From the Archives: A BMW and a Porsche help us know where the Nissan GT-R fits perfectly into the automotive landscape.
When the Spaniards arrived in the New World about 500 years ago on their giant wooden sailboats, it was said that the indigenous people standing on the coast really did not see the great ships on the horizon because they were not part of the world —their visual reality. It took several days for the miraculous ships to register, becoming part of the tangible existence of the natives. The story reminds us that reality is limited to what the human senses can recognize and what our neurons can handle.
Like Native Americans trying to capture the new, it took us a few days to learn about the 2009 Nissan GT-R, to see what it was like. We are still amazed at the fact that a 3900-pound coupe seems to break Newton’s laws. Could this come true — Ferrari’s show for $70,000? Is GT-R a good thing or is it a bad thing, some post-modern god?
We first exposed the Nissan Skyline GTR in 1991. At the time, the fastest car on the road was the Ferrari F40—0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.2 seconds. The grey Skyline GTR car for the Japanese market is adapted to deliver 350 horsepower (up from 276 standard horsepower), which will quickly rearrange the interior in our heads. Equipped with a 2.6-liter, double-voltage in-line 6-cylinder engine, it is suitable for the F40’s 0 to 60 times.
