PAST & FURIOUS

You've seen the future, time to acknowledge heroes of the past. An impromptu night meet in Tokyo's Daikoku car park should do it...

-  TOM FORD

As cliches go, it’s a good one. A Nismo GT-R cutting through the portside streets of Yokohama in Japan next to the shining mini theme park, the afternoon light spearing through the big wheel trying to pin the spokes to the sea. The brief howl of the V6 across a junction, turbo boost, the scrabble of the all-wheel drive, the vitality and muscle of it. As cures for jet lag go, a few indiscreet button pushes for transmission bias and traction control are enough to wake you very quickly indeed.

The GT-R can’t completely hide its years, mind. It takes a while for the gearbox to wake up and release from Park when you first start it, the throttle generally more elastic in its call and response from the engine than you remember. Boost feels like it takes more time to arrive and there’s no blue pill for an easy fix, the interior verging on the retro. And yet I still love it. It’s all subjective – the GT-R hasn’t got slower... everything else has got faster. Set the modes correctly, get the motor on boost and jam it in the right gear, and the GT-R will still scare the doubt from behind your eyes on a run up the expressway.

Truth is, the Nissan R35 GT-R is still a thing of wonder. This is not the linear, crushing force of electric acceleration, but the noisy, mechanical energy of internal combustion. It might not be the fastest, but for the moment, if you want excitement rather than simply dominance, then ICE still has an edge of imperfect perfection. The reality of the new age of electric is that there are five-seat electric SUVs out there that’d eat the GT-R in a straight drag race and give it an uncomfortable run for its money on a circuit. Which takes a moment to properly sink in. But combustion still has lessons to teach the new generation.