Don’t blame it on us if we come across as being repetitive, but it’s actually Nissan’s fault. It seems Mizuno-san and the R35 development team weren’t joking when, back in 2007, they announced the GT-R would continue to be fine tuned until the very last year of its production. So here we are, six years on and the famed Godzilla continues to impress. We were invited up to Sugo circuit to sample for ourselves if the latest changes for this year actually do improve what is in all effects an aesthetically unvaried car.

So starting with the exterior it was decided that the 2013 car (2014 if you are in the US) would be fine without any changes. It still retains the wider front grille design and LED daytime running lights that were previously introduced as well as the forged multi-spoke wheels made by Rays Engineering.

The VR38 develops the same 541 HP, but a few slight improvements have been made, little touches that serve as the perfect example at how fanatical the GT-R engineers are at perfecting the car. Thanks to a set of all-new high-pressure injectors, which boast a faster reaction time, throttle response has been made even sharper. Furthermore…

…a cunning little reworked relief valve in the turbos’ bypass allows for less pressure-drop when backing off the gas, so once you step back on the throttle boost picks up instantly. As Mizuno-san explained it through one of his world famous X/Y graphs, this actually gets rid of lag…not that there was much before hand to my recollection!

Press drives are always rushed; it’s great if you are only there to drive as you can enjoy the presentations, the copious amounts of coffee and snacks and every once in a while jump in a car for a spirited drive on track. For me however it’s a day of sprinting, running like a crazy man from the paddock where I have short bursts of time to shoot the car and then back to the pits where I suit up and head out for a drive. Oh and let’s not forget the action shots I need to get trackside! But props to all the guys at Nissan who, that freezing afternoon up in Sugo, helped me out by giving me extra time here and there to make sure I got what I needed.

It’s thanks to this extra time that I was able to fully appreciate the new 2013 R35 in more detail, looking over things like the new “Fashionable Interior” option which brings a breath of fresh air into the cabin.

The soft deep red leather and new stitching pattern for the seats have a more modern feel and matching upholstery can also be found on the door cards, dashboard and steering wheel. It’s meant to give a touch of elegance and I think they have really accomplished that. If however you want more, the Egoist is still available!

That menacing rump must be a scary sight to a lot of supercar owners who know just how explosive Nissan’s rocket ship is in the real world. Manufacturers love to claim Nurbugring lap times and this 2013 model has managed to lap it in 7 min 18.6 sec, over 1.5 sec faster than the previous model year car. Now this is an impressive feat in itself but the way they have achieved it is even more incredible. If you recall last year I posted a video of Mizuno and his team at the Nurbugring 24 hours, showing how they entered a production car into the grueling endurance race. The testing and experience the whole development team gained from it was all put into this years car…

…and it isn’t until you get behind the wheel that you fully comprehend the fine tuning that has gone on.

The R35 has always been commended for its “anywhere, anytime, anyone” ability, it’s a freakishly capable all round car but once you get it on track- its true soul really shines through.

I always forget how damn focused the car is, it really takes a few minutes to retune your limits, once again be surprised just how far you can push. One of the biggest improvements to this year’s car is the lower front center of gravity, which was achieved thanks to an improved geometry. This in turn allowed the use of slightly thicker front sway bars all of which called for the re-tune of the damper settings. The result is quantifiable both in the lap times you can extract from the car, but more so in the feel. Testing the 2013 car back to back against last year’s GT-R, it was obvious how turn in has improved. There’s more front-end bite, the car more willing to attack corners and soon, you find yourself bringing more speed into turns and as a result more out of them too as the push-out understeer that plagued the earlier cars has all but gone. Additional stiffening to two key areas of the dashboard member has also increased front-end rigidity, complimenting the revisions beautifully.

As for the engine, the reworked relief valve and injectors must really work because the VR felt almost NA-like in its response and pick up while above 4,000 rpm there was definitely more acceleration exiting corners. It goes to show that power isn’t everything! While I turned all traction and stability controls off while on track…

…I left the car to babysit me when I tackled the tight street course Nissan had set up for us around the Sugo circuit access roads. The damp and slippery corners would serve as an excellent test for the GT-R’s brains and believe it or not this is where the car impressed me the most. I say this every time I talk about an R35 but the way this car masks its weight really defies belief. While the 2012 was struggling through tighter corners with more under and oversteer, cutting more power in more instances – the 2013 glided over slippery second gear corners and shot out of first gear hairpins with ballistic acceleration. Under breaking too the rear end was more planted and those steering improvements, well don’t assume you need to drive 10/10th on track to feel them. I guarantee that the first few corners you take they will instantly come across.

And then there is the launch control. As Mizuno-san put it, with a playful grin on his face, if you want to accelerate faster to 100 km/h (62 mph) in a production car you will need a Bugatti Veyron. The fine tuning of the launch control feature makes it possible to shoot to 100 “k’s” in 2.7 sec – you just hold the car on the brakes pin the throttle and release when needed. What follows is a violent surge of power that will catapult you effortlessly off the line as the speedometer needle jumps to the 100-mark and beyond.

So once again we have no choice but to draw the same conclusions. You can criticize the GT-R all you want, it might not be as aurally pleasing and satisfying to drive as say a Ferrari 458, as involving as a 911 GT3, its design might not appeal to everyone, it may even look and feel too normal – but performance doesn’t lie. This is evolution at its best and again we are left wondering how better can the GT-R continue to get?

Nissan

Nissan Japan

Nissan GT-R

-Dino Dalle Carbonare

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