What's the difference?
Everything you need to know about the Mercedes-AMG G 63's personality pokes out from underneath the polished alloy steps running down each of its flanks. Side pipes… no one does side pipes.
A colleague was pulled over in a G 63 because the cops thought the '60s muscle car-style exhaust was after-market and illegal. But it's not, and it's brilliant.
Launched globally in early 2018, this brutal take on the second-generation Mercedes-Benz G-Class might look the same as the G 63 it replaces, but under the skin it's a whole new ballgame.
The first-gen was like grandpa's axe, regularly updated but underneath it all the same basic framework. This is a whole new axe, including a fresh drivetrain, suspension set-up and interior treatment.
Even on its Australian swansong outing, the incredible R35 GT-R continues to perform beyond expectations.
Released in late 2021, the final batch of specials spearheaded by the T-spec in regular GT-R and SV in flagship Nismo guises sold out quickly and are already commanding twice and even thrice their recommended retail prices in private hands.
Nobody ought to be surprised. From its glitzy 2007 Tokyo Motor Show debut (on the eve of a global recession at that), the GT-R has been nothing less than an automotive force of nature, moving with calamitous calm to the beat of its own twin-turbo and all-wheel-drive thrum, like nothing else matters. The R35 has seen off countless assassins in its time, including the Lexus LFA and Honda NSX II.
Some 15 years later, this is what a GT-R in T-spec trim feels like in 2022.
The Mercedes-AMG G 63 isn't for shrinking violets. It's bold, fast, and loud, and in second-generation form massively improved dynamically and technically. It's a lot of money, but there's a lot to love, and here's hoping it stays around for decades to come.
The GT-R of the famous R32 era was a direct response to immortals like the Audi Ur Quattro and Porsche 959 that preceded it in the 1980s.
But the Nissan’s true gift since then is that it has evolved over successive generations, to serve as a glimpse of what these long-discontinued European supercars might be like if they, too, were allowed ongoing development, rather than dropped.
As such, the last R35 GT-R as we know it in Australia is far from disadvantaged, even 15 years on from launch, because it was devised and developed outside of the usual constraints and compromises of mere mass production sports cars.
In 2022, then, the Nissan GT-R remains timeless and transcendental. It’s still an incredibly moving and thrilling driving experience… if you can get hold of one.