Nissan was taking a large risk.
The Skyline GT-R had earned its place in performance automobile legend with its giant-killing tech after the arrival of the 1989 R32 which, for a lot of Australians, was their first taste of the devastating capability of the almighty GT-R – a lot in order that our media coined the term ‘Godzilla’ – a moniker that also sticks a long time later.
However the fifth-generation R35 GT-R was different.
The 2001 Tokyo motor show concept revealed it was to be purpose-built coupe – not a two-door based on a four-door sedan, but a sports automobile built from the bottom up, even when skeptics thought it might have more in common with the 350Z of the time, whose lineage goes back to the Datsun brand’s successful try to crack the US sports automobile market with the S30-series 240Z (called the Fairlady Z in Japan) in 1969.
It could be unlike the legendary Skyline GT-R which had its roots in the unique PCG10 2000 GT-R of 1969; ahead of its 2007 unveiling, fans knew it might have a four-wheel drive system amid an online of electrical and mechanical wizardry comprising not one but two driveshafts and a rear transaxle, making it a quite portly 1800kg – 200kg greater than the heaviest V-Spec R34 GT-R.
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In addition to being heavier, the R35’s dimensions of 4655/1985/1370mm meant it was wider, longer, taller and sat on an extended wheelbase (2780mm) than any GT-R before it.
There wasn’t going to be a turbocharged straight-six either, but a brand new twin-turbo V6 under the bonnet. Nor would there be a manual gearbox, and it wasn’t even going to be called a Skyline.
Had Nissan simply gone too far? Did Nissan have the appropriate – nay, the stupidity – to place those famous three letters, which to that time had been feared by each street and track rivals, on something completely different?
Yes, the R35 was going to be something else altogether. And it truly was something else.
The production version’s design was true to the 2001 concept automobile’s “function over form look”, even though it was finessed and honed right into a far more sophisticated shape that might barely change over a staggering 18-year production run.
Nissan described the R35’s design as practical: “Every styling aspect, from the general design to the smallest details, is created to maximise the vehicle’s driving experience – in addition to suggest GT-R’s ‘supercar’ level of performance”.
Its ‘super wide beam headlights’, muscular surfacing and offended front-end commanded serious road presence, and this was backed up it steel, aluminium and carbon-fibre construction.
The muscular haunches – with ‘aero blades’ on the guards – were unapologetically aggressive, making the attractive and seductive lines of a Porsche 911 look restrained, humble and even soft by comparison.
This automobile was the Voltron of supercars, like something bursting out of the pages of Japanese manga comic books. Its flat, almost cam-back rear-end paid homage to the stove-top quad tail-lights of its predecessors, with a carbon-fibre rear diffuser capping off a slippery 0.27Cd drag coefficient.
If a 911 was a sculpted murals, the GT-R was a chiselled athlete with muscles bursting on the seams. It looked like nothing else.
The GT-R was not a poseur’s automobile: it was a blur, a memory – a automobile so focused on shifting itself off the face of the planet that it didn’t take care of bling and as an alternative opted for gigabytes of tech and kiloWatts to pump through its extravagant powertrain.
Nissan’s VR36DETT – a 3.8-litre 60-degree petrol V6 with two turbos – had rather a lot to live as much as. The truly iconic RB26DETT inline six that powered the R32 through R34 Skyline GT-Rs was as legendary amongst performance tuners because the GT-R itself.
Launched with 357kW of power and 588Nm of torque over 3200-5200rpm, the R35’s engine was a masterpiece: hand-made by designated ‘Takumi’ – master crafts folk – at Nissan’s Yokohama engine plant.
Its outputs (and price) would later peak at 441kW/652Nm with NISMO versions, before a run of 19 limited-edition GT-R 50 cars bumped that up further to 530kW. The ultimate ‘standard’ R35 GT-Rs sold in Australia in 2022 made 419kW/652Nm.
The engine itself comprised a closed-deck aluminium block with plasma-coated cylinder bores to cut back friction and increase strength, plus a race-ready forged crankshaft, conrods and pistons. It was fed by a pair of parallel (versus sequential) IHI RHF55 turbochargers (one for every bank) and quad-cam aluminium cylinder-heads with iridium-tipped spark plugs and direct fuel-injection.
While the 997 Series II 911 Turbo launched in late 2009 also used a twin-turbo 3.8-litre six-cylinder, it was after all a flat boxer six mounted within the rear of the automobile – and it delivered higher 368kW/650Nm outputs than the GT-R.
