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Visiting Mars

To avoid actually going to Death Valley, we diverted from 127 onto Old Spanish Trail Rd., an even narrower and less frequently maintained two lane that would eventually take us to Nevada. We paused for photography, not worried about leaving the GT-R in the middle of the road because it was clear that this particular stretch of denuded asphalt didn't get much use.

You can't help but take a close look at the lines of the car you're photographing, and we took the opportunity to drink in the GT-R's styling. It's not a pretty car by any stretch of the imagination, but it is eye catching. Sitting there on the road, the Martian landscape of the desert surrounding it, the GT-R looked like something out of a science fiction movie. Its look is one of brutishness and power, with none of the finesse of a Ferrari or the overtly heritage-driven lines of a 911. Yet it's unmistakable on the road, and during our time we got more "whatkindacarizzat" questions than we have in recent memory. While only a handful knew what they were looking at, all knew that it was something special, though many observers seemed slightly disappointed that the brand was Nissan and not something more exotic. Hey, what do you expect of unwashed masses, anyhow?

Photos and video taken, we reloaded our gear and continued on our quest. The twisty sections on our route were few and far between, unfortunately, compromised out of the equation due to time constraints. However, it was obvious to us that the GT-R's handling was as impressive as its straight-line speed. Without a track to fully exploit its suspension, we left the various damper, traction and driveline modes in the standard settings, but at no point did the GT-R feel hemmed in by its electronic nannies. Quite the opposite, we found that we could hammer it out of a low-speed hairpin and easily break the rear wheels loose, requiring a bit of countersteer before the stability control kicked in.

After playing in the limited twisties, we lit the afterburner and headed off for Nevada, crossing the border and driving south on Nevada Route 160 toward Las Vegas, and points beyond.