The 10 best Nissans ever made
Nissan may have made a name for itself buttering the bread of mainstream customers with the Juke, Qashqai and Leaf, but pry open the manufacturer’s bonnet, and you'll find a rich history of generation-defining sports cars, GTs, concepts and prototypes. These are ten of our favourites.
Nissan R390
Just one road-going example of the Nissan R390 was ever built in collaboration with Tom Walkinshaw Racing to homologate the car to race in GT1. Featuring a low-slung carbon-fibre monocoque chassis and a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V8 producing 640PS (471kW), it was capable of over 220mph.
Three cars debuted at Le Mans in 1997, but all suffered gearbox problems, with two forced to retire and the remaining runner finishing 12th despite having its gearbox replaced twice over the 24 hours. The following year was a bigger success, with all four cars finishing in the top ten – one taking third place on the podium, beaten only by two Porsche 911 GT1s. Its pedigree and rarity mean the only R390 road car was valued at more than $1 million in 1998, God only knows what it’s worth now…
S14a Nissan 200SX
The Nissan S14 200SX launched in the 1990s – a heyday for coupés in the UK – facing an intimidating tsunami of rivals, including (deep breath): the Fiat Coupé, Alfa Romeo GTV, BMW 3 Series coupé, Mercedes CLK, Volvo C70, Audi Coupé, Rover 220 Coupé, Toyota MR2 and Honda Prelude.
Although a mid-life facelift brought distinctive frowning headlights and a flared-nostril grille, the Nissan had a homogenous design and a plasticky interior that could easily have been lost in the sea of opposition. But it wasn't. A punchy turbocharged engine, rear-wheel drive, precise controls and a near-endless list of aftermarket parts carved it a niche as the enthusiast's choice, a reputation that still holds today. Unfortunately, that means unmolested examples are now worth more than the car cost new. But only if you can find one.
Nissan 350Z
The 350Z one of the best Nissans, and also one of the most affordable – decent examples of which start from under £5,000. Back in the 00s, the 350Z battled cars like the BMW Z4 Coupé, Porsche Cayman, and Mazda RX-8, with a recipe of unique looks, a front-engined rear-wheel drive setup, and a lusty 3.5-litre V6 engine.
It drove unlike any of its rivals. The big motor pumped out more power and torque than almost anything else for the price, and its FR setup and LSD translated to easily exploitable handling that opened up power slides to a whole new generation. Its 370Z replacement was inert by comparison, confirming Nissan got the formula right at the first time of asking.
Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R
The Nissan Skyline may as well have been a meteorology event for UK enthusiasts in the 1990s, but the arrival of the R34 GTR changed all that. Building on the reputation of the R33 – which was sold here in limited numbers and featured in the blockbuster game Gran Turismo – it brought the wonders of ATTESA (Advanced Total Traction Engineering System) E-TS Pro four-wheel drive and an active rear differential to a new audience. Singlehandedly shattering everything we thought we knew about driving physics.
Before then, oversteer required big corrections or worst-case scenario, lift off, but in the Nissan you buried your right foot into the GT-R-branded carpet and let the computing do the rest, sending power from its twin ceramic turbo 2.6-litre straight-six to the front wheels to claw you out corners. It felt like nothing else, as demonstrated when it left a Top Gear-presenting young Jeremy Clarkson (almost) speechless.
Nissan MID4
That single R390 notwithstanding, Nissan never did build a mid-engined road car that could compete with the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini, but the MID4 concept shows it got achingly close.
Revealed in 1985, the MID4 was a mid-engine, four-wheel drive and four-wheel steer supercar originally fitted with a naturally aspirated 3.0-litre V6 before, in 1987, it made way for the second generation twin-turbocharged MID4-II. Despite its Ferrari Testrarossa-aping looks, the MID4-II, like the original, never made it to production, but we owe it a debt of gratitude because its technology which included its AWD, four-wheel steer and turbocharging laid the groundwork for production cars like the R32 Skyline and Z32 300ZX.
