5 Things I Love About My Nissan GT-R™ R35

I’ve had the GT-R long enough now, but the new-car feel still isn’t gone.

My car paint now has a few stone chips it didn’t used to have. I have driven it a lot to the extent that I know exactly which parking spots in my city are too tight for it. But one thing hasn’t changed. I still smile every time I get behind the wheel.

People often ask me what it’s actually like to own a GT-R, not just drive one for an afternoon. So here are the 5 things I still love most about it after months and thousands of miles in.

1. The launch never stops feeling illegal

There’s a very less busy street near my house, a straight stretch with a stop sign at the end, where I always find an excuse to use launch control. Left foot on the brake, right foot buried in the gas pedal, a beat of held tension, then release. The ATTESA E-TS all-wheel-drive system in the GT-R grabs the road and fires the car forward as it owes you money.

What gets me isn’t just the number on paper. It’s how violent this car is. There’s no drama, no wheelspin, no fighting for grip. It just goes, and it keeps going longer than your brain expects it to.

I won’t pretend this is safe. Launch control is hard on the drivetrain, and I’ve read enough owner threads to know I shouldn’t lean on it every single day if I want the clutches to last. So I ration it, which somehow makes it feel more special instead of less.

Even rationed, it’s the reason I bought this car in the first place, and the reason I still would.

2. The chassis is rigid and reliable

Last winter I got caught in an early sleet storm on a two-lane road I know well. In most rear-drive cars I’ve owned, that would have meant white knuckles and a very slow drive home. In the GT-R, I felt the systems working under me, quietly redistributing power, and the car just drove straight.

It’s the same story on a twisty canyon road in the dry weather, just for a different reason. The car goes on ridiculous speed into a corner and holds its line, like it’s cheating physics a little.

The trade-off is ride quality. Over broken pavement or wide expansion joints, the suspension lets the jerks come to you. I’ve made peace with that. I’d rather feel the road a bit too much than not trust the car in a downpour.

That confidence is the reason I don’t hesitate to drive it in weather that would keep a lot of sports cars in the garage.

3. Strangers still react to it

I filled up at a gas station a few weeks ago, and a guy in his 60s walked over to say his son had a poster of one of these on his wall in the 2000s. A kid in the next car over had his face pressed to the window to see my GT-R. This happens more often than I expected for a car that’s been around for years.

Some of that is the “Godzilla” reputation following it around, and some of it is just that the shape still reads as something a little unhinged compared to most of what’s on the road. Either way, it’s a nice reminder that I’m driving something that means something to people, not just a fast anonymous car.

The flip side is that the attention isn’t always convenient. Someone always wants to rev their engine next to you at a signal, and I’m more careful than I used to be about where I park. It’s a small inconvenience for a car that clearly still makes an impression.

I didn’t buy it to be looked at, but I won’t pretend it doesn’t add something to the ownership experience.

4. It’s genuinely livable

This is the one that surprised me most. I expected Nissan GT-R™ to punish me for using it like an everyday vehicle. Instead, the seating position is high enough that I can actually see out of it in traffic, the seats are comfortable for a three-hour drive, and the trunk swallows more grocery runs and travel bags than I expected from something with this much power under the hood.

• The visibility out of the windshield and sides makes parking in tight parking lots less stressful.
• The back seats are congested but good enough for a short trip with a passenger.
• The ground clearance is enough not to think twice about a steep driveway or speed breaker.

The honest downside is running costs. Fuel economy is poor when you drive it the way it wants to be driven, and tires and brake pads don’t last as long as they would on something tamer. I budget for it now instead of being surprised by it.

These are the reasons this car has stayed in regular rotation instead of turning into a garage ornament.

5. Starting it up still gives thrills

On cold mornings, I let it idle for a few extra seconds before I drive it out of the garage. There’s a moment where the turbos and the dual-clutch gearbox settle into themselves, a bit of mechanical noise that most modern cars have been engineered to hide. I’ve heard it hundreds of times now, and I still pause for it.

It’s a small ritual, but it’s the part of ownership nobody talks about in reviews. A spec sheet can’t capture the sound of the transmission whirring at low speed, or the faint whistle of boost building on a hard pull. Those details are what make the car feel alive instead of just quick.

One downside is that the GT-R can feel a little clunky at low speeds, especially when it’s cold or stuck in traffic. Once everything warms up, it becomes much smoother. I’ve gotten used to it, but first-time passengers usually notice it right away.

It’s a small thing, but it’s the moment, every single time, that reminds me this isn’t a normal car.

Wrapping Up

None of the above makes the Nissan GT-R R35 perfect. It’s fuel-thirsty, it’s firm over rough roads, and it asks you to budget for tires and brakes like you mean it. But those are the kinds of trade-offs you make peace with when the rest of the car gives you this much back. Months in, it’s still the car I look for excuses to drive, which is really the only review that matters.