When it comes to handling, I was very impressed, the car ride was so much smoother, like a sports sedan rather than an edgy sports car like the previous versions. The suspension soaks up bumpy pavement rather than hopping and nibbling like the previous iterations of the car. Even though the ride is so much better over the bumps, body motion, especially the roll is controlled better. Tamura san told me that the development team spent a lot of time developing new software for the suspension controller, greatly speeding its response time. That combined with the reduced unsprung weight due to the carbon ceramic brakes and rays wheels, combined with a stiffer chassis, work to make the ride go from a bad racecar like in the CBA to a luxury car plus a race car in the 4BA! This is a huge change and I can’t recall a single wine and cheese journalist noting it. Nissan says the new car is 2.5 seconds a lap faster around their test course and the projected time around the Nurburgring is 7:05 seconds. This is a huge difference but the lame automotive press doesn’t acknowledge it.
The brakes are another huge jump in improvement. Previously the brakes would work well for half a track session then start fading. The new big carbon ceramics have a refined pedal feel and modulate well. The new brakes are confidence-inspiring rather than simply good for street driving and inadequate for serious work.
The 4BA’s LED headlights are a great upgrade, they work a lot better and look totally modern. Don’t get into an accident, they look pretty expensive to fix! The z-like stripe in the middle is an LED daytime driving light and looks super awesome.
The LED daytime running lights now look like an OEM piece integrated into the styling of the front end instead of a last-minute afterthought. They are pretty damn bright too. You can see one of the proximity sensors for the new Sonar system in the bumper as well.
The new LED rear taillights look good and are highly visible as well. A great upgrade from the old parts.
The new sonar system is a great aid in parking but I was bummed that it doesn’t reliably detect curbs or parking blocks. It does sometimes but not enough to trust.
Wine and cheese types seem to hate the new dash display calling it clunky. I think they are on crack. The new display is vastly improved over the older models. The function display is pretty unchanged since the CBA but it takes the place of many gages and can be programed with many functions.
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