Video: 2017 Nissan GT-R Review

Nissan aims changed that for 2017, with a host of improvements to improve its drivability. And we spent a few days on the street, testing just if they've made this a touring car. Is it a little less raw of a sports car and a little better daily driver? Now, to experience the more hostile side of this, we also took it to the drag strip to test zero to 60 in 1/4 mile acceleration. Certain unwanted interior noises are greatly reduced for 2017. There's new sound insulation, front and rear, plus a new acoustic windshield. Now, where we really hear the difference, is in the significantly less gear whine and drive train noises that you hear with the windows up. Now, if you have the windows down, you'll still hear some chatter when the transmission is downshifting, but, with the windows up, it's not as noticeable as it once was. Now, the transmission itself has new programming to smooth out shifts, and that is also greatly noticed. It's a much smoother experience when you're just driving around town casually. New for 2017 is an active sound enhancement feature. Now, that's leveraging the already existing active sound cancellation, and it picks up engine noise electronically, augments it, and then sends it through the interior speakers. Now, it's not a new system. We've seen it in other cars, and it's something I'm not typically a fan of. It sounds artificial. In this car, it sounds pretty natural, but this twin turbo V6 sounds amazing on its own. It is just naturally a very great sounding engine. And I hate having that fake engine noise piped through the stereo. I'd rather see a true multi-mode exhaust on this, where you can hit a button and it's quiet, hit another button, it's loud. This has that to a degree, but it doesn't have as big of a swing in tone and noise levels as other sports cars do. The new interior is absolutely a step up over the outgoing car, and especially with the $4,000 premium package on the inside, that gets hand stitched leather interior, and just very high quality materials. That also includes the leather trimmed seats. Now seating comfort is about as subjective as exhaust sound preference, and I'm having a hard time getting comfortable in these new seats. There's no bolster adjustment, there's no lumbar adjustment, and it feels like you're sitting on top of the seat rather than in it. I wouldn't call the 2017 Nissan GTR a touring car. It still has rawkus amounts of tire noise at highway speeds, and it is a high strung vehicle to drive. It grabs every rut in the road and tugs the car one way or another. It's not the most pleasant experience on long highway drives. Also, with those seats, which I'm just not a fan of. Despite being prettied up for 2017, there's still a raw sports car experience in the GTR. And, to experience that, we went to Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, Wisconsin. We ran a best zero to 60 miles per hour of 3.3 seconds. And we did the 1/4 mile in 11.3 seconds at 121 miles per hour. Now the technique there was simple. Launch control, hold the brake, hold the gas, let go of the brake and go. Like being shot out of a cannon, the launch control, also known as R-Mode Start, revs the engine to around 4,000 RPM. You let off the brake, hold onto the gas, and the car just rockets. And it does that consistently, same times to a 10th of a second. We ran all night. (engine revving) A trip to the drag strip reminds us that even with all this lipstick on it, the GTR still does fast better than slow. (engine revving) (trunk slamming)