Knysna, South Africa – Eleven Nissan GT-Rs competed today (7 May) in the 2016 Simola Hill Climb competition in Knysna, making it the most popular car amongst performance enthusiasts at this annual racing event.
Amongst these Nissan GT-Rs, five rank under the top 10 fastest qualifiers for the King of the Hill shootout, although more GT-Rs may join the list after the final qualifying rounds tomorrow morning. Several other GT-Rs are competing in the Supercar class, where they are taking the fight to much more expensive supercars.
Competitors started their practice rounds this morning on a wet road, with a light drizzle creating the ideal circumstances for the four-wheel drive GT-Rs. By mid-morning, the rain cleared and practice times started to drop. By late afternoon, several competitors were setting sub-45s times.
"The road dried up nicely during the afternoon," says Wilhelm Baard, driver of GT-R #29 – 'Godzilla'. "We are expecting more rain overnight, so everyone wanted to set the best possible times on the dry road before qualifying continues tomorrow."
Baard sat idle for the afternoon's qualifying runs while his technical team worked on his GT-R's gearbox. "Throughout the morning we saw the wheels spinning at the slightest touch of the throttle, making it difficult to keep the car's 1000+ kW on the road," says Baard. "We later found that a gearbox sensor was loose and are working to correct it."
"Walking through the pits and chatting to the engineers and drivers gives you a good idea why the GT-R is the most popular car at Simola. With such a rich engineering heritage and breadth of talents the Nissan GT-R allows competitors to double or even triple the engine power, while its dynamic capabilities make it one of the most sure-footed cars up the hill," says Xavier Gobille, Director Sales, Marketing and Aftersales at Nissan South Africa.
One of the best performing Nissan GT-Rs is the factory backed R35 of Jaki Scheckter. Competing in the Supercar Class, Scheckter's GT-R delivers approximately 530 kW.
"We used the launch control to great effect, getting the GT-R to leap off the line every time," says Scheckter. He recorded a 44s run up the 1.9 km road during his first qualifying run, making him the fastest competitor in the Supercar class.
Ending the day with a qualifying time of 42.937s was the 2015 King of the Hill Des Gutzeit. Gutzeit races a beastly Nissan GT-R R32 with 1 800 horsepower. "We have not been running at full boost," says Gutzeit. "I am dialling it up with every run."
Darron Gudmanz was another GT-R competitor that consistently ran top 10 times during practice and qualifying. His R35 GT-R was one of the Nissan's at the event that deliver well over 1 000 horsepower.
"I am very happy. The car is awesome and its launch control has really helped me to get off the line quickly," says Gudmanz, who earned himself the nickname of 'Gudzilla' for his quick times. "The track has a different dimension to it with the new piece of tar halfway up the hill, which is very slippery and requires a lot of concentration before the last few switchbacks."
One GT-R did not end the day on the roster. Mohamed Dangor switched to full slicks and a larger wing on his pristine GT-R R34 V-Spec for the first qualifying run. He ran wide halfway up the track, got the GT-R into a high speed sideways drift and hit the inside of the next corner, ending his day prematurely.
Racing continues tomorrow with early morning qualifying before the class shootouts, the new Supercar Shootout and finally the hotly contested King of the Hill competition, which ends the day with the 10 fastest cars competing for the ultimate crown.
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Watch the Jaki Scheckter's high speed run at www.facebook.com/nissansouthafrica or see attached video.
