Two entirely different cars: one from the beginning of a dynasty, one at its culmination. One manual, rear-driven and with the bare minimum of electronics; one all-wheel drive and all about technology. Both have become ever-present landmarks, both in the evo story and the wider evolution of the performance car.
When this magazine came into being, the Nissan GT-R was in its fourth, R33 generation and still called the Skyline. The musclebound R34 came along in 1999 but it was the R35 generation that arrived in 2008, dropped the Skyline label and became simply the GT-R, that picked up the performance car goalposts and set them down in a whole new playing field. Fifteen years ago. A long time. Yet the R35 only retired from sale in the European market in 2022 (largely due to EU and UK drive-by noise regulations) and it’s still on sale in Japan and the US. It’s been a unique yardstick for performance and sheer ability in three separate decades.
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