Autoblog

Click above for a high-res gallery from the SuperGT season opener.

Nissan GT-Rs first hit the track in 1969, and won their inauguaral race.

23 years later the R32 GT-R race car won its first Japanese GT Championship race at the first attempt, and yesterday at Suzuka, the Xanavi NISMO R35 driven by Benoit Trulyer and Satoshi Motoyama continued the tradition by taking round one of the 2008 Super GT Championship.

Trulyer, who was also one of the drivers who took the R34 GT-R to victory in its last appearence in Japanese GT in 2003, reckoned that his new car is more stable than its predessor, the Super GT Z, and thus much easier to drive on the limit, but has lost a little in terms of top speed, which may hurt the GT-R's chances when it visits the world's longest straight at Fuji Speedway in May and November.

Unless the GT association take exception to the GT-R's dominance this race and impose extraordinary penalties on the car, which has precious little in common with its road going counterpart, expect a similar performance at Round 2 in Okayama on April 13th.

Gallery: Nissan GT-R at Suzuka