---
title: 'Nissan Killed Godzilla… Now They Have To Rebuild Him'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=jWirqQINwPU'
video_id: 'jWirqQINwPU'
date: 2026-08-03
duration_sec: 778
---

# Nissan Killed Godzilla… Now They Have To Rebuild Him

> Source: [Nissan Killed Godzilla… Now They Have To Rebuild Him](https://youtube.com/watch?v=jWirqQINwPU)

## Summary

The video discusses Nissan's announcement that the next GT-R will not be fully electric, likely a hybrid, and argues this is the right move. It critiques the R35's long, stagnant production run, its evolution from a value supercar killer to an expensive nostalgia piece, and outlines what the R36 needs to be to revive Nissan's performance credibility.

### Key Points

- **GT-R Not Fully Electric** [00:02] — Nissan confirms the next GT-R will not be fully electric; it will likely be a hybrid with a combustion engine, preserving the car's character.
- **R35's Cultural Impact** [00:56] — The R35 GT-R was more than a car; it was a cultural event, a PlayStation cheat code in real life, offering supercar performance for 'normal rich guy money.'
- **R35 as Costco Supercar** [01:58] — The R35 was a budget cheat code, making average drivers feel like Nürburgring ghosts, but its clinical effectiveness made it almost boring.
- **R35's Long Production Run** [03:05] — The R35 was produced for 18 years with only facelifts and special editions, surviving multiple tech eras but becoming just another expensive sports car.
- **R35's Price Creep** [04:12] — The GT-R's price ballooned to $120,000-$220,000, losing its value proposition and becoming a nostalgia product.
- **Corvette C8 Comparison** [04:25] — The mid-engine Corvette C8 made the GT-R look outdated, offering similar performance at a lower price, ruining the GT-R's 'bully' status.
- **Why Not Fully Electric** [05:08] — EVs are fast but lack drama; the GT-R needs mechanical noise and character, not just acceleration.
- **Hybrid GT-R Potential** [05:21] — A hybrid GT-R could be amazing with a combustion engine, electric boost, and all-wheel drive for traction and corner exit violence.
- **Avoid Hybrid Luxury Bunker** [06:03] — The R36 must not be a heavy, tech-laden luxury product; it should be a weapon, not a lifestyle accessory.
- **Design Should Be Purposeful** [06:29] — The R35's design was purposeful, every vent and angle had a reason; the R36 needs that same functional aggression.
- **GT-R Should Be Disrespectful** [06:53] — The GT-R's job is to make expensive sports car owners uncomfortable, not to chase luxury or premium heritage.
- **Nissan's Lost Mojo** [07:19] — Nissan has lost its performance edge, with the Z feeling 'good enough' and Nismo reduced to crossover badges.
- **Toyota's Revival** [07:57] — Toyota became the fun Japanese car company again with GR86, GR Yaris, and Supra, while Nissan stagnated.
- **Honda-Nissan Partnership Potential** [08:37] — The Honda-Nissan merger talks collapsed, but shared technology, especially software and ECUs, could help both brands.
- **Combining Strengths** [09:42] — Honda's precision and hybrid experience plus Nissan's GT-R AWD insanity could create something great, maybe even a new Evo.
- **New Golden Era** [10:24] — The new golden era of Japanese performance should be hybrid, turbocharged, lightweight, with real noise and identity, not a copy of the '90s.
- **R36 Must Be a Statement** [11:03] — The R36 must not be an R35 with new headlights; it must say 'Nissan is back' and make Porsche sweat.
- **Price and Purpose** [11:31] — The R36 should be affordable, not $230,000, and should be driven, abused, and tuned, not a collector's museum piece.

### Conclusion

The next GT-R must be a real driver's car that re-establishes Nissan's performance credibility, not a nostalgia product or tech appliance. It needs to be a hybrid with combustion character, purposeful design, and a price that invites driving, not collecting.

