Nissan’s Sports Car Strategy Rests on the Stable Genius of GT-R

Nissan’s Sports Car Strategy Rests on the Stable Genius of GT-R
Rick Kelly drives the #1 Nismo Athlete Global Team Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 during the Bathurst 12 Hour Race at Mount Panorama on Feb. 7, 2016 in Bathurst, Australia. Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images
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The summer of 2008 was a fraught time for Porsche engineers. An all-new challenger bested many of its record track times on Germany’s Nurburgring, the car world’s unofficial arbiter of bragging rights. To make matters worse, it didn’t come from Munich or Maranello. It came from Japan.

Nissan Motor Co. dubbed it the GT-R. With a price of just $75,000, the speed machine could be purchased almost as easily as an Altima.