Nissan's GT-R engineer wanted calm conversation at 300 kilometres an hour
Kazutoshi Mizuno, known inside Nissan as Mr. GT-R, set himself an unusual target for the car that became the R35 GT-R. Besides a Nürburgring lap under eight minutes, he wanted driver and passenger to chat comfortably at 300 km/h. At first, though, he refused the job entirely.
The project began in 2000 under chief executive Carlos Ghosn, who wanted a halo car to lift enthusiasm for a struggling Nissan. It had to rival Porsche, Lamborghini and Ferrari at a noticeably lower price, and keep the four round tail lights he saw as the signature of every GT-R. Mizuno, who had engineered the previous Skyline GT-R, balked because he was told to use the outdated FM platform, saying he could not build a world-class car from it. In April 2003 he built a prototype on an improved version called Premium Midship, and was handed full control.
His hand-picked team, drawn from the best engineers in each department, tested a disguised Infiniti G35 mule at the Nürburgring and in Japan. Mizuno also aimed for under four kilograms per horsepower. The aerodynamicists chased a drag coefficient of 0.28 or better while still producing downforce at both ends; active aerodynamics were rejected as too expensive, and early wind tunnel models managed only 0.32.
The finished car appeared at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show and, unlike earlier GT-Rs, went on sale worldwide. It brought a twin-turbocharged V6, launch control, a dual-clutch gearbox and the first rear-mounted independent transaxle in an all-wheel-drive car. It dropped the old HICAS four-wheel steering, which clashed with the new drive system, but kept the nickname Godzilla.
Regulations eventually closed its markets one by one: side-impact rules in Australia in 2021, noise limits in Europe, then North America in 2024. Production ended in August 2025 after 18 years and about 48,000 cars.
Source: Nissan GT-R
