Lighter, with thoroughly reworked
aero and revised suspension, the 591bhp GT-R Nismo could be the best version of
Nissan’s super coupe yet
Hiroshi Tamura, chief product specialist
for the Nissan GT-R, holds out his hands with his palms facing downwards. He
points his fingers at the floor and wriggles them like he's dipping them in an
imaginary finger bowl or playing a tiny invisible piano. Then, with a stare locked
on to the back of my eyeballs, he says slowly and deliberately: 'Make no
mistake: driving pleasure is number one priority.'
This Nismo-badged
leviathan is the fastest-ever version of the Nissan GT-R
The finger-wriggling is one of Tamura's
many arm-waving, hand-raising, shoulder-shrugging inflections. This one
perfectly encapsulates that wonderful feeling when your body absorbs the flow
of information from road to driver. To some, this'll sound odd in relation to
the GT-R. There are those who believe that it cannot possibly engage the driver
on a deeply sensory level, or that it is too synthetic or too digital. But for
many this has never been the case. Even after seven years in production the
Nissan GT-R is still a hugely satisfying drivers' car and one that offers
genuine feel, hypercar pace and real value.
Over those seven years there have been many
special editions, and 1,000bhp tuner GT-Rs seem to grow on trees these days (or
at least that's what we're led to believe), but this is the first R35 GT-R developed
by Nissan's official performance division, Nissan Motorsports International
(Nismo). And since the R35 GT-R's 'father', Kazutoshi Mizuno, retired last
year, it's Tamura's responsibility to ensure the car retains its status as one
of the best performance cars on sale. And for some time to come, as Tamura
admits a replacement is 'still in my head'.
Interior trim
features include red stitching on the seats, centre console, door trim and
steering wheel
Nismo has a reaI skunkworks vibe, more so
than AMG or BMW's M division. The new headquarters is staffed by just 180
people, and yet Nissan and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn openly stated at the Tokyo
motor show that Nismo is an integral part of Nissan's development process for
future cars.
When you visit the factory and see customer
R32 GT-Rs of 1989 vintage being fettled in the workshop, you wonder how this
can be possible: with the greatest respect, on first impressions the factory
looks like a very well-presented tuner shop. However, walk through a couple of
doors and it's like entering another dimension. You see an autoclave, a dyno
room and the exquisite jewels that are Nismo’s Super GT racers being fettled
for their next race. You see white-gloved fabricators laying out carbon or
hand-building race engines, and you see rows of beautifully engineered parts.
It's a tremendously intimate place and one which oozes passion and expertise.
Nismo
racers influenced the design of the steering wheel which is dressed in
Alcantara
But while Nismo is Nissan's halo performance
division and has achieved almost mythological status among the Gran Turismo
generation, it also has a huge challenge ahead. The two most recent Nismos
(Juke and 370Z) were underwhelming and there is little awareness of the brand
outside Japan. Saying that, the genesis of an upturn in fortune has occurred
thanks in part to a very special car, six digits, one decimal point and a
colon. That's the car we're about to drive, and the 7:08.679 lap time it
achieved - with a 'Time Attack' pack fitted -at the Nurburgring.
