It's the most exciting car Japan has ever produced. Sorry Supra, too bad NSX, but there's nothing quite like the Skyline GT-R. A technological tour de force, the GT-R has always been the dream car of the PlayStation generation. Since 1989, modern GT-Rs have always featured a twin turbocharged engine and electronically controlled all-wheel drive and steering. The last generation Skyline GT-R, the R34, was the first production car ever to feature an onboard computer that gave real-time dynamic readouts on a full color screen. Not to mention that it was fast and nimble enough to run head-to-head with a Porsche 911 GT3.
But it also has more, much more, than just an enviable reputation -- it has a cult following. Like all the best sports cars (think Porsche 911, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, Ford GT40), the Skyline earned its accolades in motorsport, where budgets were blown and technology distilled to make this car a world-beater.
In one sense, it's esoteric -- its price and position atop the Japanese fast car food chain put it just beyond the reach, but not out of the dreams, of the average salaryman. What cemented the car's standing was that it became fairly affordable as the years went by. After the hype died down, anyone willing to take the chance on a used Japanese import could have bagged an R33, or even an R34, for reasonable money. And the fact that the 2.6-liter straight-six engine is so damned unburstable -- inspiring a few crazed owners to tweak its power output up to over 1,000 horsepower -- hasn't hurt, either. In fact, much of the Godzilla reputation has been built on the street, not the track. It seems the GT-R has always been built for tuning.
Sad, then, that few American drivers have had the pleasure of spinning its twin turbos, experiencing the all-wheel-drive traction, and dancing with its four-wheel steering system. Because the plumbing of the turbos made conversion to lefthand drive impractical, the Skyline was never available in the U.S. To own one in America has taken dedication, foolhardiness, and money, in correspondingly generous portions. Up until now. Well, 2008, more like. That's when the new GT-R will be coming to a Nissan dealership near you.
As you read this, the next generation GT-R is already attacking the North Loop of Germany's famed Nrburgring as part of its extensive testing regimen. We've shown the photos in past issues -- tweaked Skyline/G35 coupes with weird vents and hood bulges. Why the Nordschleife? Well, partly for the PR buzz it generates, but more importantly because the R34 GT-R clocked a time of 7.52 seconds, for many years the unofficial record for a production car, and a time the new model must obliterate.
Just how it will do that is largely a mystery. There is an unprecendented level of secrecy surrounding this new model. And it's not just to get us all excited. Nissan knows it must be right from the word go. At the peak of his cost reduction campaign in 2001, CEO Carlos Ghosn reinvigorated Nissan and the industry by announcing a new GT-R would be coming and that this time, it would be available to the world.
Since then, the company has released two GT-R concepts but has gone completely dark about the specifications of the production car. Security is so strict, sources indicate that only a handful of engineers have the secondary security pass that grants access to the special building at the technical center in Atsugi, Japan, in which the GT-R is being developed.
Here is what we know: Previous GT-Rs have been based on Skyline sedans, but for the first time ever the GT-R will be a standalone model sharing no sheetmetal or even visual cues with the sedan. The GT-R Proto you see on these pages was designed by Hiroshi Hasegawa (who penned the Infiniti G35 sedan and coupe) under the direction of Shiro Nakamura, Nissan's head of design, and it cuts a bold silhouette. Although it shares cues from the first GT-R prototype, which debuted in Tokyo in 2001, that version was deemed too smooth and not aggressive enough. Those criticisms, however, cannot be leveled at the Proto. With 20-inch wheels confirmed for production, riding on 255/40 tires in the front and 285/35 at the rear, this monster leaves large footprints. Blacked out A-pillars give the windshield a wraparound, helmet visor look. And then there are the kinky C-pillars... definitely not smooth.
Although the body will be all new, the GT-R will be based on a variation of the Front Midship (FM) platform that underpins the next generation Infiniti G35 Coupe. The logic behind this choice is clear: variations of the FM platform underpin a host of other Nissan/Infiniti products (everything from the 350Z to the FX45), and refining and repurposing existing technology instead creating from scratch is how CEO Ghosn garnered his nickname, "Le Cost Killer."