A worthy winner? This is Nismo’s greatest-ever creation, as voted for by you

Last week, Nismo celebrated its 40th anniversary. That’s 40 years of juicing up ordinary, humble cars like the Juke and the Sentra.

In our latest Question of the Week, we asked our readers which of Nismo’s jumped-up contingent takes their vote as the best. Coming up is a collection of our favourite answers, beginning with the most upvoted (and therefore winning) comment of last week.

Paul Esthete said: “No questions asked, it’s the R34 GT-R Z-Tune. This was peak Nismo, and without a doubt peak Nissan too. Sure, some cars are close, like the 400R or the R390, but this thing’s faster than an F50. Probably more expensive nowadays too.” 

Further support for the Z-Tune came from Arvin Adilaksono: “Based on a V-Spec Nur, which in itself is already a great car, with the engine from a GT500 racer. Add more track-focused brakes, suspension and tyres and you end up with the best R34 of all.”

In a close second came one of Nismo’s great Frankenstein moments, as explained by Gandubilli Siddharth: “The Nismo Juke of course. Specifically, the bonkers Juke ‘R’ - a crossover with GT-R running gear. That’s not just hot, that’s straight-up ghost peppers.”

The Juke R actually received far more attention than expected, with another strong argument sent in by Andrew Tong: “Nismo looked at the Juke and thought what it needed was a smattering of carbon, a race-prepped interior, a dual-clutch paddle shift and, oh yeah, a 3.8-litre twin-turbo engine. Either that or a Nismo employee parked a Micra in Chernobyl and forgot to pick it up until a week later.”

We also did say no race cars in the original post, but it’s hard to not appreciate Isaac L’s argument here: “I am certain there will be more reasonable answers than mine, but my vote is for the Nismo Leaf RC. It proves that there's more than a place for hot hatches in the world of electric cars and, better still, proves that electric cars can be fun. The regular Leaf might be boring, as well as ugly, but Nismo made it into a sort of miniature GTR GT3. By far one of the most underrated vehicles Nismo has ever made.”

Credit where it’s due, Isaac. Our final comment came in from Cam: “This might be a stretch for some, but the greatest Nismo might be the one it didn’t build: the IDx. Just imagine the tuner projects that would come from that. I might also be a bit biased as a Datsun 510 owner, but I dream of an R34 powertrain in that car.” 

Some brilliant suggestions this week to remind us of what makes Nismo great, so a big thank you to all who participated. The next one drops on Monday - see you there for a cuppa and a quarrel.