🧠 Tech & Innovation | Riley Anders
The Mantra of Speed
“If you win on Sunday, you will sell on Monday.” It is the oldest adage in motorsport, a simple equation that converts burning rubber into dealership signatures. But in the late 1980s, Nissan was tired of just selling cars; they wanted to sell legends. They were staring down a barrel of mediocrity, viewed as a manufacturer of reliable, albeit boring, transportation. The boardrooms in Tokyo were restless. They looked at the racing dominance of Ford, the exotic allure of Ferrari, and the engineering precision of Porsche, and decided that “good enough” was no longer acceptable. This wasn’t just about building a faster car; it was about national pride and engineering hegemony. This is the story of how a company decided to wage war on physics, creating a machine so dominant it earned the only nickname that matters: Godzilla.
Project 901: The desperate Gamble
To understand the GT-R, you have to understand the desperation of Nissan in the mid-80s. The company was in debt and losing market share. Enter Yutaka Kume, the president of Nissan, who initiated “Project 901.” The code was simple but insanely ambitious: Nissan would produce the world’s number one technology-driven cars by the year 1990 (901 = 1990, #1). This wasn’t a marketing campaign; it was a military directive. From this initiative, Nismo (Nissan Motorsport International) was forged, led by Yasuharu Namba. Their mission was to build a Group A touring car that wouldn’t just compete—it would humiliate the competition. They looked at the rules, found the loopholes, and engineered a monster. They didn’t just want to beat the Ford Sierra Cosworths; they wanted to make them look like they were standing still.
The 29-Win Streak That Banned a Legend
When the R32 GT-R hit the track in 1989, it didn’t just win; it broke the sport. Powered by the legendary RB26DETT engine—a twin-turbo inline-six that was officially rated at 276 horsepower due to a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” among Japanese manufacturers, but in reality, pushed far more—it was an all-wheel-drive leviathan. The Australian touring car press, terrified and awed by this Japanese invader that was eating their V8s for breakfast, dubbed it “Godzilla”. The nickname stuck because it was accurate. The R32 won 29 races out of 29 starts in the Japanese Touring Car Championship. It was a statistical anomaly. It was so effective that racing federations eventually had to ban it, changing the rules entirely because nobody else stood a chance. The GT-R didn’t lose; it was legislated out of existence.
The Resurrection: Targeting Porsche
Following the R32, the GT-R lineage went through a turbulent adolescence. The R33 was criticized for being too heavy and boat-like, failing to capture the raw aggression of its predecessor. The R34 corrected the course, becoming a pop-culture icon through Gran Turismo and The Fast and the Furious, cementing the Skyline as the ultimate tuner car. But the true revolution came later. Under the leadership of Carlos Ghosn, Nissan decided to separate the GT-R from the Skyline nameplate. The goal for the R35 (released in 2007) was singular and terrifyingly specific: Kill the Porsche 911 Turbo. They weren’t building a tuner car anymore; they were building a supercar killer.
Cheating the Wind and The Stop Watch
The R35 GT-R is often described as a computer on wheels, but that dismisses the mechanical brutality underneath. It utilizes the ATTESA E-TS all-wheel-drive system, which defies physics by sending power exactly where it’s needed in milliseconds, allowing a heavy car to corner like a Lotus. When Nissan took the R35 to the Nürburgring, they clocked a lap time that sent shockwaves through Germany. The automotive establishment couldn’t believe a car that cost half as much as a Ferrari could lap the Green Hell that fast. They accused Nissan of using special tires or modified engines. They weren’t. Nissan had simply perfected the algorithm of speed. From the days of the R32’s domination to the R35’s technological warfare, the GT-R remains a testament to what happens when engineers are told to ignore the impossible.
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