## Transcript

the next generation GT-R will not be electric and honestly, good. Because the GT-R going fully electric right now would feel like watching Godzilla retire from destroying cities so he can become a LinkedIn productivity coach. You know,
we're going to talk about the battery preconditioning, shareholder value, and how to optimize your charging strategy." Now, full stop. That is not Godzilla. That is a Nissan Ariya with a childhood trauma that will never go away.
According to Nissan, the next GT-R is not going to be fully [music] EV. It will probably be hybrid. It will probably still have a combustion engine. that still has a 2017 Nissan Titan with a $12,000 market adjustment, one Nissan
engineer finally whispered, "Maybe the sports car should make noise." Thank you. Finally. But this also raises a very serious question. What the hell is the next Nissan GT-R supposed to be? Because well, the R35 GT-R was not just
a car. Well, it was a giveaway car that I gave away and Rocky won it from New win our current giveaway in the pinned first comment. And that car was a cultural event. It was a PlayStation cheat code that escaped into [music]
real life. It was the car equivalent of picking Oddjob in GoldenEye. It showed up, ruined everyone's lap times, and then just sat [music] there looking smug with the personality of a gaming PC. I mean, when the R35 launched in 2007,
it was insane. This thing came out with a twin-turbo V6, all-wheel drive, a dual-clutch gearbox, launch control, computer-controlled everything. And the general vibe of the car did not ask you if you were talented. It just said,
"Don't worry, meat puppet. I got this." Back then, a Porsche 911 Turbo was the established king. Ferrari was still making cars that required a financial advisor and possibly a priest. Lamborghini was yelling in Italian, and
Nissan walked in wearing cargo shorts and said, "Yeah, so here's a car that runs supercar [music] numbers for normal rich guy money." Let's not romanticize expensive stuff, it was embarrassing.
The GT-R was a Costco supercar. It was the budget cheat code, the Porsche every racing game when he had no imagination and still [music] wanted to win. And it did win. I mean, the R35 was so effective it almost became boring.
That was the weird magic of it. It was violent. It was fast, brutal, and that also somehow clinical, like being attacked by a spreadsheet. You didn't submitted a performance request in Nissan's engineering department. Dear
Attesa all-wheel drive system, please rotate me through this corner. Request accepted. Dear dual-clutch transmission, please remove my mistakes. Already done, you idiot. And that was the genius. It made average drivers feel like
Nürburgring ghosts. It turned dads with Bluetooth earpieces into time attack champions. It was a car for people who wanted supercar speed without the exotic car drama. No belts made of unobtainium, no Italian dashboard warning lights that
no German options list where the cup holder cost the same as a running Miata. Just boost, grip, launch control, and violence. But, then something happened. The R35 was in production for so long that when it came out the iPhone was
had enough cameras to film a Netflix on sale. The car launched when people were still burning CDs. It survived the rise of smartphones, the fall of sedans, multiple Spider-Man reboots, every
single YouTube thumbnail trend, and Nissan's entire personality crisis. For 18 years, Nissan kept walking into the boardroom like, "What should we do with the GT-R?" And the guy in the back would say, "New bumper?" And everyone
rust. I mean, the R35 had facelifts, special editions, Nismo versions, track editions, T-specs, Bayside Blue throwbacks, midnight purple nostalgia bait, gold wheels, different stitching, carbon bits, new aero, revised bumpers.
But, fundamentally, it was the same old cyborg lizard. I mean, they're like, "Here it is again, same thing, new lighting. please buy it. And to be fair, people actually did because the GT-R was still cool. It was still fast. It still
had presence, but the world, it moved on. The original GT-R was a bargain missile. Then it slowly became just another expensive sports car. The thing that started as a Porsche killer value hack ended up 120 to 220,000 bucks. Yes,
