Let's kick things off by making a statement that will surely send shockwaves throughout the tuning community: The Skyline was never that great of a car. Before you get your panties in a bunch, notice that we didn't say "GT-R." We're not that dumb; we know that the Skyline GT-R has always been a fantastic machine. But the truth is, at its core, the Skyline is just a regular old under-powered family-hauler. civics have more horsepower than most non-turbo Skylines and, to be honest, seeing a non GT-R (or even GTS-t)-spec Skyline for the first time is actually pretty disappointing-it certainly killed any and all excitement we once had for the "Skyline" name. While we do know and recognize the fact that the GT-Rs of old underwent a major rework before being blessed with that coveted GT-R badge, the fact that they shared the same basic chassis with these lower-rung cars kept them from being all that they could be.
The new GT-R changes all of that. No longer burdened with the task of trying to make a supercar from a family sedan, Nissan engineers were able to create a real supercar from the ground up, and you can see this supercar's pedigree in just about every aspect of the car's construction.
Like this car's weight, for example. Nissan worked hard not only to keep this car as light as possible, but also to find creative ways to optimally distribute said poundage. Photos can't convey just how big or how pretty this car is. It looks like it was chiseled out of a solid chunk of steel-especially when sprayed in GT-R-exclusive Bright Silver paint. it looks somewhat awkward and portly in photos, and it's certainly bigger than just about anything rolling on Japanese roads, but the GT-R is actually pretty light for its size. Nissan used liberal amounts of aluminum all over the car, and many pieces, such as the doors, can be picked up with just a finger or two.
Nissan also shunned the tried-and-true method of bolting the transmission right to the engine. instead, it kept the hand-built engine up front and stuffed the paddle-shifted six-speed dual clutch transmission in the rear, connecting the two components with a carbon composite driveshaft. Carbon composite driveshafts are used once again to transfer this horsepower and torque to all four of the GT-R's wheels. Nissan says that by moving this tranny to the rear, the GT-R not only has optimal weight distribution, but any delay in responsiveness -caused by weight shifting from the front of the car to the rear-has been minimized.
About that engine: The new GT-R ditches the legendary RB26 for an all new twin turbo V6 that spits out 480 ps and 433 lb-ft of torque. An elite team of engine builders is used to construct the twin-turbo V6, and each technician works solo to hand-build and test just one engine at a time. it's a long process, to be sure, but this careful attention to detail ensures that each and every GT-R delivers the earthshattering performance its owners will demand of it. This car's 7:38 Nrburgring lap time is already the stuff of legend, but those of us that haven't been to the Green hell really can't appreciate just how fast that is. however, we can all understand and respect the GT-R's reported 3.5-second sprint to 60 and 192 mph top speed.
Unfortunately, we didn't get to experience that power at first. We were too busy white-knuckling the fatbottomed car around the narrow streets of Sendai, fighting every instinct we had to put this car on the right side of the road. We also learned that Japanese mountain roads have no shoulders, so we dropped the left wheels more than once when we had to swerve to avoid the onslaught of even wider construction trucks heading in the opposite direction. No matter. These construction trucks obviously meant that we'd be hitting spots of road work, which also meant that the new GT-R would be stationary for lengthy periods of time.