The 10 Coolest Cars Nismo Has Ever Made

Happy birthday, Nismo. This year, Nissan’s racing arm is celebrating 40 years since its official inception, when Nissan’s Opamma and Omori Works outfits merged as the Japanese manufacturer aimed to become a force in global motorsport.

In that time, it’s gone on to dominate touring car racing in Japan and Australia through the ‘90s, become one of the established elite in its domestic Super GT series and made a real go of Le Mans on numerous occasions too.

Better still, all of those efforts on the track have led to some pretty special road cars – some indirectly, others very much directly. We’ve picked out the 10 best over the years.

10. Nissan Patrol Nismo

Nismo isn’t exactly the first name to spring to mind with high-performance off-roaders, but it has been producing one for quite some time now.

This Nissan Patrol Nismo has been around since 2010 and is one of those sweet forbidden fruits to anyone living outside the Middle East. It’s not just an exercise in slapping on some red trim pieces like lipstick and calling it a day as many of Nismo’s current road cars are either – this is a bonafide machine.

Its centrepiece is an Omori-tuned 5.6-litre V8 producing 428bhp and 413lb ft, which should be adequate for big skids while sand dune bashing. It’s also given uprated Bilstein suspension to help it manage that power.

9. Nismo 370Z

The Nissan 370Z is not all that arguably the weakest of the modern Fairladies. The 350Z had its issues but was all-in a pretty nice thing and, while we can’t say for sure as it’s not sold in Europe, the new Z seems to have decent reviews despite its 370 roots. Meanwhile, the middle child never really gained many fans.

At least until the Nismo came along and sorted things out. It looked better, handled nicer courtesy of a stiffer chassis and reworked suspension and benefitted from a fruiter 339bhp version of the 3.7-litre VQ37 V6.

It wasn’t a perfect car. It still lacked the poise of close rivals like the Porsche Cayman, cost a fair bit more than a more engaging albeit much slower Toyota GT86 and still lacked the muscular presence of a Ford Mustang. In isolation though, a cool thing indeed.

8. R35 Nissan GT-R Nismo

With the wizards at Tochigi producing one of the finest pieces of engineering ever made in the R35 GT-R, the thought of a full-blown Nismo version was a tantalising one. We waited a while to see the reborn Godzilla’s true potential from the factory, but the final result was pretty special.

In its last guise, the Nismo GT-R pumped out a mighty 591bhp and 481lb ft of torque from its 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6, courtesy of turbochargers nabbed from the GT3 race car, but that wasn’t the most impressive bit. That was all the small changes made for marginal gains coming together as one tremendous package.

Those included a shedload of carbon fibre parts to save 30kg, enormous carbon Brembo brakes that actually reduced unsprung mass compared with the standard car and all sorts of minute suspension tweaks.

Really, the biggest problem with the Nismo was its price. Here in the UK, you’d pay almost double the asking price for one over a regular GT-R and with an abundance of tuners out there to make much more of that kind of cash, it made little practical sense to spend so much on a Nismo. Still, what a machine.

7. Nismo 350Z S-Tune

Here’s one you may recognise if you’ve ever played Test Drive Unlimited. The 350Z S-Tune was an incredibly rare bit of kit, bringing together the best bits the Omori factory would sell individually for the Z into one striped package.

Only available officially in Japan, it was more than just a whale-tailed 350Z. ‘G-Attack’ springs and dampers offered a more aggressive, lower suspension setup, while the chassis was reinforced in several areas to tighten things up. The VQ35 received a hefty overhaul too with a high-lift camshaft, a remapped ECU, a carbon air duct and a totally-revised exhaust system just a few of the changes.

Good luck finding one, thought. It’s thought just 99 were built by Nismo and only one is believed to be in the UK. Not that it’ll likely ever come up for sale, as it’s in the possession of Nissan itself. We’re fortunate enough to have been allowed a go recently.

6. R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R Nismo

It wouldn’t be a list of best Nismos if it didn’t have a few Skylines on, right? This is just the start.

Introduced in 1990, just a few short months into the R32’s production run, Nismo built 560 special editions of Godzilla to homologate it for Group A racing – handy, as that’s why the car was made in the first place.

Changes on the face of things are pretty subtle, but Nismo did a fair bit to the Skyline. Most obvious is the extra flap on the rear wing and extra ducts on the front bumper to allow the intercooler more breathing space. Other changes included several steel body panels being replaced with aluminium counterparts, and the removal of the rear wiper and ABS in a bid to cut weight.

Officially, power remained at 276bhp from the RB26 but larger steel-internal turbochargers more than likely boosted that already-underrated figure by some way. It may not be the most sought-after or best-remembered Skyline, but the Nismo remains a rare treat.

5. R34 Nismo R-Tune

In contrast to the subtlety of the R32, Nismo’s most hardcore R34 during its original production run (we’ll clarify that point a little later in the list…) was anything but a sleeper.