Yet the front-engined R35 pipped the (faster) PDK 911’s rapid 3.6-second claimed 0-100km/h acceleration time by a single tenth of a second – the manual 911 Turbo was 0.2 seconds slower than the GT-R. It backed that up with an 11.5 second quarter-mile (standing 402m).
The very best part? The R35 launched in Australia in 2009 at $155,900 before on-road costs, with the GT-R Premium commanding an additional $4000 for an upgraded sound system and leather trim.
The slower 911 Turbo PDK of the day was priced at a cool $368,000, and the even slower manual at $360,100.
The Porsche also had all-wheel drive, so on paper these two rivals had an identical mechanical makeup. The important thing difference was how the Nissan delivered its energy to its 4 20-inch alloy wheels.
While the engine’s mission was to launch the GT-R into the stratosphere, every other a part of the driveline was hell-bent on keeping the automobile on the bottom to convert that fury into speed – each in a straight line and around corners.
That included the most recent evolution of Nissan’s computer-controlled ATTESA ETS four-wheel drive system, which was developed for the R32 Skyline GT-R. The acronym stands for (breathe in) Advanced Total Traction Engineering System All-terrain and Electric Torque Split.
Put simply, the R35 had a rear transaxle and the ATTESA ETS system was capable of split torque each side-to-side and front-to-rear via a second driveshaft, which, combined with electronic adaptive dampers with a selection of modes, put the entire RB38DETT’s power down.
Pulled up by six-piston Brembo front brakes, the combo endowed the R35 with immense controllability, mind-blowing agility, physics-defying cornering capability and point-to-point pace unlike anything before it – even within the wet.
When it launched the R35, Nissan said it aimed to deliver “the final word supercar that may be driven by anyone, anytime, anywhere.” It did.
The six-speed Borg Warner dual-clutch transmission easily kept up, even when it was a bit clunky at low speeds, and even when this creator lacked the processing speed – mentally – required to maintain up with the GT-R’s sheer ability.
It made long roads short and devoured its destination. It had a firm and focussed ride, nevertheless it took no prisoners when it got here to bumps, holes, ruts and camber changes – it just did it. It was almost too fast to enjoy – easy to drive quickly, but its ability to generate serious straightline and cornering speed required the mental and physical agility to match the immense engineering effort that enabled it.
Over 18 years, the GT-R contended with three different generations of its goal rival, the 911 Turbo, and it didn’t bat an eyelid.
The initial gauntlet was thrown down when Nissan confirmed a lap time of seven minutes and 38 seconds across the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife in September 2007, marking the beginning of a ‘Ring battle’ between the 2 brands.
The R35’s time was cut to 7:27.56 on April 15, 2009 – just because the Nissan landed in Australia. That in comparison with the 997 Series II 911 Turbo’s time of seven:39.00, set the identical yr.
Nissan didn’t stop there, though. Power increased annually, with a minor 2011 facelift barely changing the look, while a big upgrade to the six-speed gearbox in 2017 kept the GT-R well-honed, delicately balanced and sharp enough to keep up its edge within the supercar game.
Its official 0-100km/h time was skimmed right down to an electrical car-like 2.7 seconds by the point fast-tracked side-impact crash test regs ended its run prematurely in Australia in 2022, while the ultimate Nurburgring time for a factory R35 was 7:08.679 seconds, achieved by a NISMO version in 2013, even though it controversially had minor modifications.
The R35 won Bathurst, too – the 12 Hour in 2015 against a field of Ferraris, McLarens and Lamborghinis – in far less controversial circumstances than the ultimate R32 victory on the 1992 Bathurst 1000, where winner Jim Richards unloaded Australian motorsport’s most iconic swear words to the offended mob below the rostrum as co-driver Mark Skaife looked on in disbelief.
Multiple Japanese racing titles also made it seem to be all over the place the GT-R went, legends were unfolded, triumphs got here from tragedy and absolutely the determination of a bunch of engineers to topple the world’s best got here to the fore.
Nissan says the ultimate R35, the last of 48,000 examples made globally including 997 sold in Australia, isn’t the top of the GT-R story – and for tuners, enthusiasts and fanatics, in a way, that’s probably not as much as Nissan.
The automobile will proceed to represent the top of Japanese automotive engineering on roads, tracks and in garages, and can eternally remain a part of the performance automobile psyche.
However the R35 would be the last-hurrah for pure petrol-powered GT-Rs, the ultimate example of the breed sending a guttural, deep timbre – as distinct from a 911’s flat-six cackle – that struck fear into pretenders, players and Porsche owners for a long time.
Something else could also be coming within the GT-R story, however the R35 was – is – something else.
This Article First Appeared At www.carexpert.com.au
