Motor Trend Magazine - 2009 Nissan GT-R Horsepower

Motor Trend Magazine recently took an R35 GT-R to a Dynomite dyno to try and find the truth about Nissan GT-R's horsepower.

When you arrive at Hyper Power International and first see this new dyno, it looks like any other inertia-type dynomometer -- four big rollers, wires, computer screens, the usual -- and like any other dyno you start the process by strapping your vehicle down.

Their findings after the jump

Averaging the runs gives us a Hyper Power rating of 485 hp @ 6050 rpm and 470 lb-ft @ 3800 rpm.

At the end of a pull, the computer instructs the operator to put the vehicle in neutral, the dyno then measures the rate at which all the rotating parts slow down, which is directly related to friction and inertia. Our instruments found the loss to be exponential -- as the speed grew so did the loss. We saw a loss of 23 hp at 50 mph and 84 hp at 100 mph. Over the three runs we saw a driveline loss range from 88 hp to 93 hp.

This is what I have been saying for years. You can not calculate driveline loss as a fixed percentage. Its a certain amount, plus perhaps a small amount for a car. Some people have tried to say heat,and load, and they may play into the overall calculation a little bit, but not much. Here in the US most people go for Dynojet numbers at the wheels. At the engine power is not really discussed anymore. What really matters is what gets to the wheels. However head on over to the UK forums, and its all at the engine numbers. Everyone there calculates power from wheels power to engine power. Different parts of the world, do things differently. Motor Trends conclusion is that Nissan is telling the truth on the horsepower, but the car makes more torque.