Nissan GTR

I have been meaning to do this post for a while, I will be writing about one car and one car only. My favorite car in fact, the Nissan GTR (R35).

http://padangcitycar.com/nissan-gt-r.html

This car in my eyes is the perfect "super" car. It has four seats (kind of) it gets pretty respectable mileage figures from the 3.8 litre V6 at 19 MPG. It does 0-60 in under 3 seconds (I've seen figures anywhere from 3.1 to 2.5 but the average seems to be 2.7 seconds) and it will top out near 200 MPH. Oh yeah and did I fail to mention it costs 97 grand.

So to recap it will crush an SRT Viper (which I also love) and for that matter hang with and in most cases beat a Ferrari 458. In Canada the 458 costs 347 thousand dollars, the car known as Godzilla will thrash it for under 100 grand, If their is a better performance bargain I don't know it. I mean hell, a used 2009 or 2010 model can be found for around 60k and for that money ALLOT of people will be killing themselves with it (hopefully in the next few years me as well).

This thing is a fire breathing monster (literally). Known simply as Godzilla. It is made by a company that makes primarily economy cars that no one cares about. Yes they have always made the Nissan skyline which is an amazing machine in it's own right. Nissan however stopped production of the skyline in 2002. The next generation was sold in North America as the Infiniti G35. Which was a good car but did not live up to it's predecessor, The R35 GTR seemingly came out of thin air, at least  from the general publics point of view and rewrote the handbook on what a car is capable of. It was the first car that could hit 60 in under 3.0 seconds (for this post I am excluding cars that cost over a million dollars, I am fully aware the Veyron completed that feat in 2006), It defied physics in the fact that it is not a light car by any stretch of the imagination at a bit over 3800 lbs, despite this it still lapped the Nurburgring in 7:27. The brand new nismo version just got the lap record on the ring for a mass produced car at 7:08. This car should not be able to do these things, It goes against the laws of nature and it was the first car to really do that. Technology overcoming basic physics is a wonderful thing.

Many reviewers do however think that because of all the electronics that allow the car to do these things, It is not engaging to drive and that the car is doing more of the work than you are. I unfortunately have never driven this car so I cannot attest to this fact. They have said it's like driving a Playstation. One thing I can say however is, the reviewers who I have seen make the statement that the car is un-engaging and to technical have more than likely not ever spent a significant amount of time on a game console, I and many of the GTR's buyers however have. If this car does in fact drive like a video game. That just makes me want it that much more because I will already have a feel for it. So the cars one major fault (aside from weight and apparently noise) is not in my mind a fault at all.

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/07/11/2014-nissan-gt-r-review-video/

The world is becoming more technologically advanced by the day, The things that are happening that the general public has no idea about is astonishing, The Nissan GTR R35 was and is on the forefront of that, Other brands are now catching up and a super car that can't do 0-60 in under 3.5 is considered old news. we want the car to tell us everything about our driving and seat 4 and have good gas mileage and make us FEAR GOD when we hit the go pedal. The Nissan GTR did all this FIRST and is still doing it. Since it's inception it has been in the top three of more best driver's car competitions than I care to mention. 

To sum up The Nissan GTR is as close to the perfect performance car on the market as you can get. I don't know how it accomplishes the things it does, but believe, it does do them. when the car came out in 2009 it was so good people were actively trying to find fault with it (similar to the Tesla Model S today). One of my main goals in life is to own a blue GTR, So one day If you see me driving around in one wave at me and if we are at a stop sign, prepare to see the tail lights.   

        

Paul Walker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8UCI7r1Aqw

As you can probably tell by now, This is yet another Paul Walker tribute-post-blog-thing. It has been two weeks to the day since the tragic accident that took one of Hollywood's best rising stars. Since than I have watched all of the F&F movies a few times. It is still pretty weird watching them and knowing that he will never act in another one or portray Brian O-Conner again.

The first F&F came out in 2001, I was 13 at that time, just entering high school and Just starting to get interested seriously in cars. As the series progressed I grew up, finished high school and graduated college, I grew with these movies and in a way I grew with Paul Walkers acting career as did many other car enthusiasts, The older we became the better his acting got and the more we could appreciate what we were watching.

It is an interesting fact about Paul Walker that in the series he portrayed a character that was mainly interested in imports, specifically skylines and the like. In reality he was apparently enamored with American muscle, specifically Mustangs and Saleen. He was also the only main actor on set that had any significant driving experience or serious interest in cars. I believe Michelle Rodriguez actually got her license for the movie (don't quote me on that though).

Their are some eerie coincidences between Paul Walkers death and another former rising star who was taken from us far to early, James Dean. James in fact died at a much younger age (24). although the two had somewhat similar lives. Both Paul and James died relatively early in their career, Both Paul and James were active in racing, Both Paul and James loved Porsche's (one of the few foreign cars Walker loved, he had 3 GT2 rs's) and tragically Both Paul and Dean died in Porsche's. If Paul Walker really was the second coming of James Dean, He lived his life as it should have been, through cars, Love and family. He will be missed and the car world will never forget him.

Now check out his AMAZING car collection through the words of Matt Farah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U189SwhPXKI