When the Nissan R35 GT-R came out in 2007, it ate Porsches for breakfast. It quickly established itself as nothing short of a missile on four wheels and with a sub-$120,000 price tag, it was the ultimate bang-for-your-buck deal of the century. It’s time for a little revisit of the first version of the R35.
I’m talking about the pre-facelift R35, by the way. The one where the price was still in the five digits. As time went on and the GT-R gained more and more power, it also got more and more expensive. That’s where it lost me. But this 2009 GT-R on Regular Car Reviews is the good one. This Recession GT-R is where it’s at.
Normally, a 2009 GT-R would be making about 500 horsepower. This one, because it’s been tuned, now makes about 600. I’ve had the great fortune to have driven a couple of GT-Rs, so I understand Mr. Regular perfectly when he says this is a car that’s so fast it feels like it’s bending time. You feel like you’re going into warp drive and things aren’t slowing down anytime soon.
And I’ve always loved the noise an R35 makes. I don’t care what the snobs say, the VR V6 sounds cool and burbly. And there’s a perpetual clanking noise coming from the car’s transmission. Sort of like a Ducati’s dry clutch rattle, as Mr. Regular points out.
These things counter industry-wide reports that an R35 is soulless and boring. They’re very exciting cars. They are just… too fast for human reaction time, and that’s why there are so many onboard computers. Trust me, you need them.