The 2010 Nissan GT-R

Exotic sports cars are the stuff that dreams are made of. As a younger man, I was in love with the Porsche 959. Some kids adorned their walls with shots of the Lamborghini Countach while others fell head over heels with the Ferrari F40.All amazing cars equipped with equally amazing price tags. Nissan has a car in its stable that offers near-supercar performance with a price tag under the six-figure mark. It is the 2010 NISSAN GTR and it’s awesome.

The normally blue sky changed to match the Super Silver paint job of the GT-R.

The first cars I mentioned above were beautiful and powerful machines that were not easy to drive. If you didn’t know what you were doing, you would be hurt - quickly. The 2010 Nissan GT-R is just as fast, if not faster than those cars. It won’t overheat, it can be driven by anyone, and it has plenty of room in the trunk for groceries and golf clubs.

The second group of cars I mentioned are beautiful and powerful machines that are some of the fastest production vehicles on the planet. They have abundant levels of performance and stellar price tags to match. The GT-R is neck and neck with these cars and is tens of thousands of dollars cheaper. The 911 starts at $130,000, the Murcielago starts at $354,000, and the 430 starts at $186,000. The base price of a 2010 Nissan GT-R is $80,790. From a purely fiscal standpoint, this is not an affordable car. From a purely car enthusiast standpoint, it’s the most affordable high-performance exotic car on the planet.



I am going to start a rumor that the R stands for Ridiculous.

So it’s an affordable high-performance sports car, how does it drive?

I sit in the comfortably supportive seats, push the start button and put the car in gear… I can choose to leave in a growling hurry, or in an Altima-esque glide. Most of the time I choose the growling-hurry, but it is nice to have the glide available as well. The GT-R also lets me choose if I want to shift for myself, or let it do all the work. I appreciate this option, but I prefer to tell the car which gear it should be in, and switching on R mode so that these shifts happen in as fast as a fifth of a second. When I click the + or - paddle, the shift happens and it happens right when I tell it to. Downshifts into corners and upshifts on the way out are precise and make twisty roads a truly enjoyable experience.



The screen is displaying one of many customizable views which show you, amongst many other things, how insanely or sedately you are driving.

When on said twisty roads, the other items keeping the fun-o-meter set to six-flags include the 485 hp/434 lb-ft of torque twin-turbo V6, double-wishbone front/multi-link rear suspension, 15” Brembo brakes, and the all-wheel drive system. To put it simply, when I am driving the GT-R I can enter turns faster yet retain more confidence than with almost any car out there. I point it in the direction I want to go, hit the gas, and it does what I ask - no questions asked from mighty nitrogen filled Bridgestones (wrapped around 20x9.5/20x10.5 lightweight alloy wheels) or the Bilstein shocks. Some cars provide tail-out fun, but the GT-R is serious business and keeps the party moving, flat and composed, in the right direction.

The GT-R isn’t just at home on the curvy stuff. When the light turns green and I punch the throttle, the straight-line acceleration is stunning. My right hand has to move quickly to keep up with the effect my right foot is having on the car. The shifts come fast and each one throws me back into my seat. Thanks to the gear display I now feel like the Count from Sesame Street… One, two, three, four, five, six - all six gears shifted through on that blast, ah-ah-aaah.



The Nissan GT-R has all the conveniences you would expect in a modern car. It has comfortable leather and suede heated front seats that are power-adjustable. The navigation works great as does the hands free Bluetooth system. The nine-speaker Bose sound system is crisp both high and low, and the keyless fob never needs to come out of my pocket.

The exhaust note is never shouting at me, but is loud enough when driving quickly and subdued when puttering around town. The trunk even has a surprising amount of room. It has all the features I would want in a daily-driven vehicle, but it also has so much more. The only area lacking on the inside are the rear seats which are pretty much unusable for humans yet perfect for a small to medium size dog on one seat and a backpack with camera equipment on the other.

This example of the 2010 Nissan GT-R has a base price of $83,040.00, because it is the Premium trim. The Super Silver paint job is $3,000 and the carpeted floor mats, with metallic GT-R logos, run an additional $280. The as-tested price for this car is $87,320.00. I imagine this is the only time I will ever write this, but for a shade under $90,000 you get the best automotive bargain on the planet

Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart Turbo Review Test

Waitresses are the original balance masters. It’s staggering how well they do it. I’m sure you’ve seen them. You know, you walk into a restaurant, and there they are, stacking plates or glasses, until you think “there’s no way they could fit one more on their arm”. But they do. And not only one more, they manage several more.
Of course, there’s only so far they can go before they end up losing all of it. And we’ve all seen that too. As you go higher, the centre of gravity elevates correspondingly. Just like in a car.
As a car gets taller, there’s an increased risk of a roll-over. So please explain how the Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart can be so narrow and tall, yet still handle like it does. The answer is to hand it over to the Ralliart team, and let them have a tinker with it.

But can you change a leopard’s spots? Were they starting from a below average package to begin with? Well consider the Lancer Evolution. The base model Lancer was a bit iffy, but the Evo series has arguably reached cult status, and no wonder.

