Nissan GT-R Nismo is one of the fastest and most entertaining four-seat cars on the planet

SADLY, car fan kids are dying out.

They’re no blu-tacking posters of 200mph supercars on their bedroom walls anymore.

They’re too busy watching some YouTuber unpacking an iPhone 12 or perfecting a TikTok routine.

But somehow Nissan has pulled off the impossible and kept the GT-R in the minds of youngsters.

This is a car that hasn’t been renewed for 13 years, so it’s older than all of the boys at my son’s football training. But it got maximum respect in the car park.

All you could hear was “Whoa, is that a GT-R?” and “Can I take a picture?”

How have Nissan done it?

Well, the GT-R is a massive gamer car, for starters, and films like Fast & Furious only add to its hero status.

But it also has kids drooling because it looks exactly how they would design a car — everything big, everything brash and wonderfully OTT.

I’m delighted to report, it is just as deranged to drive.

Find yourself on an open road and floor it and it is a mixture of wonder and terror. As close as you’ll get to piloting a fighter jet.

One moment you’re here and the next? You’re a long way over there.

But it’s not just the thrust from the monstrous twin-turbo V6 that makes it such mental fun — 0-62mph in a face-melting 2.5 seconds — the sticky four-wheel drive system means there’s no Code Brown moment when you point it at significant corners. It just hangs on.

My test car is actually the GT-R Nismo which, at £180k, is double the price of a regular GT-R, and not far off a Lamborghini Huracan.

I know. That’s a lot of money. But Nissan kindly sent me the PCP figures to spread the payment: It’s £1,299 a month over three years . . .  with, er, £51,442 deposit.

And the optional final payment is £96,718. Perhaps best we move on quickly.

The GT-R Nismo borrows all sorts of bits from the GT3 race car including carbon fibre everything, a modified turbocharger and vented front wings.

It tips the scales 30kg lighter, rolls on wider tyres, and race-tuned suspension improves stability at the silly speeds I mentioned earlier.

It stops well too. Like Lightning McQueen standing on his nose when he’s forgotten something.

Yep, you guessed right. Brembo carbon ceramic brakes. Engineers resisted the temptation to push the 3.8-litre engine beyond 600hp.

Nissan product chief Hiroshi Tamura told me: “We built this to be the ultimate track and street vehicle. It is about total balance management, not just chasing power figures.”

Well said. It is brutal but sublime. Other things that please. The quad exhausts with burnished blue tips.

The old-school dash that reminds you this is a machine not a computer. The surprisingly comfortable seats.

It’s even got massaging rear seats. Oh no. Sorry. That’s just the massive Bose speakers.

There’s absolutely nothing delicate about this car — although the Eco mode did tickle me. That’s like putting a Sport button in a Dacia.

To conclude, then. The GT-R is long in the tooth but still one of the fastest and most entertaining four-seat cars on the planet.

Even a kid knows that.

Nissan GT-R Nismo

Key facts

Price: £180,095
Engine: 3.8-litre V6 twin turbo
Power: 600hp, 652Nm
0-62mph: 2.5 secs
Top speed: 205mph
Economy: 19mpg

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