2009 Nissan GT-R Party Feature Video

By Edmunds Video Productions | Published October 26, 2009

4:33 min

We�re the first media outlet to drive the GT-R in America! Sort of. We drove it at speeds approaching four mph. The destination? The Inside Line GT-R Party where 150 GT-R fanatics were waiting to see, touch and hear the car of their dreams. 20 miles away there was a GT-R behind velvet ropes at the LA Auto Show. But Nissan�s tease-and-taunt campaign for the GT-R supercar has gone on for seven grueling years! Early anticipation turned into rabid craving a long time ago. America's Nissan nuts had had enough. That's where Inside Line came in. We asked Nissan to bring out the cars, and then we put the word out. If you know what's good for you, be at Chiat Day, Saturday at 3. And so they came. In packs. A sea of hardcore GT-R fanatics flooded the parking lot of Nissan's Ad Agency. And they brought their cars. R32s. R33s. R34s. Silvias stuffed with GT-R engines. And ancient 510s full of turbocharged SR20 fours. This would have been a good car show even if the R35 wasn�t there. But finally the GT-R � The R35 � Godzilla is here. In America. The crowd was so cool, Nissan let everyone sit in the car, poke under the hood and crawl over and under the hand built GT-R prototypes. [[Hawson talks about what the cars we see are. It starts at 0:09 into the interview. Please edit out my voice so that Hawson seamlessly goes through to explaining how the car will have to be tuned for U.S. fuel.]] [[At 0:11 she says the car is �amazingly boss.�]] But this wasn�t a crowd interested in pretty sheetmetal and leather upholstery. They were already plotting to twist the new GT-R well beyond Nissan�s intent. For them, a 480 horsepower twin-turbocharged V6 isn�t anywhere near enough. [[At 1:29 he talks about hacking the computer.]] [[At 1:41 Sean talks of rebuilding the exhaust system]] [[At 3:17 he talks about finding the weak spot of any car]] For almost four hours the crowd remained mesmerized by the GT-R that Nissan has finally decided to sell in America � in all its all-wheel driven glory. And already the R35 is building its own legend. [[At 1:18 he takes the shirt off his shoulder and explains that it�s the time of the car�s lap around the Nurburgring. It ends at 1:30]] Legends, of course, aren�t made on parking lots. And we still have to wait until this spring to actually drive the GT-R. But no one seriously doubts that this car will be a worthy successor to all the cars that have already worn the name. Even if, for the moment, the only new GT-Rs on American roads are in the back of trucks. [[Godzilla: King of the Monsters!]]