Not that the R34 didn’t already look batshit, but the R-Tune added to that being emblazoned by the trademark Nismo stripes, a delicious set of Rays LMGT4s (albeit often swapped for TE37s) and more aggressive aero plus a carbon fibre bonnet.

Power was massively upped, with an official figure of 444bhp from the 2.6-litre RB26, thanks to parts used in N1 race cars. Helping manage that was an R-Tune suspension kit, uprated brakes and a new set of struts.

There are 11 known examples of the R-Tune in existence, so they’re like gold dust. That said, one came up for auction not too long before writing this and didn’t sell for quite as much as we expected.

4. S14 Nismo 270R

Nismo has done plenty with the various Silvias over the years, but the 270R stands out to us as the coolest of the lot.

Based on the S14, Nismo fettled with pretty much every element of the car. Power from the SR20 was boosted to 266bhp (the name referring to 270ps) and a Nismo-specific LSD was fitted on the rear axle to help manage that extra power.

The Omori factory also gave it an ‘Edge’ bodykit, firmer springs and dampers plus plenty of fresh chassis bracing. Oh, and of course ‘270R’ was emblazoned across the rear wheel arches so people knew this was no ordinary S14. Just 30 are recorded as being built.

3. R34 Nismo Z-Tune

Now we’re at the controversial end of this list. Remember when we said the R-Tune was the most hardcore R34 ‘during its production run’? Well, that was then ousted by the Z-Tune, but not until after it stopped being built by Nissan.

Celebrating its 20th birthday, it was one last love letter to the Skyline a year on from the end of its run. Oh, what a way to go.

Nismo bought a pile of used V-Specs and went to town on them. The RB26 became the ‘Z1’ with learnings from Le Mans and GT500 racing, bored out to 2.8-litres and given a gigantic set of turbochargers.

Power was a scarcely believable advertised 493bhp – remember, this was still a couple of years before the R35 came along with 473bhp. Emphasis on ‘advertised’, it’s truly believed the Z-Tune had quite a lot closer to 600bhp but that quoted figure was for complicated warranty reasons.

Oh, and the redline was increased to 8,000rpm. For a twin-turbo road car, that’s quite something.

A completely reworked body kit with blistered arches made this the maddest-looking thing to ever come from Nissan, a fact that remains true today, and that was a necessity to house wider tyres. Sachs dampers and Brembo brakes helped keep everything in check.

20 were planned for production, but just 19 were produced between 2005 and 2007. All but one car got a special Z-Tune Silver. In case you wondered, the outlier is a single Midnight Purple III car.

To many, it’s *the* pinnacle of the Nissan Skyline, and the fact one sold for around £1.5m in 2022 is evidence. For us (me) though, there are two above that…

2. R33 Nismo 400R

If someone doesn’t think the Z-Tune is the best Skyline ever made more than once (spoiler for the top of this list), it’s probably because they prefer the Nismo 400R. That applies to us (me). In fact, as I’m typing this there’s a 1:43 scale version about two feet away from my desk.

Based on the R33 GT-R, the Nismo 400R was the Omori factory truly flexing its muscles on the GT-R. There wasn’t a real need for the 400R to exist, other than just because. What a great decision that was.

It only takes a look at it to realise this was no regular R33 GT-R. A Nismo-developed body kit aimed at improving downforce and cooling was fitted, as was a carbon fibre bonnet and even, for the first time on a Skyline, a set of HID lights.

Bilstein dampers and a titanium strut brace were fitted to improve the chassis, while a carbon prop shaft helped shed weight in the drivetrain.

Really though, the truly special part of the 400R was its engine. Gone was the RB26, replaced with an RB-X GT2 engine derived from the R33s that had taken on Le Mans in 1995. If you hadn’t figured, the name reflected its 400ps power output – or 395bhp to the stubborn among us.

Nismo wanted to build 100 of them, but the demand wasn’t quite there and only 44 were made. Unsurprisingly, they’re also now extremely expensive on the rare occasion they come up for sale as a result. If anyone could lend me approximately £1m next time one appears, I’d be eternally grateful.

1. R33 Nismo GT-R LM

The best car Nismo ever made is a car it only ever made one of. This is the R33 Nismo GT-R LM, quite frankly the most special Skyline ever produced.

There’s a very good reason one was ever made. As Le Mans regulations pivoted away from Group C prototypes and towards production-based GT1 regulations, manufacturers were required to build a road car to go racing. Emphasis on ‘a’, as a quite gaping loophole allowed many to build one single car.

That was the case for the R33 LM which, despite having a bit of Skyline DNA, was quite unlike any GT-R before or since. For a start, this was rear-driven and with power supplied by an earlier version of the RB-X GT2 that would be deployed in the later 400R.

Of course, there’s the massively blown-out bodykit with the largest arches fitted to a car that wore licence plates we can think of – measuring 50mm wider on each corner than the base GT-R. The interior has a wonderful set of chequerboard sears and a Nismo-branded Alcantara steering wheel.

It’s technically road-legal and is still registered in the UK courtesy of TWR, more famous for its history with Jaguar but with which Nissan had teamed for its Le Mans efforts.