Watch – Nissan GT-R R32 on track with V8 Supercar star
Nissan’s V8 Supercar ace Rick Kelly tests a star car of the past – the R32 ‘Godzilla’ racer
Being paid to race some of the world’s fastest cars in front of international TV audiences is a job many of us envy, but the perks extend far beyond the day job for professional racers.
When evo spoke to WRC driver Jari-Matti Latvala last year (issue 206), he told us that he’d recently sampled the iconic Audi Sport Quattro S1. Spend a few minutes on Youtube and you’ll find footage of Indycar champ and evo contributor Dario Franchitti driving Honda’s classic RA 272 Grand Prix car.
And if you’re ‘Nismo Athlete’ and Australian V8 Supercar driver Rick Kelly, one of the perks of the day job is getting to drive a 25-year old Nissan R32 GT-R – the same sort of car that dominated the Australian Touring Car series from 1990 to 1992.
Nissan has documented Kelly’s findings in a series of videos at Sydney Motorsport Park in Australia, covering the car’s driving characteristics, its similarity to modern racers and a look inside the cockpit – which, while rudimentary, is also a great deal more airy and simple than that of modern carbonfibre-clad cabins.
That the modern GT-R is still competitive quarter of a century later in series like the Blancpain GT Series and Japan’s GT500 racing is testament to the car’s continued development – but the videos also show that the new GT-R’s historical predecessor can be a lot of fun even in a modern context.