[music] hear that again, $220,000 Nissan. That is not a sentence, you >> [music] >> while the GT-R was aging like a vampire with back pain, the Corvette went mid-engine. Chevy looked at the entire
made a Ferrari for people who have a Bass Pro Shop membership?" And they did. mid-engine balance, a dual-clutch transmission, serious pace, daily the GT-R look like it was selling nostalgia by the pound. The GT-R used to
be the bully. Then the C8 walked in with New Balance shoes and ruined the curve. That is the tragedy of the R35. It started as the working man supercar modern supercar money while getting bullied by an American car with golf
clubs in the trunk. And that hurts, guys. And now the next GT-R has to fix all of that. So, what should it be? First, not fully electric. Nissan is right about that. Not because EVs are bad, EVs are brutally fast. Some of them
accelerate like the hand of God is angry at your spine. But the GT-R cannot just be fast. That is the trap. The R35 already proved that speed alone eventually becomes boring. A new GT-R needs drama. It needs mechanical
somewhere underneath you, there is still an engine being deeply irresponsible. So, hybrid makes sense, right? A hybrid GT-R could be amazing if Nissan does it correctly. Keep a combustion engine, give it electric boost torque, use the
hybrid system for traction, boost response, and corner exit violence. Make it like a modern Group B fever [music] dream with airbags. Give it a twin-turbo V6, maybe an evolution of the VR38 idea, Maybe a new engine. Add an electric
hard, rotate better, and punch out of the corners like it just saw a Porsche owner and said, "Nissan isn't premium?" But, do not make it 4,800 lb, please. Because the easiest way to ruin the R36 is to make it a hybrid luxury bunker
with 900 horsepower, 14 screens, [music] fake engine noises, and a curb weight measured in studio apartments. The GT-R should not be a Japanese BMW [music] XM coupe. It should be a weapon, not a luxury lifestyle product, not a tech
demo, not a rolling subscription service with where launch control is $19.99 a month where the passenger seat costs extra. It needs to be ugly in a cool unpleasant, like it was designed by engineers who have not seen daylight
since 2004. The R35 was never traditionally beautiful. It looked like a robot dog wearing shoulder pads, but it had purpose. Every vent, [music] every weird angle, every swollen fender said, "This exists because a computer
bullied the wind." The R36, it needs that energy. It should not chase Ferrari. It should not chase McLaren. It should not chase the Porsche luxury. The GT-R was at its best when it was disrespectful. It should arrive and make
every $250,000 sports car owner deeply uncomfortable. I mean, that's the point of the GT-R. No, look at our premium heritage experience. No, the GT-R job is to ruin [music] brunch. It should pull up next to a 911 Turbo S and make the
Porsche guy start explaining resale value before the light even turns green. And Nissan desperately [music] needs that. Because, let's be honest, Nissan has been a very weird for a while. This is the company that gave us the Skyline
GT-R, Silvia, Z cars, Pulsar GTi-R, Stagea, 300ZX, 240SX, and then somehow every car we made felt like it was designed during a lunch break at a
rental agency?" The Z is cool, but it also feels like Nissan built it by saying, "Good enough. The internet will defend it." The GT-R died, the Silvia is still a ghost, Nismo has been reduced to badges on crossovers. Haha. And
enthusiasts are here sitting like, "Guys, you used to be dangerous. What happened?" Meanwhile, Toyota somehow became the fun Japanese car company again. Toyota, the people who made beige into a business [music] model. Since the
2010s, Toyota has been out here giving us GR86, GR Yaris, GR Corolla, Supra, manual options, rally energy, an actual performance division chaos. Toyota woke up one morning and decided to become the cool uncle with a tire budget. Honda
[music] The Type R is probably the best front-wheel drive performance car on sale and it deserves respect. But [music] enthusiasts flag like it's the last candle in a power outage. Mazda's still making Miata because Mazda
understands joy better than most companies understand finance. Subaru's symmetrical all-wheel drive, boxer noises, and interiors that look like equipment. But [music] Japan needs more coolness. We need weirdness again. We
