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<\/a><\/p>\nChassis 3A04 was originally raced in its native Japan by Team Iwasaki in GT300 and the Super Taikyu Series for GT3-specification machinery, led by drivers Yuki Iwasaki and Masami Kageyama.<\/p>\n
By the end of 2016, the car emerged in New Zealand with Clark Proctor and Andrew Porter, racing in events such as the Hampton Downs and Highlands 101s.<\/p>\n
Lance Hughes and Chris van der Drift later campaigned it in a range of Kiwi meets, with the car gaining its current red livery base at the time.<\/p>\n
After landing in Australia last year and being tested at Winton Raceway, it is the latest in a long line of GT3 machinery to be run by the Bespoke Motor Cars stable.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s definitely quite a different animal,\u201d said Roddy after his Sandown outing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can feel its weight and heft a little more, so you sort of need to pre-plan your movements, like, for example, the (Lamborghini) Gallardo GT3 is a really chuckable car.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhereas with this thing, you can\u2019t really do that \u2013 you can feel the mass a lot more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just feels like this big couch of a race car, but it\u2019s beautiful \u2013 the power delivery from the VR38 is really linear; I was actually quite surprised \u2013 it\u2019s super smooth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite cool; it feels so civilised, it\u2019s so easy to live with.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t even have to prime the oil system before you start it, which with most GT3 cars, they strongly recommend that you crank for oil pressure before you start them, whereas this thing, you just literally hit the button.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really nice change of pace for us, because I\u2019ve mainly only ever dealt with European race cars before, and it\u2019s cool to see the different approach and the different philosophy, even though they kind of are a European race car \u2013 JRM in England did a lot of the engineering on behalf of NISMO for the cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can definitely see that; they\u2019ve come at it from a different angle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s engineered a little bit differently to a few of the other cars that we play with on a regular basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the car typically transported on an open trailer, its cult status becomes quickly apparent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people in Australia have a real affinity for those things; it\u2019s amazing,\u201d Roddy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had some like really amazingly special cars, like the SLSs and the 458s, really cool cars, and no one reacts to them in the way that they do with the Nissan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had one guy trying to pull me over, like trying to force me off the road recently just because he wanted to stop and have a chat about the Nissan!<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople from all walks of life, you don\u2019t have to be a toffee-nosed person \u2013 it\u2019s universally loved, which I think I\u2019ve never really seen before with a racing car.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was another bucket list thing for me to tick off.\u201d<\/p>\n