Nissan's awesome GT-R super car

That's when your palms sweat, your hair stand up, and your blood pressure shoots up in tandem with the rev counter.

For although the GT-R looks like nothing much more venomous than a Nissan 370Z on steroids, it is awesomely fast - like 0-100 km in 3,6 seconds fast.

In the fast league

This puts in firmly in the league of Porsche 911 Turbo and 997 GT2, Audi R8 V10, Pagani Zonda F and Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera.

But the GT-R is much more than just fast. It is a highly sophisticated super sports car designed for track action.

Wedged in under its sleek bonnet is a 3,8-litre chunk of machined metal capable of blasting out 357 kW and 588 Nm which converts into a top speed of about 310 km/h.

Doing what it does best... on the move...click to enlarge

Cog-swapping happens lightning fast when you use the finger flaps on the steering column but even left to its own devices in auto mode the shifts are slick and swift.

Black is beautiful, but so is red… white…

I drove the Black Edition of the GT-R on a 90-km stretch of public road (the location of which will remain my secret) and my time behind the wheel felt like it flashed by in seconds.

The sound of its fine-tuned V6 working flat-out is the stuff of goose flesh. When you stamp down on the fast pedal the GT-R just seems to go faster and faster and faster in one seamless blast.

The steering is near-perfectly weighted and razor sharp. The hot Nissan sits rock-steady on the road, although when you start moving into “go-directly-to-jail” speeds the front end starts feeling a little light, just like the V8 Audi R8.

The view most motorists have of the GT-R.

But the beauty of the GT-R is that it has a battery of different settings for steering, suspension and transmission so the driver can choose between normal, comfortable and racing settings.

Getting to know this car intimately enough to get the best out of it will take time and involve a lot of fiddling and staring at its central control screen panel which was designed by Polyphony Digital, the master brain behind the Gran Turismo TV game.

Well-behaved, with the beast lurking within

But once you have mastered it you will be able to measure G-forces and analyse your lap times and much, much more.

Great lines, wouldn't you agree.

Although the GT-R will probably be bought mainly by petrol heads with high octane in their blood, it is well-behaved, smooth and easy enough to drive daily from home to office.

It has all the comforts of a well-bred saloon, including a surprisingly spacious boot, good aircon, upmarket sound system, safety bags, electronically adjustable seats (and even two at the back for the little ones).

Not frugal, but fast!

The driver's position; you can hunker down and enjoy the ride.

Being quite heavy (and considering it's a car that just begs to be driven) fuel consumption will not be frugal. Nissan says it will gulp about 18,3 litres per 100 km in city driving, although on the open road this should drop down to about 9 litres per 100 km, depending on how much lead you have in your foot, of course.

The instrumentation is clear and unambiguous.

The GT-R is very much an enthusiasts dream car and although one would have thought that the price tag of just on R1,2-million would put a bit of a damper on sales, Nissan says it would have sold and delivered 94 of these beauties by the end of December.

Lucky blighters is all I can say to those 94 dream car owners.

Specifications