Dedicated Motorsports' 255MPH GT-R
There was a time in the import world when a 10-second car was considered blazing fast. The Nissan GT-R was always a little more special, though. 10-second GT-Rs, especially in street trim, were not hard to come by. Mark Johnston’s 2012 GT-R “Premium” definitely fits into that special category, knocking on the door of the 8.0s with a best run of 8.15 at 177 mph in the quarter. But that’s not why we’re here.
No, we are here to talk about how this same special GT-R, built by Dedicated Motorsports, obliterated the Texas Mile speed record with a run of 255.2 mph, becoming the fastest GT-R in the US.
As if that feat wasn’t impressive enough, remember that most drivers don’t get out of the go-pedal until AFTER the car makes it through the traps. Mark was still accelerating when the official run ended, and the data shows a “true” top speed of over 260MPH. But only the official number matters.
The real question, though, is whether or not the car would’ve gone faster if it had not destroyed the forward driveshaft. The carnage is shown here, for all you schadenfreude-loving haters out there. But, that’s the price you pay when you push the envelope of performance on a “new” platform. Sometimes things break, and you always find the weakest links. Driveshaft Shop offers a reinforced and stronger forward driveshaft, and it will be equipped soon.
Owner and driver Mark is a pretty big gentleman. He wanted an exotic. When you are wide and tall, there are not a lot of comfortable options when it comes to getting into a caged cockpit. Mark wanted to go wicked fast, and he wanted to do it in a straight line. A set of fortuitous circumstances ended up providing an opportunity for Mark to buy a fairly heavily-built GT-R from a private owner. But Mark wanted more. A lot more.
Mark already had a relationship with Dedicated Motorsports owners Andrew Campbell and Matthew Owen, and was one of their first customers and backers back in 2015 when the shop opened — just around one year ago. Andrew and Matt were looking for an avenue to exercise their collective skill sets, and Mark had a platform he wanted to take to the next level. It proved to be a good match.
