- Back in the mid two thousands,
the Infiniti G35 was introduced
and because of its like awkward parental history
and the fact that Infiniti like at home and
just didn't work with how, you know,
American market and what they called it in Japan,
what they called it in America,
they call it the Nissan skyline,
but some people were happy
and some people were a little upset,
but it was basically the equivalent
of the top of the range skyline sold in Japan at the time.
That's an actual thing.
That's why people call a G35 a skyline.
But there's another car that shares a little bit of that
similar history with a much better ending
than what most G35 look like these days.
Those poor, poor headless.
I'm Alex, Alex.fi on Instagram.
And today we're gonna be talking about a car
that nearly decimated every single car out there
in the same exact market, including its own transmission.
A car that made people forget about the 370Z update
for at least like seven to eight years,
because they were just so happy with Nissan at the time
that they could have, bricks and it would have been gold.
The car that immediately became the go-to platform
for making Lamborghini's cry at Texas 2K.
Ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna be talking about
you wanting to own an R-35 Nissan GT-R
(exciting techno music beat)
And if you're just jumping into this video,
it'd be super sweet if you subscribed,
but I really don't even know what that button does anymore,
but it'd still be kind of cool.
And if you're looking for
aftermarket wheels, tires or suspension,
be sure to check us out over at fitmentindustries.com,
where we literally have everything
your little heart could possibly desire.
I will give anyone a shiny quarter that can tell me
how many times I've said that
either on purpose or on accident,
TikTok does not count.
Also we're launching our own wheel brands,
(faintly speaking) wheels, go check it out.
It's kind of like plug,
but it's gonna be pretty exciting.
And if you guys didn't know that we are also giving away
a set of Rotiform wheels,
you can check out the description link below,
you pick up a tee shirt or a hat,
it gets you an automatic entry in to win
a free set of Rotiform wheels. It's pretty awesome.
The first GT-R to be offered in the United States
dubbed the R-35 did not carry the skyline name at all.
And when it came out,
it bullied quite a few kids on the playground, all right.
You see, the good old GT-R was a nameplate for Nissan,
mostly between 1969 to 1974. And then again in 1989 to 2002.
However, when bringing it into the United States,
the Nissan powers that be declared that it's not a skyline
because it had a different chassis,
it had different styling and different body work
say for the good old Morty eyeballs in the back of the car,
which were inherently the tail lights.
I mean sure, it had the same methodology
of having a success of a skyline.
It had the all wheel drive system,
it had a twin turbo V-6,
a fancy center dash that had a bunch of gauges in it.
But that was about it. What we do know though,
is that it still can and should be called Godzilla.
That's a great movie. The first one was fantastic,
the second one not so much.
It got a little weird in king of the monsters.
Where was I? Oh yeah, Playground bullying.
GT-R was pretty much inherently a bully, okay.
The GT-R debuted at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show.
- The all new Nissan GT-R.
- Carrying the body that was the Porsche 911 turbo lap time
around the Nurburgring.
The GT-R would run the ring right about
seven and a half minutes, you know, flat.
(speeding car engine)
Alright, more than nine seconds faster
than 911 turbo, which was a big deal.
Porsche would come back and actually say it was fake news.
Claiming Nissan used semi slick tires
to produce the low time
versus the tires that came on the car from the factory.
Now to get this, Porsche was so upset that they actually
brought their own GT-R or bought it or borrowed it,
we're not entirely sure where the story goes from there,
flew it Germany themselves and ran the car
and then stated publicly that there was no way
Nissan's car could beat their turbo track time
because not even they could beat their own track time
with the GT-R. Well, I mean,
that's kind of funny and also kind of buttered.
Nissan's response though,
they release a second video of the lap
as proof of the lap time, photos of the tires
which were Dunlops at the time
that were used actually in the run
were also photographed and sent out and you know,
they also claim that they were at a disadvantage
because of the 50 kilograms of testing equipment
that they probably could have ran a faster lap without it.
Overall, they just showed Porsche to please be quiet
and just sit back down. One last little stab
before going off and hurting more feelings,
especially those in the Ferrari world,
Nissan then offered free driver training to Porsche.
If they wanted to attempt a second lap with their own GT-R.
Like those are fighting words.
Like GT-R was, was a bully, alright.
Even with only 480 horsepower and 430 foot-pounds of torque
out of this first Nissan GT-R, the Nissan was a danger
to pretty much any other performance car
when it was released.
The VR38DETT motor was built specifically by individuals
called Takumi Craftsmens in a special area
of Nissan's Yokohama plant. I'm not kidding.
It was like four people.
It was Izumi Shioya, Nobumitsu Gozu,
Tsunemi Ooyama and Takumi Kurosawa.
Woo, God that was hard to learn.
The valve clearance is done by a machine,
but nearly everything else is done by hand.
And by using the experience of these four
having an addition to the massive history
of Nissan sports car success,
which was the R-34, R-33 and R-32
of the previous generation GT-Rs,
the car was pretty much an immediate success
and it was a pretty good price when it came out.
The car was built by the dreams of 18 year olds.
It was a twin turbo V-6.
It was designed by Shiro Nakamura,
who took the inspiration and likening of the GT-R, the R-35
to the giant robots of Gundam, okay.
I don't know what else you want?
It's a tuner fast car.
It's like, (mumbling) I don't, I don't remember the intro,
but it was a really good show, I remember Gundam.
My dad didn't want to let me watch it.
The center console was made by GranTurismo,
like who wouldn't want a car made from Japan
that's like fast as (beep)?
Whoops (beep) was only $78,000.
It looks like a Gundam suit, and has this
video game center dash, and it was easy to drive,
and it also had a big (beep) warranty,
right when it came off the factory.
And the answer to that question friends and family,
is no one. No one.
