Supercar - Made In Japan

It's like being shoved into an oven with the temperature set to the max and the temperature control knob pulled out lately. It makes one think, "Could it get any hotter?". For me, it did... it got way hotter. The bright (not to mention scorching) morning sun brought out every detail and subtle line for my eyes to feast on. Parked in front of me along with a fleet of gorgeous cars was the Nissan GT-R. In the looks department, the GT-R lags behind it's European cousins but not too far. The car does look fast but not brutally like a Lamborghini or Ferrari. It is a car with capabilities of mammoth proportions but somehow it doesn't quite look the part. It is however the most exotic looking car to roll out of a Japanese factory, without doubt. Here's the funny part... this car does the magical century faster than its menacingly styled Italian rivals although it is substantially bigger and it does it in a way words simply cannot describe. Forget about looks because this car is meant for one thing and one thing only... speed! A purpose-built supercar for the man with subtle taste.

                                                                                  not a bad start to the day..

The angular exterior styling isn't for everyone but who cares when it's performance figures on paper seem like they belong to something that dropped out of the sky through a wormhole from the future! Sit in the car and all those performance figures start running in your mind simultaneously, gibberish to your understanding but all you are compelled to do is press the bright red button that brings the car to life! The car starts up, but in a manner that completely baffles ones mind! The anticipated growl of the quad tail-pipes  hardly audible at all. No loud rumble... almost nothing. And then it hits me why this car is so different, so special. A one of a kind day-to-day use supercar this is. The most practical supercar that outperforms all it's rivals, some of which couldn't possibly know the meaning of practicality let alone practice it. Drive off in it and you might as well be sitting inside your dad's saloon car, that easy! All round visibility is excellent and the car handles rough roads without sending spine numbing vibrations up my rear end. The rear seats cannot accomodate adults on long journeys unless you want them permanently damaging their spines. Besides that, all is well.
Daily usability: check.

                                                                               push to be blasted away!

Lights turn red and the car's doing 100kph? Not an issue at all... 100-0kph in just 3.3 seconds. Lights about to turn green and have a heavy right foot? That's when the magic happens. The only remaining vision in my memory bank is of the lights turning green. Everything else is just a blur of colours, just like the view from a cockpit of a spaceship from Star Wars hopping galaxies. The rear mounted dual-clutch gearbox went through the gears with seamless precision. With 4 men in the car, it not only hauled us effortlessly, it had us all speech deprived for a few moments. Nope, launch control was not activated. Need I say more? It's capable of attaining the 0-100 sprint in just 3.4 seconds. Neck snapping accelaration: check!

The maneuverability of this mother-of-all monster wasn't put through its paces but it is extremely rooted to the road, almost as if it were running on a track laid out in front of it. Rapid turnings in this car might have you on an ambulance with a neck brace and the car unscathed, very very brutal. Nissan did not fit the GT-R with swiveling head lamps because the motors couldn't keep up with the speed the car changed directions.The car has epic handling capabilities but we weren't able to bring out the best of it.... yet.

In short, the GT-R is a thrill to drive, a brutal beast when you decide floor it or a humble coupe when you decide to go for an evening drive. At RM630,000 for a brand new car and RM580,000 for a reconditioned one, it is a bargain. If you had that amount of money lying around somewhere, take a drive to the Maju Muhibbah showroom in Prima Damansara (between Bandar Sri Damansara and Damansara Damai) and get yourself one. You would never stop smiling behind the wheels of the Godzilla.

Enter The Godzilla With Jeremy...

Before we do what the title states, the Dash-Board would like to thank Maju Muhibbah SDN BHD for granting us access to the most spectacular fleet of cars known to man. Thanks to Mr Jalil, the manager of the showroom and Mr Khair for giving us this opportunity. Let's now enter the Godzilla.










Jeremy: 

sizing up the car..

What happens when 3 young lads stumble upon the one of the most anticipated cars of 2008?? Well first of all we would have to apologize to the nice people of Bandar Sri Damansara for turning their quiet and peaceful suburb into a noisy track smelling of burnt rubber with our self proclaimed ‘Stigs’ behind of the wheel of the 480 hp monster the 2009 NISSAN GTR (yes all the alphabets were in capital for a reason i.e. to reflect the sheer power of the car)

So we started our day by getting the cars inline to take pictures of the cars. The front pieces as you will see, features the 2008 BMW 7 Series, the Merc CLS and the Nissan GTR. Then the ever pleasing Mr Khair brought the keys to the GTR and said “lets go guys” at which point Ravind’s face just gleamed like a kid on Christmas morning. But he approached me and said “Macha if we damage this car even if we sell ourselves we wont be able to pay for it” and then it hit me, we were about to drive a Rm700,000 super car. YES SUPERCAR.

                                      quite a sight..

 

Now those who know us would obviously note that we aren’t the most petite of people yet we all squeezed into the two door. I ADMIT it was tight and we didn’t have place to move our heads but having sat in an Aston Martin I would definitely say that the GTR offers slightly more room but you would have to be an Ooompa Loompa to be comfortable in it. But then again anyone who knows anything about the car would say WHO THE HELL CARES ABOUT COMFORT when you have 478 horses that are willing to run at the tap of the accelerator. This is what I felt at the backseat when Ravind floored the throttle and suddenly the car which felt like your everyday two door sports car came alive and almost bit our heads off. Just in a matter of seconds we were doing 140km/h but Malaysian traffic being as awesome as it is made us brake for every other car that was in the way.

                                                godzilla and me...

Then the moment of truth came when Ravind parked the car near a golf club and says “bro she is all yours”. The moment you get into the car you get a sense of the amount of time and brains that were put into the making of the car. The steering wheel had easily 15 buttons on it which I had no idea what to do with but say “aww that looks nice”. The computer on the car was displaying Japanese characters so I had no idea what it was saying on the huge screen. I put on my seat belt (for any of the cops who are reading) and headed to the main road and slammed my foot on the accelerator which made the car make the most beautiful sound that a car freak could ever ask for. The car accelerates effortlessly and hits 150 just like that. The V6 VR38DETT engine that powers the car is superb aided by the six-speed BorgWarner dual clutch semi-automatic transmission which delivers smooth power and control with minimum jerking. Need I even mention the twin turbos?? 

 

thats how you look when driving such a beast... beastly..

The braking and cornering on the car is like a dream. The car decelerates from 100-0km/h in 3.3 seconds and we needed that due to the fact that there were people who felt that the Malaysia Boleh spirit was with them in crossing a busy road.

 

it's safe to say the experience was a pleasant one then?

In summing up, if any of you could afford the car, I would seriously recommend it to you. It’s a beast that could match a Ferrari or a 911 any day at half the price added to the fact that you can use this as an everyday car which you don’t have the liberty of doing with a Ferrari. But what ever you do just, don’t cause anymore injustice in this world by buying it and putting a P sticker on it. Cheers people.

The Ferrari man is on the Mercedes site.Check this out