After recently eating the second-generation Ford GT’s dust at Willow Springs, the C8 Corvette Z06 is back for another drag race. Thomas and James, better known as Throttle House, lined up two GT-Rs right beside the naturally-aspirated sports car. Despite sporting six-cylinder mills, those Nissans are ridiculously quick from a dig thanks to all-wheel drive.
Pictured in white, the R34 is the lightest of the bunch at 3,439 pounds (1,560 kilograms) in bone-stock form. Expect it’s the exact opposite of stock, for it packs in excess of 1,000 horsepower thanks to a Garrett spinny lad that goes whoosh like there’s no tomorrow. Listed with “many torques” rather than a definite number, the modified R34 is – no surprises here - the fastest vehicle in a quarter-mile sprint and from a rolling start.
Based on the 10th generation of the Skyline, the R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R originally came with a 2.6-liter sixer. This example of the breed currently sports a 3.0-liter unit, making it the smallest engine on the grid. Stroking the RB is popular with the aftermarket community, and these RBs can sure take a beating thanks to the attention to detail that went into these mills.
The carbon-clad R35 sitting on the opposite side of the R34 is a NISMO, which means lots of carbon, better aero, and many other small upgrades that differentiate it from lesser siblings both on paper and on the track. Priced at $210,740 in the U.S., which is quite a bit more than the blue-painted ‘Vette, the R35 is the first GT-R not to feature the Skyline prefix.
It also marks the switch from inline-six to six cylinders arranged in a V, a move that’s been widely criticized when the R35 launched in 2007. Indeed, this fellow is celebrating its 16th year in production in 2023 despite abysmal sales in pretty much every corner of the world. For instance, did you know that Nissan sold a whopping 57 units in the United States of America in 2022? Of those, one example of the R35 was sold in the last quarter of 2022. Longevity might be impressive in other contexts, but the GT-R definitely needs a ground-up redesign to become relevant again.
NISMO-spec’d cars run 600 horsepower at the crankshaft. They’re pretty torquey as well, with Nissan quoting 481 pound-feet (652 Nm). But at 3,867 pounds (1,754 kilograms), it’s also heavier than both of its rivals.
Blessed with a Ferrari 458 Italia-sounding FPC V8 that belts out 670 horsepower and 460 pound-feet (624 Nm) of torque on full song, the rear-drive C8 Z06 simply doesn’t have the traction to launch as well as the R35. The sheer horsepower of the R34 leaves it for dead in the quarter mile. But from a roll, you’d be surprised how small of a difference there is between the mid-engine sports car from Kentucky and the R35 NISMO.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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