We spend an evening with the Nissan GT-R Egoist in Tokyo
Where better to take a style-focused GT-R Egoist than around one of Japan's most eclectic cities, Tokyo?
With its exterior design inspired by Manga, and its interior tech designed in part by the chaps at Polyphony Digital (the minds behind Gran Turismo), the Nissan GT-R couldn't be more Japanese if it tried.
The standard GT-R will set you back around £75,000 but boasts the performance of a car with a sticker price of over twice that. The GT-R will get you to 62 mph in less than three seconds (if you use launch control), and will almost hit 200 mph if you keep your foot in. It gets its power from a 3.8-litre turbocharged V6 kicking out 542 brake horsepower.
You might be forgiven for thinking the super advanced four-wheel drive system and the six-speed dual clutch automatic gearbox take some of the skill out of performance driving. To a certain extent that is true, but seeing as it'll let you leave virtually any Italian or German purebred in the dust, you won't hear any arguments from me.
The GT-R Egoist takes all the performance of the basic GT-R and doesn't necessarily turn the amp up to 11, but instead plays a racy bass line. The Egoist is all about luxury, style and looks. Admittedly its near 550 bhp power makes it quite the speed proposition, too.
In Japan, an Egoist will set you back around £110,000, which is a fair wodge considering the basic car is around £30k less. However, you can't put a price on style, can you? Nissan insiders say that the Egoist was inspired by the likes of Chanel. Presumably because it offers exclusivity and style while being inexplicably more expensive than it probably should be.
All told, the Egoist is a treat that's not often seen, so to spend some time in its presence is rather humbling, if a touch envy-inducing.