It’s All About the EngineĪt the heart of every sports car, of course, is the engine. In developing the GT-R’s power plant, Nissan sought to squeeze everything it could out of its existing 3.8-liter V-6. Interestingly, while Nissan’s Japan-based staff penned the overall concept, the automaker also asked its American and European designers for help. At the same time, it needed to reflect its Japanese origins. So, the softer exterior of the Skyline is cast-off in favor of a sharper and more muscular design. And this was intentional. During development, Nissan wanted a car that appeared crisp and modern. The GT-R shares zero resemblance with the Skyline GT-R. Indeed, that’s a fraction of the 911’s sold here for the same period (about 15,000), but it represented a significant win for Nissan. version of the car embraces all of the GT-R’s standout features. The car was an instant hit with performance addicts and JDM-culture aficionados. In its first two years, Nissan sold about 3,300 GT-Rs in the U.S. In 2008, Nissan set the GT-R loose on America. Other than having the left-hand drive and a few minor modifications, the U.S. The GT-R shook up the automotive world again when it beat a 911 Turbos time around the Nürburgring in 2007. These distinctions are not only well-suited for the Japanese market (yes, a JDM theme again) but make the car ideal for daily driver duty in other markets like the U.S. First, the only transmission is automatic. The GT-R gets conventional front-engine placement but goes unconventional elsewhere. The result is one of the most advanced V-6 engines (a Nissan specialty) on the planet. The GT-R debuted in 2007 and shares little with its predecessors other than a name badge and quad taillights. Unlike the American performance formula of stuffing huge V-8s under the hood or the Porsche 911 way of a rear-engine flat-six, Nissan takes its own direction. But, not wanting to limit potential sales, it sought to incorporate the latest technology (here’s that JDM thing again) to make the new GT-R useful beyond the track. We’ll save the full Skyline story for another article, but the original GT-Rs helped burnish Nissan’s racing and performance creds.įast forward to the start of the 21st century and Nissan needs a halo car following its linkup with French automaker Renault. The company looks to the Skyline GT-R R33 and R34 for inspiration. The Nissan GT-R is the successor to the storied Nissan Skyline GT-R that gained fame for its successes in Japanese races during the 1960s and 1970s. The automaker used these competitions to hone its engineering skills. And, the typical Japanese car owner drives about half as much as their American counterpart. As a result, Japanese consumers want state-of-the-art machines that provide sophisticated performance and precise handling. Driving styles are different, too. There’s less straight-line highway travel and more motoring along curved, hilly roads. and Europe. Cars in the land of the rising sun are very heavily regulated and taxed (particularly on larger engines). Japan’s car market is very different than the ones in the U.S. Purists believe that true JDM cars are only right-hand-drive models built just for Japan-some are brought here as JDM imports. A broader definition of a JDM car is one produced by a Japanese manufacturer that may or may not be exported outside of the country. JDM stands for Japanese Domestic Market and refers to vehicles produced by Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota solely for distribution in their home country. Some enthusiasts appreciate JDM cars simply for the engineering and technology while others are inspired by the tuning and racing aspect of JDM culture. And for many Nissan fans in the U.S., the GT-R is a JDM car available in American-spec form. So the GT-R is the stuff of legends among performance junkies and Japanese car lovers. In other words, Nissan has made the conscious decision to concentrate its efforts and resources on the powertrain instead of reshaping the exterior every five years. Image by Car and Driver Nissan GT-R: A JDM Car In AmericaĪmong serious car enthusiasts, the Nissan GT-R is an example of what a Japanese automaker can build when the focus is the mission more than the bottom line. One way to describe the GT-R is as the combination of what Porsche can do with a six-cylinder engine stuffed into the sleek, but not an overly refined body of a C6 Corvette.
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