10 Things You Should Know About the Nissan GT-R

What it will do is provide the sort of hyper-technological driving experience available only from the cutting edge Japanese. A field of screens and adjustable everything were standard on the GT-R long before those features showed up on its competitors, let alone mainstream cars. In this country, its mystique was aided by the simple fact that it wasn’t available here until its final generation - yet its inclusion in numerous popular video games meant every gearhead knew about it and could recite its spec sheet.

1 - Big City Skyline

The original GT-R had a ‘Skyline’ prefix, produced in the final year of the ‘60s and for a couple of annums in the 1970s. It debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1968 and turned heads with its 2.0L inline-six making 160 horsepower, five-speed manual transmission, and limited-slip differential putting down the grunt. For an era in which twee little cars were more common than not, it was like something dropped from space for enthusiasts to enjoy. About 2,000 were made and are very sought after today.

2 - Ken and Mary

The second-generation Skyline GT-R was sold for just two model years. Appearing in 1972, right after the first-gen car went out of production, it had a sultry coupe body style but still deployed a 2.0 inline-six mated to a five-speed. Even though fewer than 200 copies were produced, a popular advertising campaign featuring a couple called Ken and Mary ingrained the car on Japan’s psyche, so much that this generation of GT-R was often referred to as the ‘Kenmeri’ Skyline.

3 - Sweet Sixteen (Year Hiatus)

Talk about taking a few gap years. It would take another 16 trips around the sun for Nissan to build another GT-R, reintroducing the name in 1989 on what enthusiasts now call the ‘R32’, a nomenclature that refers to its internal chassis designation. Produced up until 1994, this is the one which was designed to dominate Group A racing, earning top honors in championships and prestigious races on three different continents. The NISMO variant, of which 500 were made to homologate the thing for racing, deleted fripperies like ABS brakes and the rear wiper.

4 - Touring Car Success

However, it was in the crucible of Japanese touring cars where the R32 iteration of the GT-R saw some of its biggest successes. The vehicle, backed by capable teams and wheeled by top drivers, scored the victory in every Japanese Touring Car Championship race during the 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993 seasons. An impressive resumé, which earned championships for the Hasemi and Impul teams during this era.

5 - Red Round Circles

Stylists for the R32 deployed a skiff of nostalgia to create the vehicle’s taillights, deploying a quartet of round circles, which vaguely recalled the style used on Kenmeri car. What they may not have anticipated was how this would become one of the GT-R’s signature features, instantly recognizable at all times of day or night. It was relentlessly copied by competitors and wannabes alike, eventually even showing up on vanilla compact cars in America.

6 - PlayStation Generation

By the time the R32 and subsequent R33 ran their life cycles (‘89 - ‘94 and ‘95 - ‘99, respectively) enthusiasts around the globe were salivating for a chance to get behind the wheel of these twin-turbocharged rocket ships. Most folks in North America were introduced to the cars through video games like Gran Turismo, a series that offered up a myriad of GT-R variants and endless customization. Even people who’d never seen one in person could recite its all-wheel drive specifications.

7 - Fast & the Curious

While an R33 made appearances in the first movie of the Fast & Furious franchise, it was the R34 that showed up in 2Fast2Furious, which vaulted the model to stardom. Piloted by Paul Walker’s character for just the first act of this film, the striped Nissan cemented its hero status on the silver screen. Fun fact: the scene in which Walker’s character crashes into a parking meter before being arrested by cops was unplanned - Walker was supposed to make the turn but instead slid into the curb. The director just rolled with it, and we’re glad he did.

8 - Godzilla Returns

The culmination of all this was the R35 generation of the Nissan GT-R. By now just referred to as this name with no Skyline connotations, the car was built for nearly 20 model years from 2007 to 2025. While its engine was still ahead of the driver, it was set far enough towards the firewall that it is technically a front-mid mounted design. Each mill, a twin-turbocharged 3.6L V6, was hand built in a dust proof, temperature controlled room at Nissan's Yokohama plant. Incredibly, only nine of these "Takumi Craftsmen" mechanics worked throughout the car's 18-year production span.

9 - Mighty Expensive Editions

Unlike previous versions of the GT-R, the R35 was sold worldwide, sating appetites and draining bank accounts of people who always wanted to buy a new GT-R but couldn’t get one in their country. It actually bore a relatively approachable price tag when first introduced, taking the likes of Porsche to school in terms of economics. However, by the end of its long run, special models such as the Takumi Edition cost over $150,000 in America, though that bill was partly justified by the existence of fewer than 200 copies in that market and nearly 600 horsepower.

10 - End Times

While production of the GT-R as we know it has come to an end, don’t be surprised if Nissan keeps the revered name in storage for future use on a new hyperactive machine with modern internals. After all, they once waited 16 years for a reprise - who’s to say they won’t do it again?