There's a very small class of triple lettered acronyms able to rile a crowd of curbside teenagers with the fervor of the mighty GT-R. The Japanese clearly showed some eagerness to replicate the success of the Italian's in the naming of their most iconic performance car marque, as the acronym stands for 'Gran-Turismo Racing'.
The GT recognizing the Italian derivative for a high performance automobile, coupled with an extra R of Nissan's own design implying a commitment to motorsport, which it did convincingly at several Touring Car Championships all over the world. Today, though, the GT-R is known for lurking among vacant highway stretches long after dark, blasting ten-inch fireballs out of its exhaust with relative ease and sucking the air out of the lungs of every passenger princess who dares take a seat.
10 The Nissan GT-R's Racing Pedigree
In Australia's 1990s Touring Car scene, a smattering of lesser Group A homologation specials set the stage for an icon to prove its worth. Between 1990 and 1992, Nissan's only entrant in the down under's competitive racing scene was the most dominant car on the field, with its straight-six turbocharged power plant and all-wheel drive superiority leading the charge time after time.
The governing body of the championship was clearly moved by the utter humiliation of its homebred Holden's, deciding to ban the R32 GT-R and future layouts like it for excessive bullying. Funny that, the scrappy Japanese grit was cast out in the hopes of restoring national pride in the Holden, and yet Australia's claim to fame in the underground car scene today rests on its virile culture of GT-Rs.
9 The Nissan GT-R's Tuning Capability
Tuned GTRs are the sharks in the water the street speed scene will warn you about. Since the beginning of the GT-R lineage in 1989, there have been just two engines, with the latest built specifically for the R35. Robustness defines the competitive advantage for the RB26 DETT engine, featuring a twin-turbo inline six with dual-overhead cams producing near-on 300 hp. But a GT-R is only as good as the parts you add - which, as a result of being a cheaper Japanese automaker, isn't that expensive to do.
On top of that, the internal integrity is such that the stock block can take abuse well into the thousand horsepower territory, something that definitely could not be said of equitable Italian filth of the premium persuasion. When the R35 GT-R was introduced in the new decade, the teachings of the original Godzilla motor weren't far behind, adding an extra banking to the block to improve packaging, retaining the six cylinder layout.
8 The Nissan GT-R's Aftermarket
Liberty Walk evolved from a brand name to integral parts of human speech thanks to the GT-R. You can use it as an adjective "did you see that Libertywalked GTR?" or you can use it as a verb "are you Libertywalking your Honda Odyssey?".
If this is the first time you're hearing of Liberty Walk and have no idea what's going on, LBW is a Japanese automotive freedom project specializing in the flaring of GT-Rs and Aventadors to create some of the wildest and fastest pieces of art on the road.
7 Generational Superiority
Be it on the drag strip or the streets, any iteration of GT-R is the one to beat. Look to 1320 video for a compilation of sub nine second GT-Rs running close to 200mph passes the quarter mile next to only three other genuine competitors, all with larger V10 engines that need acute attention and rebuilds out of sight for the average drag-ready GT-R.
6 The Nissan GT-R's Launch Control
Nowadays, even a Civic Sport has launch control, not that it does anything other than a mild automated brake boost. The R35 GT-R released in 2007, was one of the first mass production performance cars in the world to be offered with launch control.
More than that, the system ran significantly faster numbers to sixty when engaged, opposed to doing it yourself. The going run for a bone stock GT-R with the car in autopilot is 2.7 seconds, that's faster than a brand-new Lamborghini Huracán today.
5 The Midnight Purple Nissan Skyline GT-R
Before the success of Porsche's paint to sample program, pre-thousand's Godzilla came dressed in the most exclusive range of colors that to this day raise values into the stratosphere. Midnight Purple II and III are a set of legendary color shift purples that change hues in the light.
Midnight Purple II is the first iteration blending mostly dark purple hues with teal, while the better known Midnight Purple III is a few shades lighter with intense shifts between purple, blue and a very burnt copper particularly on the door sills.
4 Paul Walker Was A Nissan Skyline GT-R Fan
While the Supra was Brian's favorite car in the first movie, the character's real life cameo favored the R34 GTR. In fact, before the superstar's tragic accident, Paul Walker had owned two Bayside blue R34 GTR's and a few other milder toned ones, including the crème of the crop V-Spec Nur.
From the second movie, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Brian is found behind the wheel of various GT-Rs, and we suspect Paul Walker may have had a say in that.
3 Stateside Rarity
Chances are you've heard of America's ridiculous 25-year import laws because of the GT-R. Aside from the R35 GT-R that was produced for sale in the American market, the R32 and R33 generations only became legal in the last few years, with the most sought after R34 Skyline still waiting its turn for 2024.
Prices have already skyrocketed for the R34, and those who haven't already gotten their hands on one will probably be priced out of the market by the time it's legal to import it.
2 NISMO
When the R isn't racy enough, Nissan usually bring in the NISMO department with their fully capped lettering to take things up a notch. The most clapped out GTR NISMO has ever touched is certainly the lesser talked about R33 400R.
Where the original R33 GT-R was designed under a veiled industry agreement to intentionally reduce performance to stave off the risks of street racing, the limited-run 400R was an exercise in what they could really do. With a completely redesigned iteration of the RB26 DETT engine, the revised RB-X came with a new block, an uncompromising titanium exhaust and improved internals to push a whopping 395 hp. Beefy, even by today's standards.
1 Ubiquitous
Whether you've been raised on Instagram or are all too often readjusting your reading specs, you'll know enough about some generation of GT-R to know the dominance of its legacy.