MONSTER

It's a bit difficult to think of another make or model that has changed the game so completely as the original Godzilla; the Nissan R32 GT-R.

- DAVE MORLEY

Not only did this car dominate touring-car racing to the point where the rule-makers fundamentally banned it, it also threw everything we thought we knew about performance cars into a comprehensively cocked hat.

The R32 GT-R wasn't the first car to sport all-wheel drive and a turbocharged engine (the World Rally Championship's homologation rules had already pushed Audi, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Ford, Toyota and others in that direction) but the GT-R sure as hell redefined what it took to be a successful touring car. And, along the way, it introduced many buyers to the high-tech approach and application of technology that has since gone on to inform pretty much every supercar.

The twin turbocharged inline six was rippling with muscle and smoother than a chat-show host, while the all-wheel-drive system was rumoured to be based on a reverse-engineered setup from the Dakar-conquering Porsche 959 with some extra electronics thrown in for good measure.

There were also aluminium hanging panels to offset the mass of the all-wheel-drive stuff (and a total of 1430kg) pumped wheel-arches, bigger brakes and better seats compared with the garden-variety Skyline coupe.

If you were around at the time, you might recall that the original plan was for the GT-R to be a Japanese domestic-market model exclusively. But a bunch of passionate people within Nissan Australia - engineers, management and marketing people - knew that the thing would be an absolute winner here, too. Three-and-a-half decades later, and they've been proven right. But it wasn’t so cut and dried back in the day. Fact is, the original launch of the Aussie-spec Godzilla was a bit of a flop.