There are only a few places you can turn for that ‘bang for your buck’. Interesting, then, that a Colt been thrown into the Ralliart mix.

Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart

Introduced in 2004 the Colt has been a quiet achiever in the small car segment. Only in 2006 was a manual variant added, and it saw sales increase slightly, but rivals such as the Swift, Jazz and Mazda 2 had already garnered more of the market.

So, in late 2006, Mitsubishi saw fit to introduce the Colt Ralliart in an effort to boost sales. Using the same 1.5-litre motor but adding a small turbocharger has upped the power from 77kW to 113kW (a substantial jump of 46%), and bumped the peak torque from 141Nm to 210Nm (a similar increase of 48%).

The respectable rise does come at the cost of turbo lag. And when the revs increase, coarseness begins to rear its ugly head, especially above 4500rpm, but fuel economy is still quite good.
Adding over 40% more power and torque can have disastrous consequences if the rest of the car hasn’t been beefed up. Fortunately, suspension, brakes, tyres and wheels have all been upgraded, and the result is a makeover which, although you wouldn’t call extreme, makes the car a different animal.

The increase in thickness of the stabiliser bar at the front, for instance, is only 1mm, but it’s amazing what a millimetre can do. Bodyroll is contained, and combined with the uprated springs, a strut tower brace, better dampers and more rigid suspension components, the Colt Ralliart is suddenly sporting. This comes as a shock when you look at the car, which is easily perceived as top-heavy.

It will dart left and right at only an inkling of steering input, meaning hardly any slack around the straight ahead, much like its Evo sibling. It can be a little deceiving in feel as it tends to spring back to the straight ahead, meaning an artificial weight while cornering. Feedback is pretty good though.

It sits flat when cornering too, and the seat-of-the-pants impression is one of high lateral loading. Probably the Yokohama Advan tyres help here, but the chassis balance is extremely impressive.

Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart

Keep the stability control (ASC in Mitsu speak) on because it will lift-off oversteer quite quickly, with its short wheelbase not helping the case. It is predictable, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. On turn-in it stays neutral, and only pushes wide if you’re going in too hot. Trail braking doesn’t move the tail much though, so it’s a pretty safe car to drive quickly.
Like the Evo too, is the tyre roar on coarse surfaces, and the firm ride. It’s pretty easy to live with day to day though, as passengers won’t complain. Indeed, I transported an 80-year-old lady around the place and she didn’t mind it one bit.
The Colt’s interior is a vast improvement on the spartan Evo IX. Better quality plastics, and no faux-fibre trim leaves an impression of expense. Mitsu’s press release states that ‘the front Recaros are straight from the Evo VIII MR’. This means they’re a bit tight and squashy; those of the larger-derriere persuasion might need shoehorning in and out.
The boot could be a little bigger, and a little more attention to the comfy rear seats would be good too. Infact, given the $14K price gap between the top spec Ralliart and base ES colt, there’s little to differentiate them. The same goes for the rest of the interior.

Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart

Only one badge appears inside the Colt Ralliart, just in front of the gearshift. Either something on the steering wheel, or on the dash would be good, so that as soon as you sit down, you know what you’ve spent all that extra money on.
The fun is in the drive though, which is does well. The gearbox is a little notchy, but still snicks into the gate well, with well spaced ratios and the clutch is light and feels good. The strong engine and brakes are a nice addition but there’s one or two drawbacks. The drop of boost between each gear change is a little disappointing, and although the brake feel is good, overuse will see them cooked quickly.
So this is more of a quick-blast-around-the-city kind of car. But it is common for people to use these little beasts in motorkhanas and track work. A quick pad change, sticky tyres, and an ECU reflash will see your Colt suddenly become a stallion. But even as standard, it still returns a 6.7L/100km fuel consumption average.
What about to the everyday man. Do they look at it and see the potential? Put simply, does it have cred? Judging by the comments received during the week running around in it, yup. Statements such as “It’s so cute, but aggressive at the same time,” and “I’ll bet it’d be a bombed daily.” Yes. Definitely. Whatever the hell that meant….

Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart

It’s a fun car to blast around in, and it surprises with its agility. Handling, braking, steering and performance are all a step up from the standard Colt. But the pricetag is getting up there; $29,990 is a fair whack for what essentially is a done-up Colt. Plus with Fiesta XR4, VW Polo GTI, and Suzuki Swift Sport all undercutting it by thousands of dollars, it’s going to have its work cut out for it.
For those in doubt, the elements of this vehicle’s name fit. This is no boxy, poxy, oxymoron of a car. It’s a well sorted package that lives up to the rally heritage of the company. Yes, the Evo has a feisty little brother. It’s called the Colt Ralliart.

Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart

2008 Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart specifications

Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged
Power: 113kW
Torque: 210Nm
Top speed: N/A
Safety: ABS, Dual Front, Side and Curtain Airbags, ASC
0-100km/h: N/A
ANCAP rating: 3 Stars
Turning circle: 10.8 metres
Fuel tank: 45 litres
Fuel consumption : 6.7 litres /100km (combined)
Fuel type: 95RON Unleaded