No one would not want this. The Nissan GT-R
will get consistently updated nearly every single year.
Although the cars destroyed, there were still new cars.
So they suffered from like minor little issues,
like transmission issues, some ECU mapping refinements,
and there was a couple of two, three wiring improvements.
And of course fixing their headlights.
I don't know what it is with Nissan
and just not having good headlights,
but it's just something that will play them
to the end of the days.
2010 it would get bumped up to 485 horsepower from 480.
2012 will see it jump up to 530.
2013 was around 545, and now it's kicking out
to right around 565 horsepower to 2017 and newer.
The changes throughout the year focused on the mapping,
the valve timing, the refinements
of the structural strength of the car.
It was just like little tweaks, little changes, okay.
The car had all the right pieces though.
But instead of trying to introduce the brand
to a new generation,
Nissan just did the typical Nissan thing
and just kept refining it year over year.
They just do the same thing with the 370Z,
but 370Z is in desperate need of an update.
The car's history itself is hilarious.
They had to figure out how to handle
what to call launch control when they actually like,
introduced the car to the consumer public, okay.
They could've voided their warranty.
They didn't even know what to do with that.
They ended up having to remap it because
the launch control was true aggressive.
They didn't wanna call it launch control.
It crushed an 11 second lap time.
And now the new generation goes zero to 60 in 2.7 seconds.
Yes, I get it. You're gonna make a joke,
we can read the brochure, but still that's insane.
The car broke records.
It was in Super GT and it was in FIA GT,
it was in GT3, it was in Tarmac Rally,
it was in Targe West, it was in SCCA,
the AMS Performance made the car run a seven second pass
with 2000 horsepower.
Not even a GT-R anymore.
Alpha did their GT-R in six and a half seconds like,
what do you want from this car?
The first six years of production,
it won 24 different awards.
And although Nissan tried its damnedest
to lock up the ECU from being tuneable,
cheat codes in the magazine alright,
up down, up down, BBA start.
Alright, that's all you gotta do.
People found them and it worked out great.
But we're not here to just talk about
the history of the GT-R and the fact that it is,
even if you take the subjectiveness out of it
a pretty damn good car.
We're here to talk about you wanting to own
one of these bad boys. So you want a Nissan GT-R.
We'll set down your Volks
and grab your favorite Liberty Walk Kit,
because we're about to talk about what it's like
to actually own one of these vehiculars alright.
If you wanna jump into a Nissan GT-R,
there's a couple of two tree things
that you need to know before hand.
First off, they're extremely quick,
but the earlier generations do have issues.
If you're gonna try and actually pick one up,
the best thing to do is try get one 2012 or newer.
Number two, they're gonna get you in trouble, alright.
Well, Nissan purposely downplayed the power of the car,
it's still a lot to send 480 horsepower
to all four wheels through a newer platform.
This has resulted in some people
not having the most enjoyable of times
with their transmissions, with control solenoids failing,
launch control essentially can snap first gear
if you do it often enough.
And because Nissan is Nissan too,
they never really service their transmissions,
they only replace them.
So if something goes wrong with your transmission,
they would just give you a new one,
which is a little bit of a bad taste in people's mouth
when the repair is a little bit above $10,000.
Just like other Nissans to their headlamps have an issue
with condensation, and we talked about that before.
That's okay, but they have that
and they just never really gonna figure it out.
The interiors can get a little bit rattly after a while.
And if you sit in on,
you can kind of see what I'm talking about.
But it's still a Nissan too.
So it shared parts with like the Maximas and Altimas
of the same period.
But you're not buying the car inherently for the interior,
but you might be a little bit underwhelmed
if you pick up one and you've never sat
in the interior of a GT-R before.
For number two though,
that should be pretty self explanatory.
The car is trying to just make sure you get pulled over.
The car drives insanely well.
There's so much gadgetry that doesn't prevent you
from feeling like you're not in control, which is good.
Sometimes for people like you and people like me, okay.
At 500 horsepower, you'll beat most of the things
that are on the street and look really good doing so.
2013 GT-Rs have just, they soften, they softened, they just,
they're just like a warm potato with butter.
Modifications for these cars can exist anywhere.
You can do just about anything you want.
The community is massive, the support is huge.
And the Texas 2K builds are plentiful.
You can make these things fast,
like super fast and it's scary, alright?
It can be almost a little bit overbearing
if you got the GT-R,
because you're immediately gonna be met with,
"Hey bro, bro, Hey bro."
That does exist, it is a very real thing.
People just don't keep GT-R stock
and if you do, people don't like you.
People run mostly staggered
and aggressive setups with these cars,
mostly on the higher up wheels too.
You're looking at 20 by 10 and 20 by 12s is pretty common.
And then you're looking at designs coming in from either
Volk, BBS, Advan or Velgen.
Velgen wheels does a lot with GT-Rs.
Stock, these cars are pretty incredible,
built for the track they do well,
as a show, they look good,
as a daily, they actually do pretty good.
You could put one in the winter time.
You just might crack your bumper. And as a used value,
they aren't that bad either when you're comparing it
to other cars in the price bracket.
Well, newer ones are wee bit too expensive.
And competition from the domestic side of the field
has gotten much closer, especially in recent years.
The used market for these cars is spot on, and definitely
a car you could jump into and enjoy for a few years.
Is there a lot of fan bullyism around the R-35? Absolutely.
Is it without mistakes or issues? No,
but it is a fantastic platform that you can do a lot with,
which is why so many people drive them.
But what do you think about the Nissan GT-R?
Let us know. And of course, if you're looking for
aftermarket wheels, tires or suspension,
be sure to hit us up over at fitmentindustries.com.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries.
No, I don't own a GT-R and we will see you later, peace.