I read this article a couple of days ago and I thought you guys might enjoy it.

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"Waiting for the GT-R"

By: Richard S. Chang

When Carlos Chosn announced in 2003 the next Skyline GT-R would be built on a global platform, including a left-hand-drive version, I just about choked on my own saliva. We all did. It was like 50 Cent saying he would stop showing off his six-pack. The news was beyond our imagination. The GT-R, here, for us… Who thought that would ever happen? But the 2007 launch date was still far in the future and besides, we had other homologation toys to play with.

Two years later the landscape has changed. We’ve had our fun with the WRX and memorized every variation of the Evo VIII – with wing, without wing, with active center diff. Even my dad asks me about the STI and he hasn’t driven above the speed limit in 10 years. In short, our ADD-addled brains are getting used to living with turbo rally cars. We’ve renormalized our expectations.

Then Nissan released the NISMO Skyline GT-R Z-Tune. Out of nowhere Nissan resurrected the GT-R, 18 months after putting it to sleep. It pumped the power up to 500hp by dropping in JGTC engine parts, including IHI race-spec turbos and a defibrillator. If it was a marketing strategy, it worked.

But could it have been more than that? The most interesting thing about the Z-Tune is that it has found a way past Japan’s 280hp regulation, which is like solving string theory. Is Nissan experimenting with emissions technology while at the same time telling its Japanese customers, “Don’t worry about this 280hp business; you can expect the moon”?

I refuse to believe it was a coincidence Nissan put an aero-clad Skyline “test car” on the Nurburgring so shortly after releasing the Z-Tune. As much as the Ring is the ultimate performance test track, it’s also the ultimate hype machine. And Nissan used it to perfection, “leaking” engine stats – 3.2 liter, 450hp turbo charged V6 – that blow the WRX and EVO out of the water.

In a way it’s fitting the GT-R is the last of the three Japanese homologation supercars to cross the ocean. It defines the genre. Forget that the R32 GT-R is a car Nissan originally built to compete in Group A, or that Nissan lifted the RB26DETT twin-turbo straight-six from the Prince R380 race car. The Skyline GT-R is Japan’s Corvette. It is the car Nissan must get right every time.

You should hear the way Japanese tuners talk about the GT-R. They turn into golems and their eyes bulge. They talk about “engineering beauty” and “enduring legacy.” I’m not sure if they’re referring to the car or the Pyramid of Giza. For as much as the Japanese love their Fairlady Z, they would like to see the Skyline back in Super GT.

I only drove a GT-R once, seven years ago in Los Angles. It was a gray import R34 Skyline GT-R V-Spec II from MotorEx. Good enough for the 30 minutes I had it under my clumsy powers, but my best stories come from the times I sat shotgun: once in a 750hp R34 skyline GT-R with a single turbo upgrade doing an intensive version of highway Frogger on Japan’s Kinki expressway; once inside the Loctite GT500 race car, stomach in throat, knocking on 200mph all the way around Twin Ring Motegi, though I was mostly catatonic through the short ride; and once at a drift meet outside Osaka.

I can’t help but think those experiences were made more special because the car was untouchable over here. And soon that’s going to change. Just like CDs and videotapes are regressing into obsolescence, so will the exclusivity of the Japanese exotic. And teenagers will ask their dads, “What’s the big deal about the Skyline GT-R?”

We have two years left until that happens. Two painful years, but I’m going to relish every minute of it.

 

ooh. I liked it. I sorta wish they wouldn't bring it here. Then every ones gonna be driving one including old people with retirement money. It wont be as Oh My God I Just saw an R32 GT-R pass me. It will be like the 350z or G35. Just another car that i have seen thousands of. It does not matter anyways. I'm moving to Japan once I am old enough.

 

i dunno about you but not everyone can afford nor will everyone purchase a $75,000 japanese car no matter how prestiguious it is.

 

In America is people want something they get a loan. Or they steal it. I don't know about you, but I see Lambo's and Ferrari's a lot. Those cost way more than 75,000. It will still have a wow factor just not the same kind.

 

I just hope Nissan dealerships in the US don't price gouge to much on the GTR when it finally does debut. Do you guys think dealerships are gonna be crazy with the pricing over sticker? Wonder what the deposit is gonna be to get on the list

 

i too am curious about the deposit, and if you were to approach a dealer (nissan or infinity) if you had the cash for a decent sized down payment/deposit, if they could/would at this point guarantee that not only the car was coming, and that they would have them available, but that they would sell you one of the first for msrp, or even invoice.

 

The deposit isn't based on price. The dealer will probably ask for a $1,000 - $2,000 deposit. It's also too soon for dealers to know pricing and allocation. I think we'll get the info before they do.

 

That depends on the dealer. Some do and some don't.

 

the GTR is not in any way being created so everyone can buy it. it is aimed at people who have a lot of money. it is competing for market share with Porsche. and that car has never been affordable.

i don't understand why some people will post things like this. is it because it is a Nissan? the GTR is one of the most prestigious and legendary supercars ever created, past, present, and future. it carries a tremendous japanese nationalistic identity, beyond the meaning of just a "car."

the new GTR is going to eclipse any of it's forerunners in performance. such a car is not attainable to just anybody.

there is seldom ever any complaining when a Porsche costs $110,000. or if a Ferrari costs $200,000 --the GTR is competing at the performance class-level of these manufacturers. and offering such a car at half, or a fraction of, the cost of many of the popular european counterparts.

i am seeing, thus far, on this board a heavy slant to compare the GTR's class with that of Evo or STi, ie, the GTR is lumped in with these cars. and that would be more accurate in talking about the older R32, R33, and to some extent R34 GTR's. keep in mind as well that this comparison is often with 5, 10, 15-year old GTRs with NEW Evos and NEW STi's.

however, it must be put to everyone, like a 2 X 4 hitting you up side the head, that this newest generation of GTR is not going to be in such a class anymore. it is being bumped WAY up.

for example, the limited edition 2005 model R34 GTR Z-tune is, in essence, a stock roadcar platform, modified from stock, then REISSUED as "stock," ie, the bar was raised on roadgoing performance -- it was put out to market as a statement about the future of the GTR -- even if the new 2008 GTR is "watered down" from the R34 Z-tune, it will still easily be at the forefront of ALL production sports cars, and become a standard by which ALL subsequent production sports cars will be judged. otherwise, there is no reason to call it "GTR." Nissan is not going to all of the trouble and expense to re-invent the GTR program by simply offering a V-6 version of the standard, non-Z tune R34 GTR. what would be the point?

this is no Evo or Subie, fellas.