GT-R: Nissan announces pricing and 'pre-sell date'

Nissan has revealed that its mighty R35 generation GT-R will reach our shores in April of next year. In the meantime -- or at least from October 9 -- interested parties can place an order with any one of 11 carefully selected Nissan dealers around the country.

If you haven't made up your mind whether the GT-R is the car for you, Nissan will also display the new high-performance coupe at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney on the same day as the company's 'pre-sell' program commences.

This new generation of car goes on sale 16 years after the last GT-R (R32) was officially sold here -- at a price of $110,000. At the time, Australia was the only market outside Japan to receive the GT-R.

The new GT-R will be marketed in a two-tier model range comprising the base GT-R and an up-spec GT-R Premium, with prices starting at $148,800 for the lower-spec car and $152,800 for the GT-R Premium.

A 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 in the nose of the GT-R develops 353kW of power and 588Nm of torque from 3200 to 5200rpm, all transmitted through a six-speed paddle-shift dual-clutch box sited in a transaxle arrangement at the rear -- to all four wheels. Standard Brembo brakes and Bilstein dampers contributed to the GT-R's record-breaking run at the Nurburgring recently, when Nissan's chief test driver, Tochio Suzuki set a time of 7mins 29secs.

According to Nissan, there is effectively no performance difference between the two Aussie-spec grades, with the Premium model positioned in the market at a premium price for such extras as: smoke-grey forged 20-inch aluminium wheels, Nitrogen-filled Bridgestone Potenza run-flat tyres, (over the standard model's Dunlop SP Sport tyres), a BOSE audio with 11 speakers and a 30 gigabyte hard drive; and black leather sports seats with red Alcantara inserts in the front.

Buyers can choose from a palette of six colours: Super Silver, Vibrant Red, Gun Metallic, Black Obsidian, Titanium, and Ivory Pearl.

The GT-R arrives here with some 'baggage'. According to a report in a News Limited media outlet yesterday, Porsche has questioned whether the GT-R that broke the previous record was completely above board and fitted with standard tyres, after the German sports car manufacturer failed to come close to replicating the record-breaking time set by Nissan's driver.

"Our information that we've published -- and we've got the videos and all the data -- the lap time is a genuine lap time," says Ross Booth, General Manager of Marketing for Nissan Australia. "I'm not going to go into conjecture on what other companies believe that they can and can't do -- but we'll stand by the GT-R as the ultimate supercar..."

Adding to that controversy, there's the unequivocal refusal by Nissan Australia to support the Nissan GT-R brought into the country as a grey import.

"We will not be supporting grey imports -- with either warranty or service," says Dan Thompson, Nissan's local MD and CEO.

"These cars remain outside Nissan Australia's scope -- and therefore outside of our legal or customer responsibility."

"In relation to the official number of grey market sales that have occurred on GT-R in the Australian market, we don't have accurate information on how many," says Ross Booth.

"We've heard in the low number, five, six, seven. I certainly don't buy that the grey market is going to take anything away from the genuine Nissan GT-R launch. As we mentioned before, 200 in the first twelve months we believe is the number we can secure and sell. The grey market is very small and not really a concern."

For more information concerning the GT-R, see our international launch review here.

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