Among gearheads, the topic of supercars is a subject that’s hardly ever truly agreed upon. The debate as to what makes the “best supercar” is heated and impassioned, classically fought out between fans of Italian and German automakers. Lately, however, there’s a new player in the game, and now the debate has two basic schools of thought: should a supercar be a true halo car, a lavish and expensive toy only attainable by the super rich, or is it possible for a mainstream automaker to create what could be thought of as the “supercar for the masses?” Until recently, the latter wasn’t even an option, but Nissan changed that in 2008 with the introduction of its highly anticipated production-model R35 GT-R. With an entry cost of well under $100K and Ferrari-spanking performance figures, the aptly nicknamed “Godzilla” burst onto the scene in a fiery blaze of raw, unadulterated power and an immediate and empathetic “thank you” from Japanese car enthusiasts the world over.
Before we go any further, I must note that in my own mind the GT-R isn’t really a fair car to compare to something like a 458 or Gallardo. You won’t find extravagant hand-stitched interiors or dry-carbon-fiber body panels in the GT-R, nor will you find the intangible yet undeniable element of overall bad-assedness associated with having a horse or bull on the front emblem. But does that fluff really matter to hardcore enthusiasts? I think not. How would you feel getting blasted by on the freeway or through the corners on a track by a car that costs about half of what you just paid for your Italian luxo-sports car? Personally, I would be a bit miffed and probably reconsider what I had really paid for. Thankfully for Jason Purdum, this is never a situation he will encounter, because he’s the one who blows past the other guys and leaves them wondering, “What on Earth is done to that Nissan?!”
Jason’s GT-R is a car that has been a long time coming, and you can tell that paying attention to all the small details has been thought of as the only way to do things right. “I have always loved all types of vehicles,” Jason tells us. “Shortly after I got out of college, I began selling cars with the intention of one day owning my own dealership. With a lot of hard work (and very long hours), I made this a reality back in February of 2001 when I opened Boulder Nissan in Boulder, Colorado. I was one of the youngest non-family owned Nissan dealers in the country.”
Jason has built quite a few other vehicles in his day: a plethora of Nissan cars (including a fully built 10-second 350Z that he still owns), a dozen or so motorcycles (both off-road and racetrack-oriented) and even a custom modernized ’66 Corvette. With an obvious passion for fast cars and motorsport, Jason was ecstatic when he learned that the always-coveted and ever-elusive GT-R would not only finally be coming to the North American market but would be wearing a Nissan badge and wouldn’t be lost to the Infiniti brand name.
Owning a Nissan dealership might seem like it would open up doors to expedite the process of buying a GT-R of your own, but that wasn’t the case for Jason. “Once the decision was made from the factory that the GT-R would indeed come to the U.S. as a Nissan, I could barely contain my excitement,” Jason says. “I was one of only two dealers that got to go to the Reno-Fernley road course to try the car out on the track the day before the press arrived back when the car was first introduced. Once I arrived home, I told my general manager to order me a Gun Metallic GT-R when we received our first allocation. However, the GT-R was in such high demand that we were pre-selling every car we had coming in. As hard as it was for me to do, I told my GM to continue to order my car as we were allocated GT-Rs, and if a customer wanted to buy mine, go ahead and sell it. Finally in 2010, my car hadn’t been already sold by the day it arrived!”