Ever notice how some cars stay on the market forever? We’re used to five-year or seven-year model cycles, so after nearly eighteen years, it’s probably time to bring the ship to shore. In that spirit, the last R35 Nissan GT-R has rolled off the assembly line in Japan, marking the end of a performance car dynasty as influential as it was controversial.
When the R35 GT-R arrived back in 2007, it spawned a non-stop 24/7 news cycle the likes of which we haven’t quite seen since. It was on the cover of every magazine, the home page of every website, the feature film of every TV program, and for good reason. This was the ignition point for the formula of the heavy turbocharged all-wheel-drive automatic performance car that posts ridiculous numbers despite mass working against it. Even though it weighed 3,836 pounds, early models could sprint to 60 MPH in the low-three-second range and lap the Nürburgring quicker than the 997 Porsche 911 GT2.
Of equal importance, the GT-R was a bargain when it first launched. Here was a supercar-slayer that would run prospective buyers $70,475 including freight, less than a Corvette Z06 let alone a Porsche 911 Turbo. Oh, and it brought “Fast and Furious” fantasies to America. For the first time, citizens of the red, white and blue could buy a GT-R directly from a Nissan dealer in left-hand-drive.
The result was an instant classic that won just about every award, set a Guinness World Record for the fastest-accelerating four-seat production car, and caused its fair share of controversy. Objectively, it could do amazing things. Subjectively, it was less like a scalpel and more like a laser-guided hammer. Ruthless, a bit blunt, heavy, and somewhat insulating. This was perfectly fine when light sports cars were relatively plentiful as a double-duty Super GT was something of a novelty in this band of the fast car spectrum, but then almost everyone sort-of copied Nissan’s homework.
Fifteen years ago, a BMW M3 had a screaming small-displacement V8 and a stick-shift, a base Porsche 911 had an atmospheric flat-six and a manual gearbox, a Corvette ZR1 had a supercharged pushrod V8 and a row-your-own transaxle, and an Aston Martin Vantage paired a sonorous British naturally aspirated V8 with a six-speed shifter. Now though, all those cars are turbocharged with either dual-clutch automatic or torque converter automatic transmissions as either the predominant choice or the only option.
Regardless, even though the competition got faster and the GT-R got more expensive over its production run, Nissan managed to sell 48,000 of these things worldwide in the past 17 years and eight months, from the original 480-horsepower variant to the 600-horsepower Nismo model. Wilder still, a group of nine artisans crafted every VR38DETT engine over that production run. That’s proper exotic car stuff. Still, every story eventually needs to end, and in this case, it happened slowly. The GT-R went off sale in Europe in 2022 and drove off into the American sunset last year. It clearly wasn’t long for this world, so, early this month, a Midnight Purple T-Spec GT-R drove off the line in Tochigi, the lights came down, and the credits rolled.
While this marks the end of the R35 GT-R, this isn’t the last you’ll hear of the GT-R nameplate. As Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa wrote in a media statement:
After 18 remarkable years, the R35 GT-R has left an enduring mark on automotive history. Its legacy is a testament to the passion of our team and the loyalty of our customers around the globe. Thank you for being part of this extraordinary journey. To the many fans of the GT-R worldwide, I want to tell you this isn’t a goodbye to the GT-R forever, it’s our goal for the GT-R nameplate to one day make a return.
Considering the five-year gap between the last R34 Skyline GT-R off the line and the first production-spec R35 GT-R, we could be waiting a while to see a successor to Nissan’s turbocharged all-wheel-drive destroyer of worlds. Until then, we’re left to reckon with what the R35 GT-R stands for.
Top graphic image: Nissan
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Good riddance you over priced, over weight land yacht. IMO, Nissan died when they brought this to the US instead of the Skyline.
There is a guy near me that has a red one with some aftermarket body kit.. i drool over that thing every single time.
“Simplify, and add lightness”
R35 GT-R: “Nah”
Clarkson voice: “Add moar Powaaaaah!”
What does the R35 GT-R stand for? As is appropriate for a car of the 2000s, it stands for AWESOME.
It may have grown outdated and overpriced over its years on the market and Godzilla may never have been the best car on-sale, that didn’t change the fact that the car itself was great.
The first time I saw an R35 was at a Nissan dealership back in 2008; my dad was getting the Nissan Quest (minivan) serviced. I was in middle school at the time.
