Would you pay $70,000 for a Nissan? That, it seems, is the $70,000 question, and it’s what the Nissan GT-R currently costs in Japanese yen. When it arrives on our shores in mid-2008, the price will start at $69,850 plus destination and gas-guzzler charges which have yet to be determined. Stretching the price range of a brand is nothing new: Ford went into the stratosphere with the $153,000 GT and managed to sell every copy. But the Nissan doesn’t have the 40-odd years of Le Mans–winning nostalgia that came with the Ford, at least not in the United States.
Overseas, the GT-R’s history goes back to 1969, when Prince (later absorbed by Nissan) put a hot 2.0-liter engine in its Skyline sedan. In 1989, the GT-R returned after a 16-year hiatus as the turbocharged, all-wheel-drive R32 and was succeeded by the R33 and R34, but the GT-R line has never officially been sold on American shores until now. In Japan, and to anybody familiar with the Gran Turismo series of racing games, the GT-R is an icon, but to many Americans it is as foreign as high-speed passenger trains. Calling the GT-R an unknown icon is oxymoronic (and slightly regular moronic, too), but it does illustrate the dual existence of the super Nissan.
Photos don’t really do justice to the GT-R. The camera shots convey inelegance in the design that doesn’t carry over in the flesh. Up close, the protruding snout is still the weakest styling element on the car, but it’s not nearly as offensive as were led to believe. There are countless curves, creases, and bumps on the GT-R that keep your eyes dancing back and forth from one end of the car to the other, like the crease in the C-pillar. The front wheel arches are far more dramatic in person, as are the dartlike bumps that surround the hood scoops. It’s all very aggressive and muscular, but what’s mesmerizing about the GT-R is that it seems as if it shouldn’t be pretty at all and we still can’t stop staring.
Well, the GT-R looks impossibly large. It seems absolutely crazy to compare the GT-R with its performance benchmark, the Porsche 911 Turbo, because the GT-R appears to be twice as big. That feeling is reinforced by the claimed curb weight of 3850 pounds, 330 more than the 911 Turbo. In reality, the GT-R is only seven inches longer than the Porsche and narrower than the Dodge Viper and Corvette Z06. The extra length and the long 109.4-inch wheelbase allow for a back seat that is just barely usable for two passengers and a trunk that Nissan claims can hold two sets of golf clubs. The Porsche, on the other hand, has hardly any luggage space and back seats that are suitable only for amputees.
If the GT-R were really to take on the 911 Turbo, it would need the power to match. So Nissan developed a new 3.8-liter V-6 engine and gave it the VR designation (VR38DETT in this specific application). The TT in VR38DETT stands for twin turbo, and intercooled air is rammed into the intake at a maximum pressure of 10.9 psi to produce 480 horsepower and 434 pound-feet of torque at the crankshaft. That’s the same horsepower as the 911 Turbo’s, and it makes the GT-R the most powerful Japanese car ever. There are similarities to the VQ engine found in the 350Z and Infiniti G35, such as the same cylinder bore, but the VR features a closed deck for greater block stiffness. Variable valve timing is on the intake valves only, but don’t let that make you think the VR is ordinary. Each engine is hand-built by a single technician in a climate-controlled room in Nissan’s Yokohama engine plant. Before it ships out to the assembly line, each engine is tested for power output.
Once the engine is installed in the GT-R, the power is routed to all four wheels in a way that is somewhere between brilliant and insane. A main driveshaft connects the engine to the rear transaxle, and then a second driveshaft runs back to the front of the car to power the front wheels. The upside to the extra inertial mass of this setup is better weight distribution: All the bulk and weight of the all-wheel-drive system is shifted to the rear. The front-to-rear power distribution, electronically controlled by a clutch, varies from 50/50 at launch to as much as 20/80 during driving. Between the rear wheels is a mechanical limited-slip differential. Unlike the GT-R R34 V-Spec II and new Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, the GT-R’s all-wheel-drive system cannot distribute power from left to right.
Each of the GT-R’s 480 horsepower is responsible for 8.0 pounds of weight, compared with 7.3 in the 911 Turbo. So to achieve the claimed 0-to-60-mph time of 3.5 seconds, the GT-R employs a couple of tricks. The first is a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox, which changes gears faster than any human can push a clutch pedal and pull a shift lever. The transmission is similar to the ones found in Volkswagens, Audis, and the Lancer Evolution. The second trick is the gearing, which is short. The first gear ratio of 4.06, combined with the final-drive ratio of 3.70:1, helps the GT-R catapult quickly off the line. The rest of the gears are similarly short: The 186-mph top speed occurs at redline in sixth gear.
The parts of the GT-R interior that are covered in soft, padded leather—which include the seats, steering wheel, shift knob, most of the dash, and some door trim—make some Infinitis look cheap by comparison. Some vestiges of lesser Nissans are apparent, though, like the plastic parts of the dash, cast in the same strangely cheap-looking texture as those in the Altima. The parts-bin window switches and the turn-signal and wiper stalks are familiar, too, but less offensive.
The GT-R comes with a smart-key system, so to bring the engine to life, you just push the bright red stop/start button on the center console along with the brake pedal. The shift lever gives you the option of park, reverse, neutral, or drive. A sideways tap will switch between automatic- and paddle-shift modes. At the bottom of the center stack are switches for the all-wheel-drive system, electronically controlled shocks, and stability and traction control. Your options for each system are as follows: normal, snow, or R mode; normal, comfort, or R mode; on, off, or R mode.
At the top of the center stack is an LCD that augments the main gauge cluster. Nissan engineers teamed up with Gran Turismo guru Kazunori Yamauchi to create a multifunction display that bridges the gap between video games and real life. There are various views: a customizable set of auxiliary gauges, acceleration and braking forces, lateral g-forces, gear display, fuel economy, and stopwatch lap time (controlled via steering-wheel buttons). The acceleration-and-braking and lateral-g screens are the best, though, because they also show brake- and gas-pedal levels and steering angle. It’s real-time telemetry and, if you can manage to watch it without driving off the road, it’s great fun. And if you’d rather be confused the (sort of) old-fashioned way, the display also has a touch-screen navigation system.
Subsequent trips around the track at a more feverish pace revealed the best part about the GT-R: It’s impossibly easy to drive. It still feels large and heavy, but it communicates exactly how the weight is shifting under braking, acceleration, and cornering so that nothing, dynamically, comes as a surprise. Even if you do unsettle the car, it’s easy to recover. The Corvette Z06 and the Dodge Viper inspire fear with their awesome performance, whereas the GT-R inspires nothing but confidence. In other cars you worry what might go wrong; in the GT-R you wonder what you can get away with. On a later trip in the passenger seat with a Nissan test driver at the helm, we learned that you can actually get away with quite a lot in the GT-R. The test driver turned in faster and got back on the gas sooner than we thought possible, and the only consequence was a slight slide from the back end that was corrected with a bit of steering and more throttle.
If you’re looking for 911 Turbo performance, the GT-R is a bargain, and it even trumps the 420-hp Audi R8. Of course, it’s not all about performance, and the GT-R offers the whole package. It’s fast, luxurious, easy to drive, and—with only 1500 cars headed to the U.S. for the first year—exclusive. The GT-R is also large, fat, and almost stupidly expensive for a Nissan. At least that’s what we can imagine 911 Turbo and R8 owners will say when they feel threatened. Chances are, GT-R owners will take that as a compliment.
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