Nissan
R35 GT-R
by 
LOG BOOK
Date Acquired:
09 Apr 2009
Year:
2009
Cost:
£53,490
Fuel consumption:
17.2 mpg
Odometer:
16,014 miles
Servicing:
£295
Annual Insurance:
£642p.a.
Other costs:
What'll she do mister?
Entry number: 6Added: 31/12/09
I had a chance to try out the map at high speed when I attended this year's Fighting Torque event at RAF Woodbridge (www.fightingtorque.org), which is a one mile drag racing event.
All sorts of interesting cars turned up, including another Gun Metallic R35 (standard), a brace of Corvette-engined RX7s, a supercharged VXR8 and a few Skyline GT-Rs.
Lining up against my first victim, a silver TVR Griff 500, I almost felt sorry for the driver as the GT-R blitzed it by a predictably massive margin.
The same one-sided result occurred against every subsequent contender, including the standard GT-R, with my best time being 28.712s and a best terminal speed of 174.7mph.
Interestingly, the car seemed every bit as fast left in Auto mode as it did hanging on to the gears in Manual. I tried both switching the ESP off and leaving it in R mode with not a great deal of difference between the two.
I also tried the "launch control" mode which on Euro cars means the engine holds a modest 2,800rpm when the brake pedal is pressed to the floor prior to flooring the throttle.
Again, precious little seemed to be gained over simply nailing the loud pedal from a standstill.
I don't think a less dramatic road-going drag car has ever been built!
However before I left the event too big-headed, I was challenged by a chap in a Noble M12 M400. Except it should have been re-badged as an M600 and happened to be a former Fighting Torque champion...
Our first race saw the GT-R pull a decent lead at the start which the Noble failed to close by the end of the mile even though it was clearly gaining at a crazy rate.
It turned out that owner Adrian Winch had missed 4th gear, so it seemed only gentlemanly to allow a rematch.
This time, Godzilla 2 again squirted ahead by a few car lengths on launch, but was then inexorably reeled in then left in the dust as the Noble powered onto a terminal speed of just over 180mph and his best time for the day was 28.162s.
As Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn wisely said, "There's always a bigger fish..."