Nissan Pulsar GTI-R
The Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi Evo may have brought Japanese all-wheel drive rally stage performance to the masses, but the Nissan Pulsar GTI-R beat it to the punch. Based on the humble Pulsar hatchback, the GTI-R put the Skyline's trick four-wheel drive system in a compact body and mated it to an unburstable 2.0-litre turbocharged engine that was good for 0-62mph in 5.7 seconds, back when few regular family cars broke the 10-second barrier. Nissan then added go-faster bits aplenty, including a distinctive grilled bonnet-mounted air intake – that fed the intercooler below – and a large rear spoiler.
While the Nissan struggled to make a name for itself in WRC's Group A, it was a popular privateer’s choice, and its relatively small sales (15,000 at the time, far fewer exist now) helped cement the Baby Godzilla legend.
Nissan DeltaWing
The DeltaWing race car was a crazy-looking machine by any measure, but coming from a company more famous for building run-of-the-mill machines like the Qashqai made it all the more eye-catching. Christened the 'DeltaWing' for obvious reasons, its tiny frontal area slashed drag and reduced weight, allowing the car to run a highly modified version of the 1.6-litre four-cylinder used in the Juke, which made it up to twice as efficient as anything else on track.
An experimental Garage 56 entry, the DeltaWing wasn't officially classified in the 2012 Le Mans results. Still, it demonstrated pace that kept LM P2 prototypes honest before a collision with Kazuki Nakajima’s LMP1 Toyota forced it to retire.
Nissan Fairlady Z432
Built to take on the likes of the MGB GT, Porsche 914, and Opel GT, the standard 240Z was a runaway success in both its home market and in the US when it went on sale in 1969, but was it a serious driver's tool? Not quite.
That car came in the form of the Fairlady Z432, so called because of its '4' valve, '3' carburettor, and '2' camshaft 2.0-litre engine that would also feature in the Skyline 2000 GT-R. Modified cams and a limited-slip differential completed the package, taking performance to the next level and seeing to it that the Z432 cost twice the price of a standard Z. Nowadays, though, the original price – ¥1.85 million or about £10,000 – sounds like a bargain. Because Nissan built just 420 cars between 1969 and 1973, you can expect to pay more than £1million for one today.
Nissan Skyline GT-R Hakosuka
As noted previously, the GT-R badge didn't really make it to UK shores until the 1990s, but it was born way before that on the Skyline GT-R Hakosuka, a two-door coupé or four-door saloon with exotic mechanicals way above the paygrade set by its shonky looks. In fact, its name came from the Japanese for "box" or "Hako" and "Suka," short for "Skyline." Under its skin lurked the twin-cam, straight-six motor from the mid-engine Prince prototype racer R380 (Prince Motor Company later merged with Nissan Motors) – a car that humbled a trio of Porsche 906s by emerging victorious from 1966's Japan Grand Prix.
The Hakosuka went on sale in 1969 and immediately proved its pedigree, taking victory in its first race, the "JAF GP" at Fuji International Speedway, in May that year, long before the M1-powered BMW M5 performance saloon was but a twinkle in its maker's eye.
Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo
Having already developed a taste for Stuttgart scalps, in 1984, Nissan set about building a car that could beat the IMSA-dominating Porsche 962 and cement the company's reputation as a serious motorsport force. With a chassis designed by Lola and help from Electramotive Engineering Nissan Motorsport's partner in the US, the ZX-Turbo featured a highly modified 800PS (588kW) version of 3.0-litre V6 found in the 300ZX sports car, but with an aluminium block and turbocharging.
Mechanical issues – including breaking a gearbox casing clean in half – plagued the car's development years, but it would win its maiden outing at the 1987 Miami Grand Prix. From there, it dominated the 1988 season, taking eight victories in a row to carry Geoff Brabham to the drivers' championship and taking the constructor's championship the following year, building a legacy that resonates in Nissan's performance cars today.
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