Features

Bang into fifth. Speed still piling on, the two-lane 'bahn taking on an alarming narrowness which multiplies exponentially for every 10mph you do over 170mph, the barriers closing in, the view beginning to blur to an extent you're not familiar with. A truck flits by on the inside lane, speed difference about 120mph.

Bang into sixth. Getting hairy now. It wasn't until we hit an indicated 190mph that Top Gear Creative Director, Charlie Turner, driving the canary yellow Porsche 911 Turbo glued to my tail, flashed his lights impatiently, sick of waiting. Mizuno-san reckons it doesn't exist, but we thought we'd try to find a competitor anyway...

More on the mighty Porsche later. Let's look at the star of the show first, Nissan's new flagship, the brand-halo supercar designed to be sold globally and showcase Nissan's technical skill.

This is not a Skyline, though it's difficult not to call it that. We know the super-quick Nissan in the UK as a Skyline, but in Japan the Skyline is a fairly ordinary four-door saloon with a two-door coupe sister - both are sold as Infiniti G35s in the USA.

Nissan has now dropped all links with the Skyline name, because this new GT-R is new from the ground up. Brand new, purpose-built chassis, brand new engine, brand new transmission, brand new body and design. 'Skyline' just isn't good enough.

The GT-R is all aggression on the outside. To my eye, it is a phenomenal-looking machine, distinct from anything else. Very Japanese and very hard. The overall stance is all wide shoulders and slashing arcs, a ground-hugging, flat-sided brute.

The aerodynamic performance of the car is astonishing. It has a drag co-efficient to match that of a Prius at 0.27, so the shape is exceptionally slippery. Part of that is down to careful underbody design - a rear diffuser helps generate downforce at speed, too.

Step inside and you're instantly reminded of older Skylines. The design is functional rather than beautiful, quite old-fashioned and not trying too hard, with a large centre console angled toward the driver and a high instrument binnacle across from a large multi-function screen.

It all seems superbly well screwed together, as you'd expect of a Nissan, and the quality of the materials is high. It won't win design awards, but I really like the cockpit of this car.

Slot in behind the steering wheel and immediately you feel comfortable and relaxed - this isn't a strange, wide, low supercar, it isn't daunting in that way. It's much more like a normal saloon in feel. As we'll see, this easy-to-drive nature is a key component of the new GT-R.