The Nissan GT-R is certainly one of the Japanese performance cars that American performance car enthusiasts have been waiting for. Nissan was showing the GT-R off at the LA Auto Show and I found the GT-R to be one of the hottest cars at the show. The photos of the GT-R I shot just don’t do the car justice, it is one of the most attractive car designs that I have seen.

The Nissan GT-R is going to carry a base price of somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000 USD. I heard several mentions of a price of $70,000 at the show. That is certainly a lot of money for a car, and will put the Nissan GT-R well out of the range of most buyers, but the GT-R isn’t for most buyers. The car has a 3.8L twin-turbo DOHC V6 that puts out 480-bhp and 443-lb-ft of torque. All the power and torque gets to the ground via an automatic-clutch manual transmission that looks for all the world like a normal automatic transmission with paddle shifters behind the wheel.

Nissan claims that the GT-R is capable of going from 0-60mph in a mere 3.5 seconds. I got into the showroom early Wednesday morning when the manufacturers were setting up the booths for the car unveilings and happened to get a look at the GT-R as Nissan booth workers were busy measuring off the exact place on the stage to place the GT-R. The car sat there idling for several minutes and the thing I noticed most was how quiet the GT-R is. There was no turbo whine; the GT-R was quiet. If I was blind I might think I was standing next to an Altima. I’m sure things get more melodic when you stand on the throttle.

See the hi-res photos here.