Sometimes it's worth considering how much a model-year change really matters. An updated car can be draped in hype, but what's the substance? In many cases? Not much. In this case, it's a priceless 0.184 of a second.
Japan's brilliant Best Motor TV set up a sort of Mythbusters experiment for the JDM set: Given all the noise about year-over-year improvements, how much faster is a 2012 Nissan GT-R compared to a 2011 model and a now-seemingly-vintage '09 Godzilla? The answer: Enough to matter.
The 0-400 meter race — that's a quarter-mile for us Yanks — starts about a minute in, and after the computers and turbos do their work the results are eye-opening. Not only is the 2012 car almost two-tenths of a second faster (which is forever in drag terms), here it finally cracks the ten-second bracket. The '09 car might as well have gone to lunch.
Progress is good.
(Hat tip to Mikeado!)