How does the Nissan GT-R perform without launch control?

According to a recent rumor or speculation the 2010 Nissan GT-R will not have the launch-control found on the 2009 models. When we first heard of the news, we thought “how often does someone owning a Nissan GT-R actually use the launch control feature?”

The folks at Motor Trend contact Nissan’s PR for the official world and they said that no decision on removing launch-control has been made as of yet but the Japanese automaker is considering it. The PR department also cleared up some rumors about the warranty being automatically voided when one uses launch control. It seems that using launch control with or without VDC does not automatically void warranty coverage; however, abusing the features does. Nonetheless, it’s still a grey area how Nissan classifies ‘abuse.’

Okay enough about the warranty talk - how does the GT-R perform without launch control? Not that bad at all. Of course a 3.2 second from 0 to 60 mph is no longer possible but again how often will you actually be doing 0 to 60 mph runs. Check out Motor Trend’s numbers after the jump.

Nissan GT-R without launch-control:

    Speed (mph)    Time (sec)       
    0-30            1.9
    0-40            2.5
    0-50            3.2
    0-60            3.9
    0-70            4.9
    0-80            6.0
    0-90            7.2
    0-100          8.6  
    1/4-mile      12.2 sec. @ 119.2 mph

Source: Motor Trend

Nissan and Infiniti decide to pull out of Detroit Motor Show

Things start to look really bad for the upcoming Detroit Motor Show. After last week Ferrari, Land Rover, Rolls-Royce, Suzuki and then Mitsubishi announced they won’t bring any cars to the show, today Nissan and Inifiniti also announced their decision to pull out of the motor show. The Japanese carmaker said that they’ve unveiled the 370Z and the new Cube at the LA Show and a presence in Detroit is not necessary at the moment, due to the “depressed economy”. They’ve also cancelled their appearance at the Chicago Motor Show, in February. So, more bad news for Detroit organizers and, considering there’s more than a month left until the show, we’re wondering if Nissan will be the last company to pull out of the show.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)