Motor Australia – September 2019

A CULT OF

ACCELERATION

EMERGES

2002.Intheearly1990sJapan’stunerswereobsessedwith

0-300km/htimes.Veilside’s1044kWR1R32GT-Rwasking,

clocking13.72sec,buttherunswerebannedafterhuge

crashes.Veilsideturneditsattentiontoradial-tyredrag

racing– the‘RH9club’– theR1running8.61secin2002.

(^31) OCTOBER 2005. A new generation of GT-R moves one step closer
with the GT-R Proto appearing at the Tokyo Motor Show, giving
the world a look at what would become the finished styling. The
program suffers delays as Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn insists it be
profitableandrumourspersistofa 4.5-litreV8fortheUSmarket.
2005.TheR34GT-Rplays
onelasthand.Nismocarefully
selects 19 usedR34s,each
withlessthan30,000km,and
completelyrebuildstheminto
Z-Tunes– theultimateGT-R.Body
reinforcement,a 368kW/540Nm
2.8-litre‘Z2’engine,Sachs
suspensionandcarbonpanelsare
justa fewofthemodifications.
OCTOBER 2007. Five years after R34 production ceased, Nissan
reveals the R35 GT-R at the Tokyo Motor Show. Speculation of a
V8 comes to naught, the new-age Godzilla using a 3.8-litre twin-
turbo V6 producing 357kW/588Nm in all markets. Japan receives
its first cars in December 2007, the US follows in July 2008, while
Australia has to wait until February 2009.
'GT-R PROTO'
CONCEPT TEASES
PRODUCTION R35
Z-TUNE
IS BORN
R35 ARRIVES: BIGGER,
HEAVIER,NEW V6
AND AUTO ONLY
R34 WINS FIRST
TARGATASMANIA
(^29) APRIL2005.Afteralmosta decadeofPorschedomination,
a GT-RwinsTargaTasmaniathankstotheeffortsoflocals
JasonandJohnWhiteinanR34V-SpecN1.TonyQuinn
andNaomiTillettaddtwomoretitlesin 2009 and 2011 with
JamieVandenbergandDennisSimswinningin2014.
74 september 2019 whichcar.com.au/motor