Nissan GT-R
July 18th, 2008 by Ed Lau |$81,000 worth of Japanese muscle car. Gorgeous in red…probably deliciously evil in black.
Note to Toyota: THIS is how you put on a exhibit. Who wants to look at Corollas!?
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Last week’s top gear episode with the GTR was awesome. They drove the same colour car around in Japan and it was beautiful. The gadgets and gizmo’s inside the car is amazing. They even said that the transmission is paired specifically for each engine. Now thats workmanship.
Was this at the Nissan store in Ginza?
She’s a beauty. Might be the only car I’d pick over an STI.
It’s not a muscle car, gotta be V8 or bigger.
I have to be honest here I am not a huge fan of Nissan but for a sports car this is not bad, as Leo said it definitely has to be a V8 or bigger to be a muscle car.
@Michael Kwan: It’s not really a store…more of a display room. I’m almost sure you can’t actually buy the car there…since there are only two on display. But yes, in Ginza.
@Leo and Thrifty: Why would it need to be a V8? The Japanese have somehow figured out how to get close to 500HP out of a 3.8L engine whereas the Americans have barely got there with their 5.4L in the new GT500. The regular Mustang 4.6L only produces a paltry 300HP. I’ll never understand why the Americans only get so little HP out of their massive engines.
I mean, Mitsubishi has managed to get 400HP out of an engine with the same displacement as a bottle of Mountain Dew…
Muscle car = “It generally describes a 2-door, rear wheel drive, mid-size car with a large, powerful V8 engine, and at an affordable price.” - Wikipedia
My “paltry” 4.6L Mustang achieves 300HP naturally aspirated (no power adders) and runs on the factory recommended 87 octane. Find me a Jap car that can achieve that output naturally and won’t need 94+ octane gas.
Apples and oranges, Ed. The GT Stang retails around $30K. Let’s split the difference from your $81K import, I’ll take the extra $50K and can make my Stang run circles around the GT-R and still have money left over for pho. The GT500 only retails for $40K-$50K.
That is true…the price difference is huge. But a Mustang + $50k still wouldn’t beat a GT-R around a track (Nuremberg Ring in 7 minutes and change). Probably in a straight line, though.
It would be hard to beat the GT-R’s AWD on the corners, but for $80K I could get a Saleen S302 Extreme and spit molten rubber on the Nissan’s windshield around the track.
When you’re talking about any track situation though it’s ALL about the driver. Mario Andretti could probably take me out in a Mazda3
I love that redish orange color
I like it, but the car is too heavy. It needs to lose the back seats and about 500lbs. Then, it’ll be a real sports car. Wait, they’re doing that with the V Spec version.
Nissan takes away the back seats and some sound deadening material and we (as consumers) pay them twice as much for the car!