It's hard to believe that Nissan introduced the R35 at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. Deliveries began that December in Japan, whereas North America received the GT-R in July 2008 as a 2009 model.
Over the years, Nissan updated the R35 on multiple occasions, beginning with more power in 2009 for the 2010 model year. Most recently, the Yokohama-based automaker worked its magic for the 2024 model year in the form of minor cosmetic revisions, improved aerodynamics, and little in the way of mechanical changes. Be that as it may, the aging R35 still is ridiculously fast on a track.
Behind the wheel of a bone-stock NISMO, racing driver Tsugio Matsuda broke the production car lap record at Tsukuba by almost three tenths of a second. Back in 2019, the pre-facelift NISMO required 59.361 seconds to lap the racing circuit.
Operational since 1970, the Tsukuba circuit measures 2.045 kilometers or 1.271 miles. The 2024 Nissan GT-R NISMO improved on the pre-facelift sibling with a lap time of 59.078 seconds, which is pretty darn impressive for such an old design.
Part of the reason the NISMO is faster than before is the swan neck-style rear wing. The almost 10% larger surface area translates to more downforce, whereas the redesigned aerodynamic diffuser, front lip, and canards improve high-speed stability.
Photo: Nissan
Another 2024 model year addition is the limited-slip differential up front. The aforementioned makes a world of difference on the track, but looking at the bigger picture, there's a heck of a lot more room for improvement. For starters, the dual-clutch tranny is a sixer as opposed to seven or eight speeds for modern DCTs. The Ford Mustang GTD and C8-generation Corvette come to mind with their eight-speed transaxles.
Derived from the FM platform, the R35-specific PM isn't exactly modern either. To whom it may concern, the Front Midship architecture rolled out with the V35-series Nissan Skyline, which entered series production back in 2001. The following year, the V35-series Infiniti G35 joined the Skyline at the automaker's Tochigi plant in Kaminokawa, Japan.
The biggest problem with the R35, though, is the price. For the 2009 model year, the base specification retailed at $69,850 plus $1,000 for the destination charge. A decade and a half later, Nissan is charging a simply ridiculous $120,990 for the 2024 model.
There's no denying the R35 is a special car with a hand-built engine, but on the other hand, that's also the case with the Corvette Z06 and its high-revving screamer of a flat-plane crankshaft V8. For reference, the Z06 carries an MSRP of $112,700.
Going forward, it appears that Nissan will put the kibosh on the R35 by decade's end. Nissan program design director Giovanny Arroba made it clear that the Hyper Force concept from the 2023 Japan Mobility Show previews the automaker's next-gen electric high-performance car, and the R35-like circular taillamps are no coincidence. The same can be said about the blurred GT-R badge up front.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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