IN THIS FEATURE Waiting patiently Flatters the average driver A road-legal race car Devastatingly capable There's always a catch isn't there?

Nissan's last-generation Skyline GT-R R34 was a driver's car of quite stupendous ability. When it went out of production in 2002, it left a very large hole in the high-performance stratosphere, one which the faithful have been waiting patiently for Nissan to fill.

That car will, eventually, be the GT-R that we first saw at Tokyo Motor Show 2005.

A 911-grade experience

But it's been a long time coming, so Nissan - quite rightly - felt the need to remind people of just what it is they've been missing. More significantly, this limited edition Skyline could also be Nissan's way of telling the faithful that the GT-R - which won't be with us until 2007 - will not forget its performance heritage.

So what, exactly, have we been missing? Well, I spent a lot of time behind the wheel of the last Skyline and can reliably report that it was a Porsche 911-grade experience - which is to say fantastically good.