- Doors and Seats
2 doors, 4 seats
- Engine
3.8TT, 6 cyl.
- Engine Power
441kW, 652Nm
- Fuel
Petrol (98) 11.7L/100KM
- Manufacturer
4WD
- Transmission
Auto (DCT)
- Warranty
3 Yr, 100000 KMs
- Ancap Safety
NA
Nissan Nismo GT-R returns to Bathurst
We recreate the most controversial moment in Aussie motor sport
“You’re a pack of arseholes,” Jim Richards says, as beer cans and boos rain down on him from a furious crowd.
Of all the iconic moments that have been forged in the shadow of Mount Panorama, none made such great use of the vocabulary as Richards’ epic spray from atop the winner’s podium in 1992.
To be fair, he was only giving as good as he was getting. Forget scorned women, hell hath no fury like a bunch of angry blokes at the tail end of a four-day bender, especially when they think the most hallowed prize in Australian motorsport has just been stolen by a Japanese blow-in, and the language being hurled from the crowd was so blue you could go fishing in it.
None of which bodes particularly well for our trip to the mountain. Because the 25th anniversary of that momentous moment finds Drive vibrating along the Great Western Highway in a Nissan GT-R so taught and stiff you find you’re still shaking slightly long after you climb out of the car.
This $300k Nismo version is the most hardcore GT-R to date, squeezing a staggering 441kW and 652Nm from its twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V6. To put that into some sort of perspective, that’s well within the ballpark of what the cars actually racing at Bathurst will be putting out.
That monstrous engine is only part of the story, with track-specific rubber, a wider track and a suspension tune that’s up to three times stiffer than the standard GT-R all designed to make mincemeat of racetracks, but as a by-product, also put the long in long-distance driving.
But it’s a mission worthy of the mileage; to lap the mighty mountain in the fastest GT-R yet. And hope for our sake that the fans have forgiven it. Or, at the very least, that there’s no beer cans within easy grabbing distance.
First, though, a little history. Having claimed the 1991 Bathurst title in a Nissan GT-R so dominant it was the inspiration for the nickname “Godzilla”, Richards and teammate Mark Skaife returned to the mountain to defend their crown in 1992.
What took place, though, was one of the most chaotic and crashy Bathurst races on record, with the rain-slicked surface of Mount Panorama claiming victim after victim. It was so bad that the race was eventually red-flagged on lap 145 (Skaife describes it as “one of the most dangerous days you’ll ever see on that mountain”), at about the same time that the already badly damaged GT-R slid off the track and into a pile of crashed cars.
Crucially, Dick Johnson’s Ford Sierra was still driving, and still on the track. Plenty thought he had taken the victory, with Dick even sticking his fist out of the window to celebrate the win. But race officials had other plans, calling the race at lap 144 (when the GT-R was still in front) and handing the title to the Nissan. And as you can imagine, it was as popular as trying to ban beer on the hill.
What followed was one of the strangest winner’s speeches of all time, in which a visibly upset Richards told the baying, booing crowd: “I'm just really stunned for words, I can't believe the reception.
“I thought Australian race fans had a lot more to go than this. This is bloody disgraceful. I'll keep racing but I'll tell you what, this is going to remain with me for a long time.
“You’re a pack of arseholes.”
That was the last time a GT-R took to Mount Panorama for Bathurst, with race officials changing the regulations the following year in a move aimed at blocking the dominant Japanese car from the competition and re-establishing a Holden vs Ford rivalry.
And now, 25 years later, it’s back in pit lane. There’s few road cars that feel quite so ready to attack a track as the Nismo-tweaked GT-R. Push the start button and the big Nissan kind of rattles into life, like any though of heavy sound deadening or insulation hitting the cutting room floor in favour of reducing weight.
It is also staggeringly quick. While an offical sprint time isn’t available, the standard car claims a ridiculous 2.7 second run to 100km/h, and this hardened-up version certainly doesn’t feel any slower.
Rumbling out of pit lane and accelerating hard onto Mountain Straight, the Nismo collecting speed at an astonishing rate, it feels so perfectly suited to this environment that it’s easy to see how its ancestors so easily dominated here.
And there’s something so truly special about lapping this circuit while the hill is packed with fans. When you can feel how close the concrete barriers are (it’s like you can touch them), how close the crowd is to the action (it’s like they can touch you), you get a whole different sense of what the drivers actually go through.
A little surprisingly, though, the faster the GT-R goes, the more excited the crowd gets. Fists pump, flags wave and beer cans stay firmly in hands.
And by the time we’re off the track, a crowd has gathered outside the scrutineer tents with plenty of people hoping to take a closer look at the Nismo. Blokes in Holden shirts “ooh” over the carbon fibre front splitter, while people dressed head-to-toe in Ford gear “ahh” over the hand-built engine. Kids on homemade trikes screech to a stop at the sight of it, and almost everybody asks for photos.
As the death of Aussie car manufacturing slowly puts an end to the Holden vs Ford rivalry of Bathurst, the tribalism the mountain is famed for is going with it. And so turning up at Bathurst in a GT-R is now a cause for celebration as car-mad punters froth for a closer look at it.
Blokes like Geoff White, who - despite his Holden Racing Team garb - is currently hunting for a well-priced R32 Skyline to put in his garage.
“Mate, it’s awesome,” he says. “The kids are getting right back into the Japanese cars now. And this thing is incredible.”
So while the long-term future of the Supercars’ series is still being decided, we can safely report that the GT-R is now welcome back at Bathurst. And that Jim Richards’ pack of arseholes is no longer.
Writer: Andrew Chesterton
2018 Nissan Nismo GT-R Price and Specifications
Price: $299,000 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 3.8-litre V6 twin-turbo petrol
Power: 441kW at 6800rpm
Torque: 652Nm at 3600-5600rpm
Transmission: 6-spd dual-clutch automatic, AWD
Fuel use: 11.7L/100km