2010 Nissan GT-R Premium

Time in Fleet: Six weeks
Miles to Date: 3381

One of the first things we asked our new road test coordinator, Mike Ofiara, to do after he started at Automobile Magazine was to take our Nissan GT-R to Dick Scott Nissan in Canton, Michigan, for its 1000-mile checkup, which went fine. Not a bad way to start a new job, huh?

Since our Four Seasons Nissan GT-R arrived in mid-March, we figured we'd make do with its stock summer rubber, even though we also knew that, living in Michigan, we probably hadn't seen the last of the white stuff for the winter. Sure enough, on Monday, April 6th, Ann Arbor got dumped with about three or four inches of heavy, wet snow just in time for the morning rush hour. Web editor Phil Floraday was wise enough to check the weather report on Sunday night: "I had the GT-R for the weekend but ended up exchanging it at Joe DeMatio's house for our Four Seasons Mitsubishi Lancer Evo MR before the scheduled 3-6" of snow started flying. These summer tires--255/40ZR-20 front, 285/35ZR-20 rear Bridgestone Potenza RE070Rs--would probably be deadly in the cold slush covering our streets."

It's now late April, and we think (and hope) that we won't see any more snow here in Ann Arbor for another six or seven months, and we're getting used to living with this, our second supercar in our Four Seasons fleet (after our Audi R8), on a daily basis. Speaking of the R8, we have a total of four months during which we're gonna have both the mid-engined Audi exotic and the GT-R in our fleet. Yes, we are counting our blessings, and we're also making comparisons. Assistant editor David Zenlea ponders the pairing:

"I would say that, in my subjective experience, our Audi R8 gets more attention from the common folk. Driving the R8 is like going on a date with Natalie Portman. She's a beautiful movie star, and everyone knows you're cool and important as they see you walking arm in arm down the street. Tooling around in the Nissan GT-R, on the other hand, is a bit like going to the movies with porn star Jenna Jameson. Not as many people are impressed, but those who are think you're a god. I got one clear stare--from hooded teenagers in a Honda Civic--and their faces could not have been more filled with awe if Jesus Christ himself had descended on a cloud and landed on their hood.