Nissan GT-R: First drive

Friday, November 30, 2007

GT-R on UK sale in 2009
£55k for Porsche 911-rival
We drive awesome car

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When it goes on sale in the UK in March 2009, the dazzling new 194mph, 477bhp Nissan GT-R will cost approximately £55,000.

Nissan GB hasn't quite finalised the spec yet, but it'll have a sure-fire supercar winner on its hands, not to mention one of the fastest, most exciting road cars in the world to sell – and all for the price of a BMW M3.

Not only does the GT-R have 30 years of design heritage to back up its monumental performance, it also boasts one of the most sophisticated four-wheel-drive systems yet seen on a road car, plus a six-speed semi-auto paddle-shift gearbox which helps fire it from zero to 60mph in just 3.5sec.

That's more raw performance and a lot more technical sophistication than you get in a Porsche 911 Turbo – with four seats and a decent-sized boot thrown in for good measure.

It's not all about the numbers
Unusually for such a focused high performance machine, the GT-R will also come with a full three-year factory warranty and low-cost servicing through a network of soon-to-be-announced Nissan High Performance Centres.

You don't imagine that Nissan GB will experience much trouble shifting the 600-800 GT-Rs it will be allocated by Nissan Japan each year.

So what does that level of performance feel like in a car that's made not by Lamborghini or Porsche, but Nissan?

To begin with it's the awesome acceleration of the GT-R that leaves the biggest impression. It's so responsive and pulls so hard when you put your foot down, you can't help but focus on the pure performance to begin with.

Nissan says it is 'slightly faster than a 911 Turbo', but in second gear from 3000rpm – which is when the boost from the twin-turbo 3.8-litre V6 really starts to swell – it feels like it's ready to take off.

Thanks to the super-sophisticated four-wheel-drive system, the handling, braking and steering are more than up to the job as well.

However, that's selling how capable and fast the GT-R is across the ground short; it handles beautifully and has more composure at high speed than even a 911 Turbo – despite the fact that the ride is relentlessly stiff and might not make the GT-R the most comfortable of companions over typically lumpen UK roads.

Mind you, when the rest of the car is this good, this special, who cares if the ride's a mite firm?

On the inside
The GT-R even has a smart, well-made, appealingly futuristic cabin that, says Nissan GB, will be better equipped than any other rival at the same price.

All in all, what we're talking about is one of the great giant-killers of the modern era – with all the usual Nissan practicalities thrown in for free. Wow.