Nissan took reporters out to its test track in Sendai, a small student town a couple of hours north of Tokyo on the Bullet Train. The circuit is only 2.5 miles long, but it crams an amazing number of different corners – fast, slow, off-camber and sweaty-palm kinks – into a short stretch of tarmac. A Nürburgring-lite, if you like.
Reporters were hooked up with Kazutoshi Mizuno, former head of Nissan’s sports car racing programme, who warned us about the intricacies of the Sendai circuit and then lobbed us the GT-R’s keys for ten fast-as-you-dare laps.
One with winged heels! The GT-R is ferociously quick, sucking in the horizon with the kind of pace that makes you radically recalibrate your speed-distance-time triangle. The 3.8-litre bi-turbo engine is a new V6, not related to the fine one used in the 350Z. It’s an amazingly tractable engine, pulling from way down low in the rev band, then energised by the twin IHI turbochargers all the way, uninterrupted, to the 7000rpm redline.
From launch to 62mph takes just 3.6 seconds. Top speed is a supercar-rivalling 193mph. The gearchange is lightning quick and clean, and those big Brembo brakes are quite brilliant. They stop you like a giant hand firmly pulling you backwards to safety. Mizuno says they’re the best brakes on any production car and Japanese homologation tests say the same.
Don't worry, the GT-R has the polished dynamics to use all that power, all that turbo-enhanced performance all the time. Sure, the steering isn’t as sharp or as delicate as a 911’s – the GT-R is 350kg heavier, remember – but it’s linear and the GT-R’s blunt nose instantly changes direction, no questions asked.
It doesn't understeer, it simply hunkers down and goes where you want it. It’s a car that drives square on its feet rather than always on its toes. Less poetic, perhaps, than its European rivals. But, in this case, faster. And so easy to exploit.
It is, says Mizuno, the fastest production car in the world around the Nürburgring – according to Nissan, only the bespoke (and out of production) Porsche Carrera GT can lap the daunting German circuit quicker. That’s real-world pace, irrespective of road or weather conditions.
Oh it’s quick alright – quick enough to make Porsche’s 911 Turbo feel unexciting – but the GT-R’s real appeal is its adaptability. Punt it hard, really hard on a track and the GT-R responds, delivering searing pace, formidable control, a fine and perfectly judged balance and a wonderfully high level of feedback.
But if you want to drive it across town in rush-hour traffic or halfway across a continent, you simply slot into Drive, settle back into the thickly padded and generously bolstered seats, switch the suspension setting to soft and the GT-R is so easy and effortless, you might just as well be in a Maxima. A very brisk Maxima.
And that’s core to the Nissan’s magic appeal – its ability to deliver two distinctly different driving characteristics, where the qualities of one don’t compromise the other.
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The GT-R stole the show when Nissan announced prices for its supercar slayer. There’ll be three models to choose from - the standard GT-R at £52,900, the Premium model at £54,200 and the Black at £55,500. From the start of April you’ll be able to order one with a £3500 deposit, either from your local dealer or online at gtrnissan.com. The price announcement was backed up by news that Nissan UK – which expects to swallow 600 of the 1000 Europe-bound GT-Rs when they start arriving in March 2009 - will set up 10 dedicated GT-R performance centers around the country to cater for owners.
