suspension is firm but not uncomfortable, only jostling the
occupants on particularly poor surfaces, the steering jiggles
in your hands across cambers like a GT-series 911 and the
engine is incredibly tractable, pulling without hesitation or
complaint even when I accidentally select fourth from first.
All the while the RB-X orchestra plays its symphony, every
metre accompanied by growls, hisses and sneezes as boost is
built and dumped and revs rise and fall. It sounds like it has
900hp, not 400.
Today’s turbocharged engines are all about boosting low-
and mid-range torque, but in the 1980s and ’90s turbos were
the key to unlocked power and lots of it. As such the RB-X
initially feels disinterested, needing around 3500rpm or so to
get into its stride, but take into account the 8000rpm redline
and there is a 4500rpm-wide powerband to exploit. You
quickly adjust, learning to keep the tacho hovering between
4000-5000rpm through corners so that you’re in the meat of
the torque delivery on exit.
The steering is weighty and extremely responsive without
being heavy or darty. Inputs are answered immediately and
the feedback is superb, every corner of the car providing
information about the road beneath. Arguably the greatest
myth about GT-Rs is that they drive themselves. There is
a tremendous amount of technology in the chassis – even
this 22-year-old model has ATTESA active all-wheel drive, a
torque-vectoring active rear LSD and all-wheel steering – but
it’s up to the driver whether they get themselves into trouble
and whether they can then extricate themselves from it,
especially as the R33 lacks ESP or traction control.
It’s unclear when the Dunlop Direzza DZ10Z tyres were last
replaced and the 400R initially feels very short of rear grip.
As the kilometres pass it becomes clear that this sensation
is merely a combination of the quick steering, rear-biased
ATTESA and all-wheel steer working together to get you
to corner exit as quickly as possible. It’s unnerving at first,
particularly in a car this rare and valuable (it’s insured
for $300K) but as kilometres pass the behaviour becomes
reassuring, as you know the front end will stick and the
amount of rear-end involvement depends on how hard you
press the throttle.BELOW
Contrary to
appearances the R33
is actually a bigger
car than the R34,
being 75mm longer,
45mm wider and
with a 55mm longer
wheelbase➜More than 20 years on, the 400R is still a very fast car; once
on boost it accelerates in a sustained rush right to 8000rpm.
Performance figures are hard to come by, but in one of Best
Motoring’s famous Tsukuba Circuit battles, Nismo’s tweaked
GT-R showed a clean pair of heels to the likes of the Honda
NSX-R, Porsche 993 911 Turbo and Ferrari F355, instead
trading tenths with the 993 GT2. Perhaps unsurprisingly
given its OEM roots, it’s also very well resolved, with strong
brakes, plenty of traction and solid body control, though the
dampers run short of travel over bigger compressions. In
short, the 400R lives up to the legend.
Even if you had no idea what the Mine’s Ultimate Response
GT-R was, its staccato, almost rotary-like idle is a dead
giveaway of its intent. Like the R33, the driving position is
slightly reclined but the seat is much lower and the semi-
quartic wheel – a step backwards from the standard R34’s
perfectly round item – adjusts higher. A digital screen on the
dash displays an incomprehensible amount of vehicle data;
commonplace these days, science fiction in the early 2000s.
The Mine’s car is even easier to drive than the 400R: the
clutch is much more progressive, the steering is lighter, theWE WISH BOATS sailed faster. In a dream world this
would have been a three-car test, with the third car
being arguably the most special of all. In January 2019
V-Spec Performance successfully bid for one of just four
HKS Zero-Rs, paying AUD$212,000 for the ultra-rare
R32, one of which resides with the Sultan of Brunei. So
comprehensive is the work done by HKS, the Zero-R wears
no Nissan badges. Similar in spec to the Mine's Ultimate
with a 441kW 2.8-litre engine, the HKS is nonetheless a
very different beast. We'll hopefully beg and bribe V-Spec
into doing a feature in a future issue.THE ONE THAT DIDN'T QUITE MAKE IT
106 september 2019 whichcar.com.au/motor