Sometimes less is more: Less money for the car, More fun for the drive.
I decided to go the economy route and do the Nissan GTR. It’s one of Exotics Racing’s least expensive and since last night, the blackjack table showed what a novice I was, I figured it should be a good time for the money. After all, the car is packing around 545hp under the hood, how bad could it be? My only dread about the car is that it is so non-super car looking, you stand there thinking, “I should be in that Ferrari right now. Why am I driving this box?” Like I said, around 545hp!! It looks like any other car parked at Costco. Plain. Bland. No meaningful design to it whatsoever. I can’t find a graceful line on car. It looks like the car that you say, “Wait until next year’s model!” Maybe this car came from some tuner privateer project and Nissan said, “All right, all right, alright! Quit bugging us about taking your dad’s car and tuning it up. Here’s a $1mil, we’ll crank out a couple thousand and be done with it.” No design. No revisions. No Nissan stamp on it. Remember, this is the company that produced the 280Z, the current 370Z, and the Nissan Cube, three of the coolest cars to ever hit the pavement. Come on, who doesn’t love an asynchronous setup on the rear lift door?
One nice aspect of the GTR, besides the 545hp, the interior does look ready for racing. It’s solid, stark, but competent. The steering wheel just looks like fun and speed with all those buttons. And there’s just enough brush aluminum plastic trim to give it some sport feel. Actually, it looks totally cheesy, again, a reduex from your dad’s ’73 GT-R. But when you get that close, all you can think of is 545hp! And anything looks sporty when it’s tied to the 545hp sitting 3 feet in front of you. Oh well…
The cool thing about Exotics Racing, the base package of 5 laps adds one more for free, a Vegas setup 6 for 5 odds. And then since a penny saved is a penny earned, the sales pitch to throw in 2 extra laps for the price of one was not something to pass up. Thank you Ben Franklin! So 7 laps it is and off we go. Upon start up, it sounds like a JT, Japan Tuned. More of a purr than a roar. But a loud strong purr. Barry, my instructor gives me a couple of pointers and off we go. On the track, it felt strong. I drove the GT-R after the Audi and Aston Martin, and it topped them in every category. The car feels fast, planted and ready to be raced. And punching the throttle heading on to the main straight, you feel the G’s planting you in the seat. Nice! A couple of turns, some braking, and a good time was had by all. And when I realize that I could afford one of these, my wheels were really turning! Oh oh… daddy approves!
