R35 GTR March 26th 2008

R35 GTR

Well, the last couple days have been totally crazy! I've come to the conclusion that the R35 takes up way too much of my time! I know having one of the first ones here in the country is neat and all, but the attention the thing gets is really unbelievable. Here are some random shots taken over the last few weeks:

On the dyno at Harman motive in Torrance

Harmon Motive is a really nice shop, and their dyno is one of the nicest I've seen!

Edmunds was doing a story on the car, and wanted to get some real numbers on it! Check out the article, if you haven't already.
2009 Nissan GT-R: Dyno Testing Godzilla

Some other really good R35 stuff from the guys at Edmunds!

2009 Nissan GT-R Road Trip: Getting Dirty at El Mirage

2009 Nssan GT-R Full Test: InsideLine

Getting to know the new GTR

Well as some of you already know, I'm no stranger to the GTR!

Since the R34's debut back in 1998, I was instantly drawn to the car and knew it was just a matter of time before my garage would be called home to my very own personal GTR. Of course living here in the US, where the GTR is considered the forbidden fruit, I knew there would be many hurtles and challenges with getting my hands on one, but that never diminished my drive to making the dream a reality.

In the last ten years I've been fortunate enough to call many GTR's my own. Having owned everything from R32's, R33's and R34's has afforded me the ability to critic every aspect of the car, from ones in complete stock configuration to highly modified Monsters pushing nearly 1000 horse power! Taking these cars to different events throughout Southern California and quick runs to the grocery store and Pet Smart with my 4 legged son "Julio" riding shot gun has been a pretty normal occurrence.

Here's a few of the R34's...

R33's

R32's

The fact that Nissan stopped production of the R34 model back in 2002 didn't change peoples desire to own them and if anything made them even more coveted, especially by those die hard enthusiasts out there.

Several years ago I was contacted by a friend at Nissan Headquarters of North America, who knew I was an avid GTR fan and also knew I owned an R34 GTR (photographed at the top of this post), he asked if I would be interested in driving my R34 down to the Nissan Design Studio, located in La Jolla, California, where their designers were working on the R35 project. He had indicated that the designers were interested in getting their hands on an R34 to use as an inspirational tool and aid them in keeping the new design true to the GTR heritage.

Needless to say, I couldn't say yes fast enough. So I drove the car down to the studio, and was completely blown away at their operation and even more blown away at how lax everyone was. I mean amongst all the cutaway Nissan Titan Pickups and Pathfinder half's was a volley ball game going on directly in the middle of their highly secured yard (I mean sand and all). The employees, mostly wearing flip-flops and board shorts, stopped playing as I made my entrance and rushed to get a closer look at the R34. As I pulled the car into the yard and past the volley ball court, I was quickly motioned by one of the head designers to pull into a studio, where they had a large glass door opened just enough for the R34 to fit into. Once inside I could see there were multiple artist renderings hung on the walls of this studio, which I now realize were the early renderings of the R35! On a large rotating pallet sat a clay rendering, partially concealed under a cover, that my R34 was to soon be compared to! Man, I was so freaken excited to see what I was seeing, but couldn't share it with anyone since they pretty much frisked me for cameras and made me even leave my phone at the gate prior to entering!

Initially I was disappointed with the direction the designers were heading in with the R35, but as time passed and I started to see more and more renderings appear on the internet and so on, I started getting antsy to having one. So when Nissan announced the expected arrival of the R35 and it's official debut at the Tokyo Motor Show, I immediately started making arrangements to get my hands on one.

So, when Nissan announced the all new R35, would start showing up in dealerships in Japan around December of last year, I immediately put the wheels in motion to get my name on one. Now, with that being said, I quickly came to the conclusion, that getting a JDM version of this car here in the US was going to be a daunting task! The best thing I had going for me, was the fact that the new R35 was a "world car", meaning, although it was right hand drive, it was manufactured to comply with US specs. However, that didn't change the fact that importing one was going to be easy. So let's just say, at the end of the day, I can now claim that I'm the proud owner of a Black R35 GTR, that ended up costing me far more than I ever expected!

So here it is...