Made in Japan: Nissan GT-Rs and ice-creams for DAYZ

In early 2020, John Mahoney and Feann Torr headed to Japan to poke, prod and generally pester the good people of Nissan Motor Corporation.

But rather than getting arrested by the local police (although that did almost happen – check the Skyline R34 review!), they performed admirably in the face of adversity.

Indeed, after snooping around top-secret areas usually only open to Nissan officials, well-connected car collectors and the odd Yakuza oyabun (leaders), the pair returned home with a treasure trove of cool Nissan stories, and these were their six favourites.

Race Around Tokyo Bay

When the boys accept a challenge to plot a course around Tokyo bay – without the use of any sat-nav or mapping technology – you know one of them is going try a pull a shifty.

Which is exactly what happens when one of them figures out there's multi-billion undersea tunnel called the Aqualine.

Caution: mysterious liquids are consumed at the 4:00 minute mark in this video…

Watch Race Around Tokyo Bay

How to build a Nissan GT-R engine

To call the hermetically sealed 'clean room' tucked away inside the Yokohama engine factory 'compelling' would be an understatement of momentous proportions.

It's where all Nissan GT-R engines are hand-built and after watching this vid you get the sense that chatting to Hiroyuki Ichikawa, one of the GT-R engine building Takumi (master craftsman), was one of the highlights of this Japanese adventure.

Watch Nissan build a Nissan GT-R engine

Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) Review

When John got the chance to drive a twin-turbo, all-wheel drive, six-speed manual Nissan Skyline GT-R from 1999, he jumped at the opportunity.

Then he jumped out of his skin when the cops mistook him for a serial-killer who was driving a car that matched the description of this black Nissan Coupe. You can't make this stuff up.

Read the full Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) Review

Nissan's green ice-cream

No, it's not that sort of 'green' ice-cream!! Although the way Feann was behaving in this video you do have to wonder...

Anyway, the boys headed to Nissan's corporate HQ to make a big nuisance of themselves during the shooting of this intriguing small business venture. Suffice to say, the locals were bamboozled.

Watch the coolest ice-cream van ever

Nissan GT-R Generations 

If you've never heard the Nissan GT-R backstory – one that starts with a vehicle that doesn't even wear Nissan badges! – you must watch this video.

And if you want a deep dive into Nissan GT-R history, check out the story, which of course involves an infamous Bathurst 1000 race in Australia. Find out why one driver yelled "You're a pack of a**holes!" at the Bathurst crowd.

Read the real GT-R story

Nissan DAYZ kei-car review 

The Backstreet Boys are back! Well, sort of. When our intrepid journalists get behind the wheel of the one of the smallest, slowest but arguably coolest Nissan cars, blasting through the backstreets of downtown Tokyo, they fall in love with the weird-looking dwarven box-on-wheels.

The question quickly becomes: 'could Aussies fall in love with it?'.

Read the full Dayz story