The rear carbon ceramic brakes are also huge. The forged Rays OEM wheels look so good, they seem like they are some Volk Racing Model (Rays is the manufacturer of Volk) rather than OEM. They are also lighter than the standard wheels. The reduction of unsprung weight in between the wheels and brakes is pretty large and Nissan reprogrammed the suspension, ABS, and VDC controllers to take advantage of this weight reduction.
The Sales Staff took the car out of the showroom almost reverently. Many of the salespeople stopped what they were doing to watch the car leave. Many told me how lucky I was to buy the car and that they were sad to see it go.
I really appreciate the guys at Pinnacle Nissan for giving me an awesome deal as well as rolling out the red carpet for me, a lowly media guy. Sam Quina on the left and Eli Saba on the right were very helpful and professional in all of my dealings. I am glad that they sold the car to me instead of some rich guy! I will look to them for future project car purchases from their dealer group! As consumers, I recommend them highly as they are the home to hard-working non-commission salespeople! Going to Pinnacle was worth every bit of my plane ticket.
So I was quickly on my way home, I decided to take a bathroom break in the middle of the desert and decided not to sit down when I read this sign. My initial impressions of the car were WOW, the 4BA is pretty awesome, the most refined GT-R yet, the differences between it and the DBA are huge, more than the difference between the DBA and the CBA. It also shows how the traditional wine and cheese automotive journalists who have always panned the car are full of shit. I have actually owned all 3 variants of the R35 and driven them extensively which makes me a good source of info on the new car. Journalists are lame, they wax eloquently about the Porsche GT3RS having a “wonderful symphony of mechanical music” and at the same time call the GT-R “crude and clunky like a trash truck”. Well, the CBA GT-R is pretty raw and rough riding with some squeaks and rattles with a very noisy transmission but you know what I own a GT3RS myself and let me tell you the car that gives wine and cheese journalists an eargasm is rougher, cruder, with a way more noisy transmission that the CBA, boy is it fun to drive and I am not criticizing the car, rather the automotive writers that have their biased heads up their ass.
13 comments
Congratulations Mike! I hope you drive this one more than a few oil change intervals! Cool story too. I’m sad that more people don’t know who you are. You are a legend and deserve the red carpet.
Congrats on the new GT-R!!! but if you have to say it doesn’t look weird…
I didn’t really like the styling of the CDA at all, the DBA was a little better but the 4DA is nice I think.
Mike, congrats on the GTR, I am happy to hear that there are still well to do dealers out there. I am in the process of buying my first car so I sympathize with the frustration of dealing with prices these days (though I am definitely not shopping anywhere close to the price range of the T-Spec lol). In any case, I found your candor in your review to be very refreshing. I think the term ‘wine and cheese’ journalists is well suited to many writers and critics around the industry. As someone hoping to make a career in this vast industry, I was pushed to do journalism for the longest time. However, nowadays it feels like these ‘wine and cheese’ journalists put certain manufacturers on pedestals based on current trends (i.e. the Porsche hype). Anyhow, I’ll spare you the rant and I just want to say I’m a huge fan of what MotoIQ is doing, keep it up!
p.s: I’ve noticed that wearing your apparel to events always attracts the best kinds of enthusiasts, I couldn’t have imagined I would meet so many smart people because of a sweatshirt!
Thank you for your support!
Hello Mike,
How did your insurance handle the value of the mods?
They paid me a good price for the car, then I bought the car back and sold it to someone who loved the car that had connections to fix it.
Curious if you bought back the old car for the parts.
I did and sold it.
Man, if money wasn’t an object… I’d love to find another S13 and try to build a more modern version with the T-Spec as the aspirational goal. This car is gorgeous.
The fact that you got one right after tells me that the R35 GTRs are great cars. This post was a great read on how much they refined this car over the different generations. Shame android auto hasn’t been fitted to the car! I’ve notice Lexus took a long time to include it too.
Mike san, the end there with Tamura san signing the page with the child and his comment is not surprising culturally and melts my heart. Congratulations and I will reference this article again when I’m ready to also earn one and be my own pinnacle of a car enthusiast. In the meantime, I’ll just live vicariously through you.
So happy for you Mike. I was watching all your vlogs on the DBA as I recently purchased one and liked how you were doing the build.
Enjoy the T Spec; you deserve it 100 percent!
Andy from NZ