All About Japan Autos

2009 Nissan GT-R Road Trip: Wrapping up the Trip of a Lifetime

Here are the totals: We drove for three days, covered 2000 miles, killed 4,236,465 bugs, touched 170 mph, met hundreds of Inside Line readers, burned through 115 gallons of 91 octane gasoline, used 8 bottles of octane booster, talked our way out of two 91 mph speeding tickets, did donuts on one dry lake, raced at one drag strip and lapped one state-of-the-art road course. We broke speed limits in three states (California, Nevada and Utah), let four Inside Line readers drive the GT-R, ate $100 worth of fast food, stopped at one very flooded, very beautiful, very large salt lake bed named for Captain B.L.E. Bonneville, used the GT-R’s launch-control 14 times, answered the question “Is that the new Skyline?” 2,677 times, used our Verizon wireless card a total of 23 hours, killed no one, crashed never and hit one car wash in downtown Reno, the trip’s finish line.

Basically it was the trip of a lifetime. No, we didn’t cover the 3,000 miles I originally predicted, but I should have known better. You can’t do all the things we did and cover that kind of ground in just three days unless you never sleep. And I’m just too old for that sh*t.

But we did prove one thing: The 2009 Nissan GT-R is an incredible car. Fast, comfortable (relatively) and dead reliable. Nissan’s new supercar is a real workhorse that can be driven to work, on the racetrack or across the country. And it likes to go fast.

Yesterday, near the end of the run, I drove the GT-R over 100 mph for several hours. Highway 50 through Nevada is just that kind of road: dead straight, flat and empty for hundred of miles. During this time the GT-R averaged over 17 mpg and kept us cool with its air-conditioning, safe with its stability and on course with its navigation system. Heck, at one point I set the cruise control at 112 mph. Modern cars are simply awesome, and the new GT-R is as good as they get.

And now here’s the best part. We’re buying one. That’s right. Edmunds’ Inside Line is buying a new GT-R. We’ve ordered a white one. A white GT-R Premium with a black interior, the optional floor mats and an iPod jack. We’re even paying for it with our own money, no freebies on this one, and should take delivery in July. Then it will do a year’s duty in our long-term test fleet and see weekly updates on our long-term test blog.

So there’s more GT-R durability testing to be done, and we’re looking forward to it. Hey, it’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.

And now I’m on a road trip kick. Where should we go next and in what car?