has rocked the high-performance GT establishment, going head to head with the likes of Aston Martin, Maserati and Porsche, and with Honda's decision to nix development of the next-gen Acura NSX, a legitimate Japanese challenger won't be coming for a while. The company then followed this act with the introduction of the 370Z, another performance car that's equally impressive when you consider its value factor.
While covering these cars, I came across an amusing rumor — the engineering teams of the GT-R and 370Z don't like each other. There seems to be a secret rivalry between the two, and while no one at Nissan will publicly admit to this, the tension is obvious inside the R&D walls in Atsugi, Japan.
All this brings up an interesting question: Which is the more important car, the GT-R or 370Z? As far as performance and wow factors go, it's the GT-R hands down. But when you consider the Nissan 370Z's projected sales figures and history in the U.S., the scales tip the other way. The 370Z is expected to sell around 23,000 units in its first full year, about 10 times more than the GT-R, making it dramatically more profitable than the 2+2. Also, the Z brand is an icon in America, with its history dating back to 1969. Therefore, if I had to vote, my ballot would be cast for the 370Z. Some of my colleagues were not so quick to agree.
"How can you deny that the GT-R has boosted Nissan's image to new heights? Because of the GT-R, Nissan is now mentioned in the same sentence as Aston, Ferrari and Porsche. The GT-R took the company from Wal-Mart to Gucci," one editor said.
Good point. I decided to pose the question to 370Z chief Shinjiro Yukawa and GT-R creator Kazutoshi Mizuno (neither one knew I was asking the same question to the other). Yukawa went with a somewhat politically correct response:
"I believe the original 350Z was a symbol for the revival of Nissan and helped put Nissan's image back on the map. The roles are different between the GT-R and 370Z, and both are important for Nissan; we try not to think of the two cars as rivals. If I had to say which is the better car, I say let the customers judge."
Mizuno sidestepped the comparison altogether. He maintains that the GT-R is a different breed than any other Nissan product and is in a class by itself. "The GT-R is the world's first multifunction supercar. It has given Nissan a high-end fashionable brand image that no other car has done. As for the 370Z, I have no comment," he said.
The "X" factor here is motorsports. When I posed the question to Japanese enthusiasts, most of them said the GT-R was by far the more important car, citing its racing heritage as the major reason. It won nearly every domestic sports-car race in the late 1960s and is still racking up wins in Super GT, Japan's most popular racing series.
On this continent, the same holds true for the Z. Numerous racing victories that include IMSA championships and the 24 Hours of Daytona, not to mention famous drivers such as John Morton, Bob Sharp, Steve Millen and the late Paul Newman, have contributed largely to the Z's status here.
So is it the GT-R's turn to start making history on the racetrack in America? Although nothing official has been announced from the company, my suspicions were roused at last year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, when I ran into three executives from Nismo (Nissan's motorsports arm). They had the deer-in-the-headlights look when they saw me and maintained they were there to "just enjoy the race"...nice try, fellas. Now rumors are flying out of Japan that the GT-R will contest the GT1 class at this year's Le Mans endurance race, and then continue on to the American Le Mans Series. There's even talk of a commemorative-edition GT-R called the GT-R LM, of which only 30 will be made. The price for this 600-plus-bhp car is said to be north of $150,000.
In this dark economic environment where companies are pulling out of motorsports, it remains unclear whether Nissan will go through with its plans. If the GT-R has lasting power and enjoys success on the racetrack, it has the potential of becoming the company's most successful sports car ever. Then, Nissan will have two equally powerful icons in the U.S. And by then, the two engineering teams will probably be coming to blows.