Cars – Nissan GT-R Nismo

nissan - TGJ.01

He’s dripping in gold medallions, just short of two metres tall and… oh, yes, he’s the fastest man on the planet. If that’s not enough to scribble down on your CV, then he’s now been added to the payroll of one of the world’s largest car companies as its Director of Excitement.

Correct, Usain Bolt’s office door at Nissan HQ has got Director of Excitement plastered all over it. Strange job title, yes, but when you’re tinkering with a car that will leave most of the 200mph club in the dust, then the only human you can trust to make it faster is, well; the fastest.

What we have here is the Nissan GT-R Nismo. It’s as technically enhanced as a batch of Walter White’s finest ‘Blue’ and it looks like the product of a games console orgy. The standard Nissan GT-R, or ‘Godzilla’ as it’s referred to in its native country of Japan has been around since its debut at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2007. What’s new, is that Nismo (Nissan’s motorsport division) decided that Godzilla wasn’t as terrifyingly quick as it could be, and so took it back to the garage work out why. ??The result? The GT-R Nismo receives a power increase to just short of 600bhp, while the addition of extended carbonfibre front and rear bumpers, rear wing and dry carbon boot lid help to shed any pounds that might have piled on over the years. What all this means in the playground, is that the Nissan GT-R Nismo is the third quickest street-legal car to ever lap the infamous performance yardstick, the Nürbergring Nordschleife, clocking in at 7.8 minutes.

So what’s the bank manager’s reaction going to be like as you reach for your chequebook? This little packet is estimated to set you back £120,000 when it’s released in Summer 2014, which is a further £44,000 more than the standard GT-R.

Of course, you could buy a very lovely little Porsche with £120,000; maybe even a Bentley; or an Aston Martin; or a house? Or, you could sign yourself down for a Nissan GT-R Nismo safe in the knowledge that you’re not only cooler than James Bond in a Siberian snow storm, but that you also own the car that the quickest man in the universe put his name to. The choice is yours…

By Rory FH Smith

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