Yet at 3,860 lbs (1,750 kg), the GT-R is no featherweight; it's packed with so much electronic gizmos and drivetrain hardware that 480 horses is probably an underestimate.

The driving experience is quite distinct. Drive away slowly with the windows down or with the radio turned off, and you'll hear the clanking of the gearbox changing speeds. Same goes when you're slowing down to a halt.

The car's stiff ride, starts getting irritating after a few minutes of urban driving.

Fuel consumption is, as far as 480-hp sports cars go, actually pretty good. Those who drove the car like my grandmother does resulted in an average of about 12.5 L/100 km, while those who were catapulting the GT-R at every stoplight raised the car's consumption to about 17.0 L/100 km.

Race-car chassis
Open the hood, and you might notice something odd; the shock towers are not straight up, but on a pronounced angle, which makes us believe the GT-R was conceived with drifting in mind, a motorsport born in Japan that consists of sliding a car sideways and getting points for style.

Dynamically, the car responds instantly to every driver input. On the other hand, the car's stiff ride, even when you select the Comfort mode, starts getting irritating after a few minutes of urban driving; on the open road, it's better. For a daily driver, that's a sacrifice me and some other staffers wouldn't make if we were buying a high-priced sports car, which we can only dream of doing, of course.

Hit and miss cabin
Well, here's where you start to realize how Nissan could create such a monster and sell it for 90 grand. The dash and door panels are built with acceptable-quality materials, but it looks cheaper than in, say, a Porsche 911.

Still, the layout is functional and the driving position is excellent. The most noticeablefeature inside is the LCD screen that offers numerous displays with various information readouts that 99 percent of GT-R owners will probably never use. Do you really need a steering angle meter? Or an acceleration versus braking graph? Not me. Anyway, all this was designed by Polyphony Digital, the same company who helped develop the Grand Turismo video game series on Sony Playstation consoles.

The trunk has a high deck, and with the giant wing, rearward visibility isn't good. You might not notice, though, since every bit of your attention will be focused at looking where you're going.

The dash and door panels are built with acceptable-quality materials.