Arrived: America's First GT-R
Published Feb 29, 2008
0 Ratings
COSTA MESA, California — This is the first 2009 Nissan GT-R in North America outside the steel grip of Nissan itself. It's a JDM version imported by JspecConnect.com to promote the company, to maybe — maybe — add to the subtly textured drama of the fourth Fast & the Furious film and because, well, they wanted to have the first R35 in the country.
Daryl Alison from JSpecConnect.com let Inside Line take it for a ride, including a triple-digit run up the Golden State Freeway. Don't let the cell phone photos fool you; this car is staggeringly gorgeous up close.
This GT-R's current home is JspecConnect.com's Costa Mesa, California warehouse. In fact, this black R35 didn't arrive in America as a complete car but as separate unibody and drivetrain components. The manufacturing sticker on the car's right side door jamb actually identifies it as a trans- axle- and engine- delete car body and not a completed vehicle.
Fortunately, however, Nissan sells the GT-R drivetrain over the parts counter. So once the shell and the drivetrain were in hand, it was straightforward for Steve Mitchell at M-Workz to put them together. And because the R35 GT-R is built as a one-spec car for the whole planet, it already had DOT-compliant headlights, glass and other elements. So the result is a complete JDM-spec, right-hand-drive GT-R that's registered and street legal here in the United States.
Our time driving the GT-R was brief but intoxicating. The car was just as awesomely quick around Costa Mesa as it was during our exclusive first test of a GT-R in Japan back in December. But it's an amazingly easygoing car with a transmission that's simply brilliant whether it's allowed to shift by itself or the driver is using the steering wheel paddles to trigger the gearchanges. It's also ridiculously comfortable, maybe a bit too quiet, and the brakes could stop a runaway Pentagon budget.
In short, now we want one — or two or three — more than ever.
What this means to you: You can still be the first on your block to own a GT-R, but someone else is already first in the country. — John Pearley Huffman, Correspondent
Daryl Alison from JSpecConnect.com let Inside Line take it for a ride, including a triple-digit run up the Golden State Freeway. Don't let the cell phone photos fool you; this car is staggeringly gorgeous up close.
This GT-R's current home is JspecConnect.com's Costa Mesa, California warehouse. In fact, this black R35 didn't arrive in America as a complete car but as separate unibody and drivetrain components. The manufacturing sticker on the car's right side door jamb actually identifies it as a trans- axle- and engine- delete car body and not a completed vehicle.
Fortunately, however, Nissan sells the GT-R drivetrain over the parts counter. So once the shell and the drivetrain were in hand, it was straightforward for Steve Mitchell at M-Workz to put them together. And because the R35 GT-R is built as a one-spec car for the whole planet, it already had DOT-compliant headlights, glass and other elements. So the result is a complete JDM-spec, right-hand-drive GT-R that's registered and street legal here in the United States.
Our time driving the GT-R was brief but intoxicating. The car was just as awesomely quick around Costa Mesa as it was during our exclusive first test of a GT-R in Japan back in December. But it's an amazingly easygoing car with a transmission that's simply brilliant whether it's allowed to shift by itself or the driver is using the steering wheel paddles to trigger the gearchanges. It's also ridiculously comfortable, maybe a bit too quiet, and the brakes could stop a runaway Pentagon budget.
In short, now we want one — or two or three — more than ever.
What this means to you: You can still be the first on your block to own a GT-R, but someone else is already first in the country. — John Pearley Huffman, Correspondent