After years of grey-market imports, Nissan is officially bringing the Skyline GT-R to North America. Only without the Skyline name.
We had our first taste of the production car on its home turf in Japan late last year. Then we drove it on Germany's autobahn for our January 2008 issue. Those were great introductions to the car, but not exactly the context for us Americans.
The newest GT-R packs a twin-turbocharged, 473-hp 3.8-liter V-6 and sends power to all four wheels using a very intelligent all-wheel-drive system. The GT-R set a Nurburgring lap time of 7 minutes and 29 seconds, which bests the car's 911 Turbo benchmark. Again, amazing numbers, but we needed to experience Godzilla on U.S. shores.
The opportunity finally came to live with the car in a real-world environment (or as close as we come to reality) for a week at our Ann Arbor offices. You can read about our time with the GT-R in the articles linked below. Be sure to check out the desktop-worthy images in our gallery as well. Prefer moving pictures? We took some video of the car, too. This one shows the neck-snapping acceleration of launch mode, as well as a race against a Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle. We also pick apart the many Gran Turismo-inspired screens of the GT-R's center display in this video.
Once you get through all of that, head over to our forums to discuss this highly anticipated car.