Nissan GT-R

With the biggest update to the R35 since it was launched in 2007, has the GT-R gone a bit soft?

- Henry Catchpole

ALTHOUGH WEISSACH might not admit it, i’m sure the R35-gen Nissan GT-R and its monster performance was the car that forced the 911 Turbo to become amore aggressive, grip obsessed machine. As a consequence of the Nissan’s arrival, Porsche took a little of the everyday out of the everyday super car in the 997.2 Turbo.

Now we have this: the new, 2017 MY R35 GT-R. A car Nissan wants to be more mature,more refined…more everyday. how ironic.

It feels like the engineers have never really stopped tinkering with the R35 since it was launched in 2007, but this is the biggest wholesale update to the GT-R since then. There is a stiffer body shell and various aero tweaks to the bodywork,many of which are recognisable from the 2014 GT-R Nismo. Some alterations are very subtle indeed, but others, such as the stiffer,more channelled bonnet, instantly set the new car apart. Much of the aero work has actually been focused on improving cooling with no additional drag, rather than increasing down force. Power from the V6 twin-turbo engine is up a fraction,too,from 542bhp at 6400rpm to 562bhp at 6800rpm.