Nissan GT-R NISMO 2018 Review

This is something I don’t get to experience every day. I’m driving the Nissan GT-R NISMO, and gingerly putting those oversize wheels on the road for the first time is something akin to attempting to drive to work in an F1 open-wheeler.

Clearly, unless you’re Lewis Hamilton, there’s nothing about this car that isn’t going to challenge.

You thought any road-registerable car should at least be comfortably able to trundle around the suburbs, or slot into a parking bay at the local supermarket?

In the case of Nissan’s monstrously-fast GT-R NISMO, it’s time to think again.

For a start, you need to be ultra-careful just moving off. The preponderance of spoilers and skirts on a car that’s already only a whisker off the ground has you taking even more care than normal avoiding contact with those little ripples and undulations that normally go unnoticed.

Then, as your senses are assailed by the clunking and moaning emanating from the dual-driveshaft AWD system and the rear-mounted six-speed dual-clutch transmission, you remember what this car, unleashed, is supposed to be capable of.

Personally this is the first Nissan I’ve driven that is priced, before on-road costs, at close to $300,000 and the first time I’ve driven a road-legal car with the ability to reach 100km/h from zero in a claimed 2.7sec (or, according to some reports, even less).

For $110,000 more than the regular GT-R, the NISMO is as fast as practically any land-bound vehicle on the planet and here am I trying to fend off any feelings of intimidation.

The feeling is amped-up considerably over my experiences of a couple of years ago when I spent a lot of time in a standard Nissan GT-R during the ABDC (Australia's Best Drivers Car) event on the roads of Tasmania. Godzilla was overwhelming enough then, but the GT-R NISMO is something else again.

The pure figures only tell part of the story: Compared to the regular GT-R, GT-R NISMO’s hand-built 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 has been wound up to produce, at 441kW and 652Nm, 22kW more of the former and 20Nm more of the latter, in a body that the figures tell me is actually a tad lighter.

Not that a quoted weight of 1739kg for the NISMO is dramatically less than the standard GT-R’s 1765kg, but it does mean those extra kilowatts and Newtons are given every chance to assert themselves.

The G-forces generated by one of the fastest-accelerating cars in the world are even more dizzying than the regular Nissan GT-R, which is saying something. I remember passengering in one with road test editor Matt Brogan as we ran acceleration figures a couple of years ago.

If I didn’t brace myself, my sensory systems went into overload as my inner-ear balancing mechanisms tried to make sense of the cheek-flattening forces they were suddenly experiencing.

So, with the GT-R NISMO, I made what I figured was a wise decision to contain temptations to give it its head on the open road, where bumps and undulations are certainly not your friend. In this case the constant tugging at the steering wheel, which feels a bit like the automated self-correcting behaviour associated with radar-assisted lane-keep systems, is not benign. Take your attention off the steering for a moment and the GT-R NISMO, on an even slightly rough road, wanders around like a lost puppy.

The Nissan GT-R NISMO joined the regular GT-R and Track Edition models in 2017 as a sort of halo model for the brand. Considering 32 GT-Rs had been sold in Australia for the year at the time of writing (September 2018) and 58 had been sold in the same period in 2017, the even-rarer NISMO, like anything else existing in the automotive upper stratosphere, is very much a niche product.

Well, the ride is a factor. The ferocious Nissan, with its abrupt reactions to any sort of a bump, is not recommended for those suffering haemorrhoids, or passengers who might be a little queasy in the stomach.

The sculpted Recaro front seats and the attempts at glamming-up the 2+2 cabin with suede trim on the dash and a pumping BOSE sound system only go part of the way to making you feel comfortable.

For all this, the sheer thrill of experiencing the potent urgency of the GT-R NISMO is purely addictive and ultimately excuses what some would see as unacceptable shortcomings in a road car.

It’s actually quite interesting to muse on which cars make up the GT-R NISMO’s competition. We can think about refined mid-engine supercars such as the Honda NSX and Audi R8, but there’s also the likes of Jaguar’s SVR F-TYPE, the Mercedes-AMG GT and any number of beguiling Porsche 911s.

On the track, the GT-R NISMO will readily take on any of these but, on the road, it would be struggling.

Of course the GT-R NISMO is clearly not intended for everyday use. It assaults your senses in a way regular road cars simply don’t. Every rumble from the driveline, every attempt to wrest the steering wheel from your hands, and every groaning, grinding invasion of external noise into the cabin just underlines what it actually is.

To get to drive a car as stimulating as the GT-R NISMO is a wonderful privilege. But I’ve got a mix of respect and self-preservation that precludes me from even attempting to get anywhere near its capabilities.

The fact you’ve got a roof over your head and have air-conditioning to keep you comfortable are the only real concessions to regular, daily life. And that’s undoubtedly the way the NISMO team, and those able and willing to hand over the 300 grand needed to purchase a Nissan GT-R NISMO, want it.

How much does the 2018 Nissan GT-R NISMO cost?
Price: $299,000 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 3.8-litre six-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 441kW/652Nm
Transmission: Six-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 11.7L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 278g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: N/A

Related reading:
Nissan GT-R NISMO 2017 Review
Nissan GT-R NISMO 2017 Video
Honda NSX v Nissan GTR NISMO