A Few Reasons Why the Nissan GT-R is Called “Godzilla”
Over the past few years, I’ve read reviews of the Nissan GT-R in which journalists pointed out that although it’s a brilliantly engineered car, it’s a little too clever for its own good. That you don’t need to be a good driver to look like a star behind its wheel, that it’s too digital.
Having never driven the GT-R, I came away with the impression that it was a largely sedate machine that happened to be capable of staggering track performance. I had no idea just how deserving of the nickname “Godzilla” it is…
…until I drove it at the Texas Auto Writers Association’s 2015 Texas Auto Roundup in Dallas on Monday.
When I pressed the red starter button to the left of the e-brake, I might as well have poked the giant movie monster’s nose while it was sleeping. I awakened the nuclear-grade Nissan’s twin-turbo 3.8-liter V6. I could hear it breathing heavily and deeply. The sound wasn’t that of a V8 or even of a V6. It was more…organic, as if the exhaust would smell of meat and bone. Godzilla had already devoured and harnessed the power of 545 horses, but it was hungry for air, for movement, for provocation.
I took it out into the rain that was falling all over the Texas Motor Speedway. John Curl, a regional product manager for Nissan North America, rode shotgun. The slick conditions meant I would be unleashing the $106,650 beast on public roads, not the race track. Imperfections in the pavement exposed the steering’s sensitivity to bumps and potholes. I had to hold on tightly to the reigns on the creature to at least pretend I was in control of it.
As I came to a stop on one of the roads surrounding the TMS, I heard the GT-R Premium’s Nissan/Brembo brakes squeak. Not surprisingly, that’s what the steel chains keeping a giant monster restrained do when it first starts trying to break free.
A mix of mentally masochistic thrill-seeking and burning curiosity made me bust Godzilla loose myself. There was a nanosecond after I put my right foot down into the throttle during which I felt a sudden flash of horror, as if I were working on the 38th floor of an office building and turned around in my chair to see one giant reptilian eye staring at me. I knew what was coming.
Curl and I shot forward in a laser beam of acceleration. Its power was only matched by its smoothness. I briefly felt as if hyperdrive were real. Hell, Nissan convinced me Godzilla is, so I’m open to the possibility of a lot of things now. Dunlop’s extreme-performance run-flats and Nissan’s ATTESA E-TS all-wheel drive system held Curl and I to the slippery roads as well as the engine and the six-speed dual-clutch transmission rocketed us down them. The tires didn’t spin from a lack of grip; they dug in like black claws. There was no battle between the elements and the GT-R’s hardware and software, no drama except for the sudden rise in my heart rate.
My experience behind the wheel of the 2015 Nissan GT-R Premium didn’t last long enough for me to truly determine if the GT-R is too easy to drive well. More time in it on the street (when it’s dry) and on a track are necessary for me to decide if that’s the case. However, I do know that, despite having the abilities of a highly advanced performance machine, the GT-R is really an animal. Godzilla lives.
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