We didn’t discriminate: Rally cars, focused rear-drive performance cars and everything in between was invited to the party. In fact, there’s only one genre missing from this otherwise comprehensive list — the big-power, rear-drive supercar. But it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
Fact is, we asked Chevy for a 2008 Corvette Z06 and we asked Dodge for a 2008 Viper SRT10, but both refused to loan us their cars — presumably because we’d be testing their best metal against the almighty GT-R.
Sniff, sniff. Does somebody smell chicken?

THE VIDEO

The Test

The idea is simple: Find out if the quickest car on a racetrack is the quickest car on a mountain road. So we hit the track one day and the mountain the next. Then we ran every car through our standard acceleration, braking and handling tests.
We used the Streets of Willow Springs, a 1.8-mile natural-terrain road course, as our racing circuit. Then we ran that 1.8-mile section of GMR through the Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles.
Our section of road included dozens of corners, including three 180-degree switchbacks, multiple blind bends and 721 feet of vertical rise. In the spirit of real street driving, we respected the yellow center line and used only one lane — just like we would if the road had been open. We recorded every lap of the track and every pass on the mountain road with our Racelogic VBOX (a GPS-based data recorder).

The Point

The groomed, glass-smooth surface of most racetracks is a far cry from the reality of uneven real-world roads where bumps, road paint, debris, blind corners and self preservation act as great equalizers. Racetracks are also designed to protect you from yourself. Run-off room, gravel traps and FIA curbing are there to keep you and your machine in one piece. On the road, mistakes come at a much higher cost.
Experience tells us big-power cars, which thrive on road courses, are often out of their element on tight mountain roads where rally cars like the Evo X and WRX STI do their best work. So these two genres were to represent either end of the spectrum. In the middle we knew we couldn’t ignore the back-road brilliance of the 2008 Lotus Elise SC or the all-around poise of Porsche’s 911. Audi’s R8 and Nissan’s GT-R, theoretically, represent the best of both worlds — big power combined with the confidence of all-wheel drive.
Some of you might also be wondering why we chose the base 911 over the much more powerful and all-wheel-drive-equipped 911 Turbo. The answer is simple: price. This base Porsche 911 costs about the same as the Nissan GT-R. We thought that was relevant. Just how much Porsche do you get for the cost of the big bad Nissan?

And the winner is…

Nissan GT-R

As-tested price: $75,925
Mountain road time: 2:04.35; Rank: 1st
Streets of Willow lap time: 1:25.68; Rank: 1st
0-60 mph: 3.5 seconds (3.2 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip)
Quarter-mile: 11.7 seconds at 116.8 mph
60-0 braking: 98 feet
Slalom: 74.0 mph
Skid pad: 0.96g

By now you’ve read every word printed about the 2009 Nissan GT-R. You know it’s quicker than a 911 Turbo on a track. You’ve seen it beat the best the Americans can offer. You’ve read that it’s as antiseptic as it is quick. And now you’re reading that it can stomp damned near any car on any piece of tarmac, anywhere. Yes, Nissan’s 480-horsepower, six-speed all-wheel-drive monster wins this test, too. It was quicker up the mountain road and around the Streets of Willow than any other car in this test.

Here’s the thing about the GT-R. Despite its mass, it simply doesn’t do anything poorly. It is the embodiment of technology conquering physics. And yes, it is less involving than other cars this quick. That said, it’s always on your side. It’s safe.

Only the R8 was able to top its cornering speeds through the tightest corners on the mountain road. On the track, which is faster still, it was untouched in virtually every corner. And it closes the gap between corners in less time than anything else sold today. Most striking is the fact that the GT-R is among the easiest cars to drive in this test. Even with its stability control disabled, it rarely does anything to make us question its poise. It’s as stuck and predictable as it is massive. And, by every measure, it lives up to the hype.

The Take-Away

Even in a test without a winner, it’s hard to ignore some simple facts. All-wheel drive matters. Both on the track and on the mountain road, cars putting power to all four wheels were consistently quicker and easier to drive than their two-wheel-drive counterparts.
We also learned that speed doesn’t always cost money. The Evo, the cheapest car in this test, proved that. Just as the Audi R8 demonstrates that it’s possible to have a comfortable street car that makes the numbers and goes really friggin’ fast.
But in the end, the quickest car on the track was also the quickest car on the street. Nissan’s GT-R again proves itself to be today’s most impressive performance car. Capable of crushing all comers in any environment, its abilities are tough to match at any price. Nobody will ever accuse it of being subtle. And it’s not comfortable. But if outright speed is the measure that matters, we can’t find a better machine.
And that, we figure, won’t surprise anybody at Chevy or Dodge.

[Read the Full Article and Review on all the cars tested at INSIDE LINE]

Oh, and this GTR is my dream car