I’m now in my 30’s and the R35 has finally ended production. Surreal.
The NSX, RX7, Supra and a few other cars all lingered on in the Japanese market way after their runs in the US and other markets. The Japanese car makers have a habit of doing these- letting these supercars wither on the vine. It’s disgraceful because by the end of that run these cars are way past their prime and pretty much caricatures of itself.
the only thing that really “ages” the r35 is the tech/ infotainment. maybe the transmission could use more gears as a 6 speed is dated by 2025 standards. Without the R35 modern supercars probably would have took a lot longer to ‘develop’ and improve their performance. There was nothing really bad about the Lamborghini lineup at the time but when you have a GT car from japan lapping you on the track for a mere fraction of the price that was not a good look!
I think the big difference is that Nissan, Toyota and Honda don’t need to produce cars like the NSX, GTR or Supra. They do need to keep churning out competitive cars, Crossovers and SUVs in every conceivable size. They dip into these semi exotic sports car experiments just to have a flagship. Really they’re just letting their engineers and designers have a fun once in a while.
Porsche, McLaren or Ferrari have to keep their sports cars competitive and zeitgeist-y, or else they’ll stop paying the bills. These cars are their identity and their bottom line.
For a huge, albeit not necessarily healthy, concern like Nissan, it probably makes sense to sell these cars for as long as they can. There isn’t a huge incentive to keep them current, and killing them off after a normal product cycle wouldn’t be economical. The cars already served their purpose by generating a lot of buzz around the company and advancing their R&D departments. Might as well sell them until the castings are worn.
In the end, I don’t think anyone decided not to buy a Nissan Armada or a Versa just because the GTR is no longer competitive.
The problem is, at some point these aging flag ships just reminds people that these car makers are stagnating. Imagine a car buyer walking into a Nissan dealership and seeing the R35. He’s probably thinking- yeah- I lusted after one of these when I was in third grade.
Pretty impressive run. Just for context, some notable cultural moments from 2007:
Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone, a revolutionary mobile device that changed the technology landscape.
Facebook and Twitter expanded their reach to a global audience, making them major players in social networking.
Google acquired YouTube, solidifying its position in online video content.
Netflix began streaming movies and TV shows over the internet.
And I graduated high school. How dare you miss the most important one.
Yikes and I was just one year into my career lol.
So it’s basically the point where the world started turning the crap we’re currently experiencing.
Maybe it stayed a little past its prime but the R35 had an incredible run.
This car probably marks the start or close to it of cars being numbers generators. Impressive performance but many complained of lack of engagement, but the hype around this car was insane. Reviews of anything more expensive were flooded with comments from the most obnoxious people on the internet proclaiming Ferraris pointless because the Nissan was cheaper and faster. This car had a stranglehold on internet bench racing for nearly a decade.
I don’t believe ANY of the “lack of engagement” “but the car drive’s itself” arguments from the media or even the GTR’s greatest critic Jeremy Clarkson. I think that most of it was just COPE to explain why they still “preferred” the inferior at the time exotics. If people seriously preferred the “old school” driving experience the exotics would not have “caught up” as quickly.
Cars like this and the NSX did put the overpriced exotics on notice.
Honestly I keep forgetting this car exists.
Same.
When this car debuted I proudly proclaimed I’d buy a used one in four years or so when they were 35K.
They still aren’t, the cheapest in the country on cars,com is 55 right now. Also I’ve had two kids and they are now too big to fit in it with me, but I’ve got about 5 or 6 years before I’ll need to haul them around all the time, maybe then it’ll be a 35K car?
Right?
Im in a similar place and at this point I’m holding out hope that the C8 will be our car in a few years. It’s still stubbornly expensive but at the end of the day it’s an automatic-only Corvette. There’s no way it’ll remain that way forever. Right? RIGHT?!?!
They’re gonna come down. In typical Corvette fashion they’re building gobs of them and the old guys who drained their retirement accounts to buy one won’t be around forever. I doubt they dip much below $40k at their cheapest, though.
40k is cheap enough for me.
The families of these people will want to get rid of them when clearing out the estates. I think you may in fact see a glut of them all hitting within a window of a few years.
The Great Boomer Wealth Redistribution will be upon us before we know it….