[music] like car enthusiasts are rounding errors. And that is where the Honda-Nissan partnership could get interesting. Now, to be clear, the big Honda-Nissan merger talks basically collapsed. It got awkward. Honda wanted
control. Nissan did not want to be adopted like a troubled rescue dog and everybody went home. [music] But the partnership idea, it's not dead. working towards shared technology, especially software and electronic
sounds boring enough to make you forget how breathing works. Shared ECU platform is not exactly the phrase that makes grown men put posters on their wall, but maybe, just maybe, [music] this could help. Because modern performance cars
software, control system, hybrid integration, torque management, battery cooling, [music] stability logic, electronic differentials, brake-by-wire, hopefully do something besides change the gauge cluster [music] from blue to
red. If Honda brings precision, rev-happy engineering, chassis tuning, hybrid experience, and the ability to make front wheel drive cars behave like physics [music] is negotiable and Nissan brings GTR all wheel drive insanity,
catalog of legendary names they have been ignoring like unpaid parking tickets, maybe something good actually happens. Maybe we get a GTR that Maybe Honda gets a new NSX idea that
does not arrive 10 years too late and cost McLaren money. Maybe Nissan brings that not every car enthusiast needs 700 horsepower and a payment plan that ruins wakes up in the corner and gives us an Evo instead of another crossover with a
badge from better times. This is how the golden JDM era could come back. Not by copying the '90s. That era, that's gone. The R32, R33, R34, Supra Mark IV, RX-7 The R32, R33, R34, Supra Mark IV, RX-7 FD, NSX, Evo, STI, Silvia, 300ZX.
Japanese automakers were fighting to prove something. They were over-engineering, experimenting, being weird, building cars with soul because the bubble era energy was still in the walls. The new golden era has to be
different. [music] Hybrid, turbocharged, lightweight where possible, software replacing the car, manual [music] where it makes sense, dual clutch where it matters, real steering wheel, real noise, real identity. The next GTR
cannot be an R35 with another bumper because, well, they already did that for 18 years. At this point, if Nissan reveals an R36 and it looks like an R35 with thinner headlights, I am going to assume the design department is legally
trapped in a bunker. The R36 has to be a statement. Not just the GTR is back. It has to say Nissan is back because that is what the R35 originally did. It build something terrifying, something that made [music] Porsche sweat,
check forms at 2:00 a.m., something that made teenagers in Gran Turismo believe they understood apexes. The new one needs to have the same disrespect. It It does not have to be the prettiest. It does not even need to be the most
powerful. A hybrid all-wheel drive monster with real combustion character, durability, and a price that does not require selling a kidney and your father's watch. Because if the next GT-R comes out at 230,000 bucks, well,
congratulations, Nissan. You built a car for collectors who will put 400 mi on it and talk about investment grade Japanese heritage while wearing driving gloves at Cars and Coffee. No, the GT-R is supposed to be driven, abused, tuned,
flames, made faster by people with laptops, poor sleep schedules, and should be the car that makes the internet loud again. So, yes, the [music] new GT-R not being electric is good news, but that is only the first
step. Now, Nissan has to do the hard part. They have to build a car worthy of the badge. Not a nostalgia product, not a tech appliance, not a $200,000 museum piece with launch control, a real GT-R. A PlayStation boss fight with license
plates. A car so small it feels illegal, but still raw enough to make you laugh like an idiot. The R35 was the future in 2007, the R36 cannot be the past in 2030. Nissan, [music] please, no more bumper updates. Wake Godzilla up. So,
let me know what you think of the new R36 GT-R in the comments down below. giveaway car, pinned in the first comment. Like, subscribe so we can hit 2 mil by the end of the year. Check out some of these Ideal vids. I'm Brad. This
is Ideal and promises you one thing, keep living the ideal lifestyle. keep living the ideal lifestyle. >> [music]