“Can we take a car out while I’m here?” I asked. “Sure, which one?” the Liberty Walk staff responded with. “How about the GT-R?”

“We don’t have a GT-R in stock right now. Do you mean the silhouette racer?” came the reply. “No, that GT-R with the Marlboro livery,” I said with a grin, pointing towards the far back corner of the forecourt. Bemused, the Liberty Walk staff called the car’s owner to ask for permission to shoot it, all the while laughing with me… or at me. I wasn’t quite sure which, but it didn’t matter.

Sure, we could have taken any of the LBW-enhanced Lamborghinis or Ferraris out onto the streets of Nagoya, but we’ve all seen those. A miniature ‘GT-R’ with an iconic motorsport livery, though? Now that’s unique.

As this was my first time visiting Liberty Walk on their home turf, what better way to make a memorable trip?

Nagoya is a strange little city, not as rowdy as Osaka, not quite as beautiful as Kyoto, and nowhere near as sprawling as Tokyo. While in town, I stayed in an area called Sakae, pretty much in the centre of everything. The first thing that stood out to me was all the weird street sculptures – I couldn’t even go a few metres without finding something interesting to gawk at. About an hour away from the funky streets of Sakae is Liberty Walk HQ, where there’s plenty to gawk at, too.

Walking around the forecourt it was strange to see cars from Tokyo Auto Salon and every automotive influencer’s Instagram feed just sitting there like a used car dealership.

Now I pose you this: If you saw two GT-Rs on the forecourt, one a real Nissan supercar and the other a Liberty Walk-kitted, scaled-down GT-R replica built from a Daihatsu Copen, which would you choose?

Let’s start with the obvious. The sales sticker on each car will be significantly different. I know my bank balance would welcome the kei-class Copen.

But purchase cost (and maintenance costs) aside, buying the bigger car isn’t necessarily better. Put a prototype race car next to an R35 GT-R, and you would laugh. Then there is the McMurtry single-seat track car, which is the size of a bar of soap yet manages to pull 3G around a corner. Small can indeed be mighty.

Smaller cars can accelerate faster, go around corners quicker and have a higher top speed thanks to less frictional resistance from the tyres. They use less fuel and rubber and take up less space in the garage.

This begs the question: Why is the real GT-R so bloated? And why are most passenger cars – performance-orientated or otherwise – only getting bigger with each iteration?

Well, the one downside to this mini GT-R is the interior space. It is pretty cramped in there. It’s pretty cramped in any lightweight two-seater, though, so if you want high performance with space for more than a KitKat and water bottle, you need to increase those dimensions a bit. That means room for bigger seats, a centre console and door cards with storage space.

Then there is the small consideration of safety. With the number of two-tonne SUVs rolling around the streets, a bigger car will always fare better in a side impact than a tiny one. Given the choice, I would rather crash a Nissan GT-R than a convertible Daihatsu in GT-R clothing.

Finally, there is always that element of prestige and peacocking when it comes to high-performance vehicles. The perceived worth of a monster like the Nissan GT-R is significantly more impressive than a little Daihatsu Copen.

OK, so the difference in power and price is no match, but I feel the enjoyment that can be pulled from these two very different cars is quite similar.

Did I choose the right GT-R off the forecourt at Liberty Walk? I’ll let you be the judge.

Toby Thyer
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