I dunno. Boomers are hellbent and ensuring any and all money end up in as few of hands as possible. Preferably if said hands are already extremely wealthy.
this would cost 35k if it wasn’t for the rapid inflation post 2020.
This was so mind blowing in 2007 in that they were sold at regular Nissan dealers not and easily seen on the street unlike other exotics. The price seems attainable, until the price went wild after the good press and then forgotten.
There’s a house that I often go past on weekends with a handful of GTRs, and WRX STI hatches (old-style Impreza bubbles) always parked outside.
It never ceases to make me smile when I go past.
The R35 has been a bit of an enigma on the used market to me, they seem fairly available, but prices really haven’t come down a ton. Despite the high values, it seems like they all have a half dozen owners, and so many former owner testimonials I see online say the same thing: that they’re fast, appealing from afar, but in the end sort of boring and unfulfilling to own for more than a few thousand miles. It will certainly be missed by many, but I wonder how well it will be viewed in 20 years.
Prices have stayed high because the prices kept rising year after year. If you bought the early one for $70k, and then the next year they were selling for $80+, you have no real reason to sell lower. That’s the worst part about these to me, they were such a bargain, then started pricing to the moon and made it far less exciting.
Exactly, Well said.
I’m convinced that Nissan just priced them at whatever a base 911 costed.
They’re pretty easy to drive quickly, with great performance. They give you a lot of confidence, and back that confidence up reliably.
They’re not an “experience” car though. Impressive? Sure. Exciting? No.
There’s plenty of fast cars nowadays. There’s not many “experience” cars.
“…a Midnight Purple T-Spec GT-R drove off the line in Tochigi…”
If it’s purple, why does it appear green?
It probably depends on whether you saw the dress as gold or blue.
Midnight Purple has kind of a chameleon effect depending on the lighting.
It’s green on the configurator too.
In the first image it’s reflecting that green floor just enough to make it look like lighter green highlights in the paint itself.
That’s a big part of it, but Midnight Purple does look green-ish by itself depending on the lighting.
Where it all started or where it all ended, depending on who you ask. Godzilla will always be a bedroom poster car for me and other folks around my age who grew up at the height of the Fast series and games like Need For Speed though…so I’ll pour one out for a legend.
Now if the stubbornly high values on these could take a hike that would be great….
It’s fitting that this hit today. The R35 is my 8-y/o son’s favorite car (to be fair, he loves all Skylines but the R35 is his favorite) and we frequently get to see one by his school. It was even “waiting” for him with the garage door open on his back to school night. Yesterday I mentioned the garage being opened and his friend (who also likes cars) asked why that mattered. My son gave him an exasperated “I’ve told you about this, it’s a GT-R…”
Kids can be fun…
My son is 14 months old and I can’t wait for shit like this
Don’t blink!
Lot of truth here. My wife found an ad for something baby-related where the tagline was “the nights are long, but the years are short” and that’s the truth. The toddler who’s always loved playing in the cab of my truck and used to have to stand on the seat to see over the dash is already halfway to driving it…
The funny thing is, he came to Skylines on his own. He liked an R32 a fireman had at a firehouse near his old daycare. He already found the rabbit hole, I just encouraged him to go down it.
I started him on Initial D, but he lost interest when Takami beat Takeshi. I don’t think he liked the idea of an AE86 beating a GT-R…
The original NA1/2 NSX was produced across 16 calendar years.
The R35 GTR was produced across 18 calendar years.
The obvious answer is for Toyota to produce the same car for 20 calendar years.
LC500 come on down
Chevy Express still marching on, laughing at the concept of evolution.
Does the non-US 70 series Land Cruiser count? In production since 1984 with some face lifts and engine changes, but essentially the same. I think its the longest running single generation still in production.
The Russians still have the J70 LandCruiser beaten on two accounts, being the VAZ Niva (1977) and UAZ 452 (1965).
I suppose you could count the IMZ Ural motorcycle and sidecar as well. I didn’t add it to the list as its a motorcycle and not a car despite owning one. It is not based on stolen designs for the famous WW2 R71 like most people think, but instead USSR purchased the entire R12 (predecessor for the R71) tooling and factory from BMW in a technology pact between the Soviets and Germany. So modern Urals are basically the same 1935 BMW R12 with some improvements, but no major model changes.