The Nissan Skyline GTR is one of the most iconic sports cars ever made. Its combination of speed and maneuverability are legendary, thanks to its twin turbo, four wheel drive, four wheel steering setup. Nissan will be releasing the new version of the Godzilla GT-R in 2009, for purchase in Japan, the USA, Australia and Europe. While Nissan has dropped the Skyline name for this model, it retains the twin round ‘afterburner’ tail lamps. Here are some cool facts about the new GT-R.

1. The ECU limits the top speed of the new GTR to 180 km/h unless the car is at a race track. The internal GPS has been programmed with the locations of major racetracks such as Tsukuba, and allows the car to go faster only if it’s on one of those tracks.

2. The cylinder bores in the v6 engine aren’t coated in iron, like most engines – they’re coated in .15mm of plasma.

3. Nissan uses a bank of laser scanners to check the alignment of the underbody suspension and drivetrain assembly to preserve accuracy. All panels on the GTR are precision manufactured and fitted to a gap of just .1mm!

4. The GT-R engine, VR38DETT, will be a 3.8 liter twin turbo. Each such engine is assembled by hand in a clean room, by just one Nissan Japan engineer.

5. The new GTR can do a lap of Germany’s Nürburgring in 7 minutes 37 seconds. That’s 10 seconds faster than the Porsche 911 Turbo.

6. Even though the GT-R is rated to produce 473bhp, it still complies with Japan’s Super Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle (SULEV) standards.

7. Nissan expects to release a higher tuned version within the next year. Just like the older R32, R33 and R34 Skylines, this model will be called “V Spec” (or Victory Specification). Prior V-Spec models have been equipped with Brembo brakes, improved ATTESA 4WD systems, and suspension modifications.

8. The new GT-R goes from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds

9. Nissan plans to make 12,000 GTRs a year. Of the 1,000 manufactured a month, 500 will be made available to buy in the United States, 200 to buy in Japan and 300 in the rest of the world. Part of the delay is due to Nissan training up staff to work at High Performance Vehicle workshops around the United States.

10. The GTR designers were heavily influenced by Japanese anime – in particular, the Gundam series of giant mecha robots!