Review of the new Nissan GT-R

Tucked away amongst the beet fields of Hokkaido, Japan's north island, is a tiny piece of Germany. Signs point to Koblenz and there are perfect replicas of autobahn rest stops. The road surface is Germanic and if you wait a while you might hear the keening roar of a turbocharged Porsche 911 flying past at three miles a minute. Think of that as bait for what Nissan has straining at the leash in a nondescript lock up garage.

To understand the significance of Nissan's GT-R, a little historical perspective is required. The GT-R badge can be traced back to 1969, when it appeared on the squared off rump of a Skyline powered by a 24-valve 2.0-litre straight-six, although it gave few clues as to what lay ahead. Fully twenty years would elapse before the Skyline GT-R legend would be realised. The Skyline R32 GT-R was a truly breathtaking achievement, truly the first Japanese supercar. With computer-controlled all-wheel drive and four-wheel steering, a 2.6-litre straight-six with twin ceramic turbochargers and 276 horsepower, it created a template that lives on today.

The Japanese media dubbed the car Obakemono-monster but perhaps a more charismatic nickname came from, Australia, where news of its unprecedented racing success saw it christened 'Godzilla'. The Skyline GT-R got bigger and heavier in R33 (1995) and R34 (1999) guises but it's back, albeit with the Skyline badge deleted. The 2008 Nissan GT-R hasn't just evolved. Like the scaly dinosaur that grew from a post-atomic Japan, this Godzilla has radically mutated.

"In the GT-R, Japan has its own performance legend."

For years Nissan played lip service to the Japanese 'gentleman's agreement' that limited its cars to 276bhp. When the company claimed to have set a sub 8 minute lap of the Nurburgring in the Skyline GTR-33 back in 1995, whispers suggested this car was packing closer to 350bhp and few Skyline owners left their cars standard. The reason for this was that the GT-R was a heavy old lump and compared to a Subaru Impreza or Mitsubishi Evo, 276bhp just doesn't cut it. With the 2008 GT-R, the gentleman's agreement has been torn up, shredded and burnt, the 3.8-litre V6 now churning out 485PS which is enough to power the car to 60mph in 3.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 193mph.

Unofficially, Nissan's engineers claim a 7:38s lap of the Nurburgring, which makes the GT-R quicker than the latest Porsche 911 Turbo - the benchmark rival in terms of dynamics. Twin turbos are built into the exhaust manifold, the engine is set back behind the front axle line for better weight distribution and it even boasts a four-wheel drive, double clutch transaxle. And carbon fibre propshafts. Even the ATTESA E-TS all-wheel drive system is now sharper and faster.

The GT-R is an astonishing piece of engineering, of that there is no doubt. The attention to detail is stunning. The dashboard display has been designed by Polyphony, the people who brought us the Gran Turismo Playstation games and displays g-force, drive distribution, speed, braking and acceleration pressure and turbo boost amongst many other functions. The drag coefficient is 0.27, which is virtually as slippery as a Toyota Prius. Weight distribution is a perfect 50:50, helped by the transaxle setup to separate the weights of engine and gearbox/differential.

Nissan has never stopped developing this car either. Recent tweaks include changes to the front spring and damper rates and a stiffening of the rear suspension radius rod bushings, giving improved feel and responsiveness during cornering. The logic controlling torque distribution between the front and rear axles when the GT-R is manoeuvring at low speeds just after start-up, when fluids are cold, has been altered to reduce rear-axle 'binding'. Furthermore, the logic in the gearbox has been changed to give a later downshift from 6th to 5th when being driven in automatic mode, but a more aggressive downshift pattern is adopted when changing down from 4th to 3rd, and from 3rd to 2nd gear.

To improve cooling around the rear of the car, two additional NACA cooling ducts have been added to the carbon fibre underfloor diffuser which will provide additional cooling to the exhaust and gearbox. Furthermore, a new, larger diameter pipe connecting the oil cooler will reduce gearbox temperatures. The balance of the electonic brakeforce distribution bias has been moved slightly rearwards, giving greater braking stability in dry conditions, while a change in design of the rear brake cross spring has reduced noise and a modified air deflector increases rear brake cooling.

The twin-clutch paddle-shift gearbox, similar to Audi's DSG system, shifts incredibly quickly and throttle blips on downchanges. The brakes are enormous Brembo units with five pistons at front and rear that will stop the GT-R from 100km/h in 36.9m. In Japan's type approval tests no car before the GT-R had ever stopped in less than 40m. Downsides? Well, the car is hardly what you'd call pretty with that squinty face and broken back roofline. Weight has crept up to 1,740kg and Nissan's electronics gurus have created what they think is a tamper-proof ECU to dissuade aftermarket tuning. A decent size boot and rear seats that will hold a couple of kids make the GT-R halfway practical too.

Just don't call it a Skyline. Nissan's suits get very tetchy if you drop the 'S' word when describing this car, claiming that the GT-R is a stand alone model in its own right rather than a hotted-up Skyline saloon or coupe. This GT-R runs on a different platform to the Skyline, which uses a version of the Nissan 350Z's chassis.

Equipment levels include a combined audio and navigation system, offering a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) navigation system with 40GB of memory space and a 7-inch colour touch screen. The system allows iPod/USB connection with full control via the screen and/or steering wheel switches. In addition, song, artist and album information is displayed on the screen. In the cabin, the leather is well finished, the dash hangs together quite well and there are even some interior switches that look as if they've been lifted from an Audi R8.The contra-rotating speedometer and rev counter dials take a bit of getting used to but one suspects Nissan has spent the money on the bits that really matter.

The GT-R formula has traditionally been using complex engineering to make rapid driving easy and as radical as the current GT-R appears, it does not divert from that philosophy one jot. Badge snobs may deride it as a hopped-up Nissan or reject it as an adolescent fantasy but the GT-R presents a very real challenge to the Porsche 911, the BMW M6 and even the Audi R8. The fascinating thing about a car that carries this weight of history behind it is that the GT-R has always been about what it can do, rather than what it represents and this 485PS car does incredible things.

A well finished coupe that can do 0-60 in 3.5s and run onto 193mph is always going to grab the attention, especially when priced at under £60,000. Germany has its Porsche 911, the US has the Corvette. In the GT-R, Japan has its own performance legend.