Nissan are well known for making small city cars, the 350Z and one other… The Skyline. A name that petrol heads the world over will never forget, particularly the early 90’s incarnations. You see back then the UK was in recession and so nobody really had that much money, UK output was at an all-time low and so the industry started to collapse. Much like today performance cars were something envied to the highest degree, however with no money Porsche weren’t just going to hand the keys over. Enter the Nissan Skyline R32, a car that gave a new meaning to bangs for your bucks! The car itself was cheap as chips and with a GT-R variant that offered 2.6 litres and AWD; it soon became an icon to the public. Here for what little money you have, you could get Ferrari beating performance. 320BHP under your right foot was more than enough to leave all your problems in a cloud of tyre smoke.
2008 brought the recession in another form, the dreaded credit crunch. Thanks to banks giving loans to paperboys so they could buy a Lamborghini, we are all in a situation where nobody has very much money once again. For 6 years it was absent from our roads, but now it’s back in the form of its most legendary model. The recession rupturing Nissan GT-R.
This all new car is mind bending in every aspect, for £55,500 you can get a car that laps the Nüremburgring faster than a £129,000 Porsche 911 GT2. The GT-R is nearly one third of the price yet manages to top trump the German in every conceivable way. In fact it will completely annihilate almost any super car you put in its path. Ferrari F430, Lamborghini Gallardo, Porsche 911’s are allbanished by this cars breath-taking performance figures. Its twin-turbo 3.8 litre engine produces 485BHP and in conjunction with a super-fast DCG gearbox/AWD it will do 0-60 in 3.6 seconds. The car will not yield until it reaches its top speed of 191MPH.
The car may have a rock hard ride but this is a small price to pay for the ability to change direction so quickly. The AWD system is balanced perfectly to cancel out under steer when driving in a lively manner; the result is that any input into the wheel is immediately translated into action. The seats have to be secured to the chassis of the car with high density bolts as the G-force generated by this could rip the standard components clean out of their fittings. Nitrogen fills the tyres as air was deemed “too unstable”. That is almost beyond comprehension, the air we breathe too unstable!
Looking past the crazy numbers sits a rather well equipped four-seat coupe. The boot could fit an elephant calf and the rear seats actually have the capacity to seat two adults. The GT-R is a large car but it is by no means trickier to park than its rivals as vision from the cockpit is ample. So there you have it, a true David among Goliaths. Anybody wishing they hadn’t just ordered that new Lamborghini?
