While the Fiat 500 has scooped the 2009 World Car Design of the Year award, the giant-killing Nissan GT-R – affectionately known in the past as ‘Godzilla’ – has beaten all-comers to take the crown as 2009 World Performance Car of the Year.
Making it to the top three finalists – whittled from the top ten cars picked from a total list of 23 contenders – the GT-R eventually beat out fellow finalists the Porsche 911 Carrera and Corvette ZR1.
World Performance Car of the Year forms a part of the overall World Car of the Year awards, created simply because, for some buyers, performance outweighs all else. For these people, fuel economy, design, safety and comfort need not apply.
The criteria for the WPCotY award is simple:
Candidates for the World Performance Car award must demonstrate a specific and overt Sports/Performance orientation. They must also satisfy the same availability criteria as for the overall World Car award and may be chosen from that list of eligible vehicles.
Additional entrants may include newly introduced variants that satisfy the same criteria, but are derived from existing rather than brand-new models. In all cases, they must have a minimum annual production rate of five-hundred (500) vehicles.
Little surprise then that with its combination of price and performance value, the Nissan GT-R brought home the bacon.
WCOTY’s jurors observed that the “Nissan GT-R stole the headlines in the sports car world in 2008.
This GT-R - the R35 - throws even former GT-Rs into the weeds via an all-new 3.6-liter (sic) bi-turbo V-8 (whoops, sic again) providing 480 horsepower and 430 pound-feet of torque.
The drive of the GT-R, especially on a track, reveals an incredibly flexible all-wheel-drive chassis that lays down the rubber whenever you request it.
Acceleration to 60 mph from a stop takes just 3.5 seconds, or a tick behind fellow Performance finalist the Corvette ZR1.
This is a complete effort put forth by the normally conservative Nissan and the pleasure is in doing laps of a favorite circuit and feeling the sheer capabilities of the car. For $77,000 it may be the world’s best enthusiast car.”
Brian Carolin, senior vice president sales and marketing at Nissan North America, said:
“On behalf of the global team of designers, engineers and others behind the development of the Nissan GT-R, Nissan proudly accepts the 2009 World Performance Car of the Year award.
This recognition validates their unique vision in creating a true world supercar that can be enjoyed by anyone, anytime and anywhere. Beyond power, beyond performance, GT-R goes beyond expectations.”
Previous World Performance Car winners were the Audi R8 in 2008, the Audi RS4 in 2007 and the Porsche Cayman S in 2006.
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Er… V8? I’m a bit worried this so-called panel of experts can’t even count cylinders (or check wikipedia)… not to mention it’s a twin turbo, not a bi-turbo. Did the intern write this or something?
Haha, that’s a great point Tony, what were they smoking?! I must confess I only gave the press release a cursory read - damn Saturday mornings. I’ll see if I can find an updated PR, but you’re right, crazy stuff!
To be honest the journalism from the international press was a bit of a brain static confusion, V8? Although that wouldn’t of been a bad thing that the GTR power output would than sound 2 conservative considering the extra two pistons.
But I’m glad the GTR beat the likes of Porsche and the Corvette, although it won’t ever sounds as satisfying as the V8 Beast at least the GTR won’t hear it for long during the twisty parts. Maybe that’s why Nissan – Renault kept it at that power output because it will be the perfect balance, where the GTR won’t slide it self against the spare tire under stock condition, but imagine the ability when it’s actually built a car that’s worth $400K in comparison to Porches, Porches would than have to built a car that’s worth about $700K to keep up.
“Bi-turbo” and “Twin turbo” can mean the same thing, depending on where the author came from (or who translated it into English). Gemballa uses the former term on their cars, even though the turbochargers only get exhaust flow from a single bank of cylinders.
As for the V8 snafu, it sounds like a person with the “only V8s are fast” mentality.