Sushi Quattro
written by Georg Kacher
Nissan's seminal
Skyline GT-R meets Audi's new RS4 in a high-power, hi-tech,
four-on-the-floor showdown
Before their DNA was so severely mutated, these were
regular family cars. The Audi was an A4
Avant, that up-market German holdall - or at least,
overnight bag. For the Skyline, in basic four-door form,
think Omega GLS. But then the engineers got carried away,
and a bunch of out of control chromosomes were
spliced in. The resulting machines can still carry you and
your brood about, but are also slightly sinister Jekyll-and-Hyde
sports cars - equally fast, almost equally entertaining.
At a glance, Nissan and Audi share the same go-faster
formula. Take a six-cylinder engine, turbocharge it, mate
it to a four-wheel-drive system via a six-speed transmission,
add bigger brakes and tires, bolt on a few spoilers. Then
sell the high-performance special for twice the price of
the base model. But their characters differ dramatically:
they're from different cultures, they pursue different goals.
We drove them back-to-back on Audi's home turf in Germany,
where speed is still a way of life rather than a capital
crime. Even so, the road isn't the place truly to savour
these philosophical differences. On the race track they
become alive and reveal their stories, illustrated by glowing
brake discs and smoking tires. Both drives are memorable,
but not always for the same reasons. The GT-R, though its
4x4 system runs awesome computer power, eschews traction
control and ESP. Originally, Audi's engineers wanted to
go the same puristic way, but then TT
syndrome put the frighteners on them and, understandably,
they felt com-pelled to equip the RS4 with ESP as a last-minute
safety feature. It hardly ever interferes in the dry and,
even when it's off, the handling remains passive because
of the inherently even torque split.
The Skyline GT-R isn't about tactics, safety, balance.
The Nissan is all about control - your control, not the
car's. Pushing through the 180 corners of the 12-mile long
Nürburgring Nordschleife, you can hear and sense the
four-wheel-drive system as it shifts the action from axle
to axle, side to side. This constantly changing torque transfer
makes the Nissan feel a little ragged at the edge, until
you learn what it's trying to do. Although the Skyline is
inherently rear-wheel drive on the entrance to a corner
(for better turn-in and steering feel), it modifies itself
into a four-wheel-driver on the full-throttle exit. Press
on and power oversteer will return through the back door,
but it's fast and dramatic enough that you don't really
want to stage the subsequent slide on a public road.
The RS4, by comparison, feels unrushed, unruffled. It
rolls more, pitches and yaws more, but all its movements
are wrapped in cotton wool. Control is also the key
mission of the RS4, but it's remote rather than hands-on.
Push the GT-R to the limit, and you'd better be ready
to catch the tail with a flick of the wheel. Push the Audi
to the same, and you can be ready to answer the phone. This
is an amazingly benign car, but it's blindingly quick with
it. I haven't had the chance to drive an RS4 in the wet,
but on dry tarmac the 380bhp estate simply goes where you
point it, and presto. It is virtually impossible to provoke
excessive high-speed understeer or oversteer. A four-wheel
slide may be on the cards, but it calls for deactivated
ESP and a silly entrance speed to your chosen corner.
Straight-line speed is a different matter. On the A92
between Munich and Deggendorf, 155mph can feel almost painfully
slow. This autobahn is flat, straight and lightly trafficked.
On a sunny day in May, this could be 200mph territory. But
not according to Audi or Nissan, who both 'voluntarily'
equip their top-of-the-line sportsters with a 155mph governor.
The Japanese, masters of self-restraint, even have a 280bhp
'voluntary' power-limit. A very special 280bhp, by the looks
of it,
because the 280bhp Skyline GT-R is marginally heavier than
the RS4, and generates more drag. But it's every bit as
quick as the 380bhp Audi.
When the Audi engine meets the limiter at 6000rpm in
sixth, it's a subtle, gentle interruption. When the Nissan
motor cuts out at just over 8000rpm, you hit a wall.
The Audi is not exactly super-quiet when you max it, but
it's splendid isolation compared to the Skyline, where you're
bombarded with industrial noise: turbo whine, tire roar
and slap, driveline hum and the hurricane of passing air,
plus zillions of little aural irritations that come and
go, come and prevail. Your ears would swear that the GT-R
is at least 30mph faster overall. But the speedometer tells
the truth, and the truth is a dead heat: top speed is definitely
not a factor in this comparison.
