Most people with money spilling out of their pockets in India tend to head towards Italian or German shores when they want to buy a sportscar – think Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, Audi and Mercedes-Benz. Some direct their attention to Britain, where Jaguar holds its own against the competition. Almost nobody, however, looks eastward to Japan, because ‘cheap and best’ is what the Japanese seem to excel at. These fortunate few would do well to look at the Nissan GT-R, however, because it’s flat out fantastic. For years, it has shredded lap records around some of the world’s best-known racetracks, and in the process it has laughed in the face of more established brands, like the ones mentioned above. In India, a select few have imported the car directly, but have not had access to Nissan service because, well, Nissan hasn’t been able to offer any – a high level of technical training is required to handle the car, and none of its service centers in India are capable of it.

All that might be about to change, though. The grapevine says that Nissan has plans to officially launch the car at the end of this year, and that specially trained technicians will finally be available to handle the service side of things at the dealerships where the car is likely to be sold. The GT-R’s engine is hand-built and is a twin-turbo 3.8-litre V6, putting out a massive 542 bhp – the car streaks to 100 kph from standstill in under 3 seconds, which is Bugatti Veyron territory . It’s stuffed to the gills with space-age technology and can be tuned for even more insane power figures – 1000 bhp and more isn’t unheard of. It’s also a fairly useable everyday car, if you can live with its ultra-stiff ride quality. Abroad, the GT-R is a performance bargain, retailing at well under the prices of brands like Ferrari and Porsche, but with import duties coming into play, it’ll lose some of its price advantage in India. Expect to fork over about Rs 2 crore for one, and do give us a call once it’s on your porch.