Goodbye Godzilla: The Nissan GT-R R35 Bows Out After 18 Years

The Nissan GT-R R35 is dead. Long live Godzilla.

After 18 years, production has finally stopped. Forty-eight thousand units later, the last Nissan GT-R R35 – a Midnight Purple T-Spec – has quietly rolled out of Nissan’s Tochigi plant, bound for a lucky customer in Japan. Perhaps not for too long, but for now, we have a world without the GT-R – and that’s a significant moment in automotive history, for this has been one very special monster. So let’s rewind.

UAE’s Early Editions

It was 2007. I was in Dubai, editor of Car Middle East, just a year into the job. Nissan dropped the new GT-R, and everything went mad. The hype was off the scale. Here was a car promising to annihilate Ferraris and Porsches while still having cupholders and an actual warranty. Oh, and nitrogen-filled run-flat tyres.

It didn’t immediately go officially on sale in the GCC. Didn’t matter. Within weeks, they were popping up on the streets anyway. Local petrolheads were literally flying to America, buying GT-Rs there, and shipping them back. The hunger was real.

Local dealers tried to cash in by importing a batch, slapping on gold trim (because, Dubai), calling them “exclusive editions” and marking them up about 25% above market. Trouble was, even with flights and shipping, you could still get one cheaper straight from the US. Nice try, lads.

But it didn’t matter. The legend had already landed.

First Drives and Broken Warranties

When I finally got behind the wheel, it was like being punched in the chest by a polite Japanese sumo wrestler. This wasn’t just fast. It was brutal.

Launch control? Forget it. At the start, Nissan only allowed a limited number of uses before it voided the warranty. Imagine that – your car came with a “launch control ration.” Try explaining that to your mates. “Nah sorry, can’t race you off the lights, I’m saving my last launch for a special occasion.”

Not that it mattered. Even without the button of doom, the GT-R could tear holes in the horizon.

And people immediately hacked it. Nissan swore blind it was maxed out, couldn’t be tuned further. Within months, tuners were strapping on 1,000 bhp kits. And if you really knew what you were doing? 1,500 bhp plus. So much for “untuneable.”

My Mountain Duel

One of my most vivid memories: me and a colleague took a GT-R and a Cadillac CTS-V across the UAE. He drove the GT-R first, I followed in the Caddy – big, old-school V8, manual ‘box, all noise and fury. Halfway across, we swapped. I slid into the GT-R, put my foot down… and suddenly realised: this is the fastest I have ever driven this road in my life.

And the scary bit? It wasn’t because I was especially skilled (I’m not!). It was because the GT-R made me do it. It was too good. It flattered you into going quicker and quicker until you thought: “Hang on, if I keep this up, I’m going to run out of talent long before this car runs out of grip. And then I’ll just be another smear on a cliff face with Nissan carbon fibre scattered across the rocks.”

So I chickened out. Handed the keys back. Went back to the Cadillac. Felt happier – a fraction slower – but at least I could feel what it was doing. Analogue over digital. Heart over head.

Autodrome Awakening

On the road, I always found the R35 a bit remote, a bit too clinical. But on track? Different story. I remember hammering it around the Dubai Autodrome – I think it was a NISMO edition – and suddenly it all clicked. The cleverness wasn’t just numbers on a spec sheet. You could feel it.

For the first time, I wasn’t scared of it. I was working with it. We connected. And in that moment, I finally got the GT-R.

Godzilla in Pop Culture

Of course, the R35 wasn’t just a car. It was a phenomenon. It was Fast & Furious. It was Gran Turismo and GTA. It was car meets full of neon-lit, widebody, spoiler-festooned beasts making the tarmac shake.

It was the car that beat supercars at their own game, and then went home to play PlayStation.

It smashed Nürburgring records. It set lap times at Tsukuba. It even drifted at 304kph in Fujairah, UAE, setting a Guinness World Record for the world’s fastest drift!

Farewell, But… Not Forever?

Now, after nearly two decades, Nissan has finally pulled the plug. But don’t despair – the GT-R name will return. Whether it’ll be a hybrid, more likely an EV, or some origami-inspired concept out of a video game, we’ll have to wait and see.

Will it capture the raw, slightly terrifying magic of the R35? Hard to say.

But here’s the thing: the R35 has done its job. It’s cemented its place in history, not just as a performance benchmark, but as a cultural icon.

And for me, it’s more than that. It’s part of my career, my memories, my stories: from ferocious twin tests across twisty mountain roads, to carving up Dubai Autodrome, these are memories that will stay with me for life!

So yes, this is a farewell. But it’s also a thank you.

Goodbye, GT-R. It was fun.