Thomas Falkiner gets behind the wheel of Japan's banzai road warrior
Even when viewed from the remote surreality of Google Earth, Tokyo – a regimented sprawl of concrete, glass and steel – has the power to completely fry your circuitry. The biggest city in the world with a population of 34.2-million people, this unique Japanese Metropolis is a maker and breaker of dreams, a financial powerhouse and a factory of trends that never closes. Mouse the slider bar, zoom in between the buildings, and in the eerie stillness of that hi-res satellite image, you can sense an intangible energy flowing through those streets; an invisible force driving every inhabitant. The capital of fashion and technical innovation by day, at night Tokyo hands itself over to a variety of strange and exotic subcultures. While many go unnoticed – obscured by doors, hidden away in basements – one was once brazen enough to take to this city’s never-ending expressways; ribbons of asphalt that snake lazily through tunnels, over water, next to skyscrapers.
Ruled by secrecy, followers of a warrior-like code, members of the infamous Mid Night Club met in the anonymity of neon-lit gas stations at the witching hour and then raced what they bought to another some distance away.Whipping through the urban nocturne at speeds well over 300km/h, catching a glimpse of these automotive anarchists was rare, almost impossible. But those who did reported sighting a smorgasbord of expensive exotics. From Ferrari F40s to heavily modified Porsche 911 Turbos, this insane collective drove the kind of cars us mortals can only dream about. Yet, in amongst all the thoroughbred imports, a good portion of Mid Night Club’s more patriotic members preferred to pocket the keys of local sheet metal. And, synonymous with the land of the rising sun, a Nissan Skyline GT-R was normally their weapon of choice; an imposing two-door sedan with proper giant slaying credentials rippling beneath its proletariat skin.
Already furiously fast right off the showroom floor, the well-moneyed lawyers, doctors, bankers – and sometimes suspected villains – who took to the streets of Tokyo after dark made their Nissans even quicker, more brutal. With true Japanese fanaticism and plenty of surplus Yen, GT-R bonnets soon opened up onto an organised jumble of pipes, turbochargers, nitrous oxide injectors and various electric doodads that allowed them to outrun almost anything – even the police. Much like the early Harley-Davidsons ridden by the Hells Angels in 50s, these machines rapidly achieved notoriety not only in Tokyo and Japan but around the world too. The advent of YouTube and the creation of video games like Gran Turismo helped crank up the heat of Skyline GT-R fever and by the late 90s every petrolhead worth their driving boots was versed in this vehicle’s mythical qualities.
Fast-forward to the present-day, however, and you’ll find things have changed dramatically. Firstly, due to a fateful high-speed accident involving the Bosozoku motorcycle gang in 1999, the legendary Mid Night Club has subsequently dissolved, disappearing back into the darkness as mysteriously as it first arrived. And secondly one of the machines that helped take this institution to the heights of infamy no longer wears the Skyline badge. But be that as it may, the GT-R has evolved into something far more special. No longer just a tarted-up version of a family sedan, it finally has the ballsy swagger of a true supercar; a bespoke Lamborghini rival born in the wind tunnel and laser-cut with all sorts of aggressive, wind-cheating geometry.
Slicing through the air quicker than a greasy Ninjato sword, the new GT-R shows up the old Skyline with a hand-built engine, plasma coated cylinder bores – whatever that means – and, in the case of cars finished off in Super Silver, a fastidious man who polishes every one of its three layers of paint. Already, like similar tax write-offs from the towns of Maranello and Sant'Agata Bolognese, this extreme level of manufacturing detail and care immediately throws the GT-R into a whole new stratosphere of coolness; a niche occupied by only the most dapper and capable of modern automobiles. Combined with inescapable media hype – that world record time of 07:29 around the Nürburgring was certainly hard to ignore – and the fact that is was chosen as one of the headlining cars in Gran Turismo 5, this new Nissan GT-R comes loaded with more kudos than all of its predecessors combined. And, quite unbelievably, it lives up to every single one of them in real life.
From the second you see this motoring luminary in the steely flesh, come to grips with its unexpectedly large proportions, you just know that – like the city that influenced it – it’s going to etch itself into your psyche forever more. Of course on the inside, despite the presence of that brilliant Multi-Function Display that measures everything from lateral g-forces and turbo-boost, it’s possible to be left somewhat underwhelmed by the cabin’s general lack of excitement; those poorly disguised working class roots. But once you awaken that engine and take off down the road, all is forgiven, as you’ll find out very quickly that few cars in this world are as savagely rapid.
Accompanied by a sound reminiscent of shredding metal, the GT-R’s twin-turbocharged V6 allows you accelerate like a jet fighter and soon hit the sort of speeds that’ll put you in a complicated legal battle for the next three years of your life. As a driver you can’t believe something can be this effortlessly fast and, as a passenger, you wonder how your neck muscles will survive the intense levels of thrust that accompany each 100-millisecond gear shift. Yet, as epically fast as the whip-lashing GT-R may be, the way it hooks through corners is even more impressive. Feeling like what I can only describe as a car with magnetized wheels running along a sheet of steel, this Nissan really sticks to asphalt with a reassuring ease; an ease that makes you want to push harder than you’ve ever dared push between four wheels. And when you do – believe me, it’s inevitable – the GT-R acts in a way that makes you feel like one of the four demigod racing drivers chosen to hone this machine to perfection around Nissan’s Tochigi test track; one hell of an accomplishment in a useable, everyday car priced at just over R1-million.
Rest assured that if they were still around, the Mid Night Club would flip their lids for the Nissan GT-R. The perfect embodiment of Japanese style and a showcase of the island’s technological prowess, this would be the machine that most of their members would own the night with; a car capable of taking their dark art to a new level of hardcore extremes. But seeing as they’re not, this just means that a lot more of these über-Nissans will be heading our way. And I for one certainly am not complaining.
Nissan GT-R Fast Facts:
Engine: 3799 cc twin-turbocharged V6
Power: 357kw at 6400rpm
Torque: 588Nm from 3200rpm – 5200rpm
0-100km/h: 3.5 seconds
Top Speed: 311km/h
Fuel Consumption: 12.4l/100km (claimed combined)
Price: From R1 175 000
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