Nissan GT-R
Our 2017 GT-R is proving to be a skilled performer on track, but it’s even better on the road
HOW MANY TIMES, OVER THE YEARS, have I got up with the sparrows and climbed into a car to drive it west from my home on the south coast, specifically in the direction of Wales? It has to be somewhere in the high hundreds.
Yet when I did this just recently in the Nissan to get to Anglesey for 9am, I still got that same slightly juvenile feeling of excitement about doing so – because I don’t care how old and cynical and world-weary I get, driving a GT-R early in the morning, when there’s almost no one else around, is still something that makes my heart thump faster.
And the thing I’m finding about the GT-R is that it feels faster and madder than ever when it’s nice and cold outside – when it’s 4.30-5.00am in other words – especially when there’s a tankful of 97- or 98-octane unleaded on board, rather than 95. Put those three things together and the GT-R really does go to another place dynamically.
When the ambient temperature is nice and chilled, the throttle response gets even sharper and even crisper somehow, and the car basically feels like it has another
‘It might not have been quite as ridiculously quick as the 720S, but in isolation the GT-R still felt pretty tasty’
100bhp. Not that it ever feels exactly slow, no matter what the temperature is outside, as I discovered when I eventually made it to Anglesey Circuit and did a few laps in it, just to see. It might not have been quite as ridiculously quick as the Mclaren 720S that was there that day (see evo 242), but in isolation the GT-R still felt pretty tasty.
But for me the 2017 GT-R is actually a better road car, I think, than it is a track car. At Anglesey it felt seriously quick, yes, and its traction, grip, poise and control were all exceptional for a car with number plates. Ultimately, though, the GT-R feels quite big and heavy on track, and as Nissan has asked me not to turn the traction control off under any circumstances because it invalidates the mechanical warranty, I couldn’t really throw it around and have a giggle in it either.
So when I drove it away from Anglesey at the end of the day, I reached the very clear conclusion that the latest GT-R is actually more fun, more exciting and just better to drive on the public road, period, than it is to drive on a track.
Since then I’ve done many more miles in the car and I continue to fall for its numerous charms. It is definitely more refined than the previous versions, and is far easier to live with every day as a result. I love this thing fundamentally, although its fuel consumption – and its relatively small fuel tank and range – I’m trying my hardest to ignore.