Nissan GT-R Premium 2013 Review

Price: $170,800 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 3.8-litre six-cylinder twin-turbo-petrol
Output: 404kW/628Nm
Transmission: Six-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 11.7L/100km (combined)
CO2: 278g/km (combined)
Safety: Six airbags

A few quick laps of the tight, undulating Haunted Hills circuit in Gippsland, Victoria probably isn’t the fairest way to assess the GT-R. It’s a narrow and unforgiving track that has a tendency to quickly show up any deficiencies in chassis and suspension tune, or any lack of horsepower, a car might have.

So how is it this track isn’t a good test of the GT-R? It’s certainly track-focused, and has a helluva lot of horsepower.

Well simply the GT-R has too much of both for the track in question. And on a track so small, Godzilla barely had the chance to leave second gear.

But with the track already booked for another test, this happy coincidence did allow us to refamiliarise ourselves with all the best bits of this thriller of the modern age. It’s always a pleasure to get behind the wheel of the GT-R in an environment where your gaze isn’t locked on the speedo.

A car that accelerates as rapidly as this one is in its element on a circuit; and even on a tight track like this one the GT-R is a barrel of laughs.

It’s just so competent and grippy. It launches from corner to corner with the sort of pace that commands your attention, and switches your reflexes into hyperdrive. Bolstered by an engine that presents next-to-no turbo lag and a really close ratio transmission, the GT-R simply leaves one point behind and arrives at the next.

It’s a vast difference sampling the GT-R on track. There’s no clunking through gears at low speeds and no tyre roar (well none that you’re inclined to notice at least); just acres of grip with a mild but enjoyable rear bias, razor sharp steering and oodles of oomph.

The body reacts quickly in sharper corners and over sudden crests, correcting itself with near immediacy. We sampled the GT-R through its trio of settings, but preferred the harder R mode in this ‘track’ setting. Here, the firmer damping and bolstered reaction times see the car tense up to touring car levels of response, and control.

The GT-R really is one of those cars that makes driving fast a pleasure. It’s communicative, sure, but it’s also very adaptive. It’s so good that you never really notice any intervention from the electronic nannies, even with these left on for the sake of safety. Remember, Haunted Hills is narrow, and by now very damp.

But in spite of tyres worn nearly slick the GT-R still hung on, and set some pretty impressive performance times as well. Zero to 60km/h vanished in 1.8 seconds, 100km/h in 3.4 and the quarter mile was consumed in 11.4 seconds with a terminal speed of 190.1km/h. Overtaking proved equally rapid with the 80-100km/h simulated pass devoured in just 0.9 seconds.

On larger stages the GT-R has proved immensely capable and has clocked a blistering 7:25 around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. However, our humble squirt around Haunted Hills does prove how adept the GT-R is at flattering the driver, no matter the task at hand. It’s hard to believe this kind of performance is available for $170K.

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