‘That was my idea’: Godfather of the Nissan GT-R spills his secrets

The acronym 'JDM' gets thrown around in my generation a fair bit; it means Japanese Domestic Market but is commonly used as a blanket term to refer to Japanese-made cars.

It's hard to think of anything other than the two most mainstream Japanese sports cars when anyone blurts out 'JDM': the Toyota Supra and the Nissan GT-R.

The man behind the GT-R is Hiroshi Tamura. You can call him the Grandfather, Godfather, or Father of the GT-R, but the sentiment is the same no matter what you call him. He is the reason the car is what it is today.

RELATED: Video: A day with the man behind the Nissan GT-R

His resume includes the Skyline R33, Skyline R34, and R35 GT-R as Product Planning and Chief Product Specialist, where he essentially oversaw the projects and advocated for what the brand needed.

As easy as it would be to speak about the GT-R line up with Hiroshi for the entire day, in the words of George Harrison on The Simpsons, "It's been done". Instead, I wanted to dig deep into his life and how he got to where he is now.

Tamura is an eccentric man. From the outside he appears as a very serious person, but inside, he is someone who just wants to go fast and have fun, which was evident in his businessman suit paired with a pair of GT-R racing boots.

He was in Australia for the annual GT-R festival at Sydney Motorsport Park, where he got to see some of the fastest modified iterations of his creation battle it out down the quarter mile.

Our ride for the day was the new Nismo Z, which is important for Tamura as the Z34 platform was one of his last projects before he became a brand ambassador.

Considering I've never driven any of the new Z range, I grabbed the keys from Nissan Australia's PR man and ran to the driver's door.

Tamura, who has probably driven the Z about a million times, saw me run for the driver's door, looked and said, "I wanted to drive."

We compromised: I'd drive for half the day, and he'd drive for the next half.

Driving along at the speed limit in the new Nismo Z, I'm not able capitalise on the car's raw performance. Instead, we just cruised along, giving us a chance to get to know each other.

As a surprise to me, Tamura has just one car – a 441kW R32 Skyline GT-R that he has owned and modified since before starting in the GT-R department at Nissan.

Endearingly referred to as "my Buddy", it's not some monster-looking GT-R, just a very stock standard-looking Skyline with R34 GT-R wheels and a small 'Mid Night Club' sticker on the front bumper.

For those not in the know, the Mid Night Club is an underground high-speed club in Japan, known for hitting over 300km/h on public roads in the 1980s and '90s. It inspired the Wagan Midnight anime.

Although the sticker placement looks awfully similar to the R32 GT-R that the team featured in a number of different magazine pieces, when asked about it, Hiroshi simply said, "Haha, you know about Mid Night Club?".

Of course, not wanting to push him to reveal his life secrets, I left it at that, but considering his Instagram name sports the same 'Mid Night' tag there could be more to it.

"Buddy is not built for something like a time attack; it's how you can feel like it's an extension of me; that's my favourite part of a sports car," he says.

When asked what his favourite part of his R32 GT-R is, surprisingly, the answer wasn't that it had 800hp (588kW) at one point or even the 600hp (441kW) it has now.

"It's not about the power; it's about how it's delivered. It sounds strange to say, but even fuel economy, the way it delivers the power and fuel with the better moisture injectors from a seven-hole fuel injector from the R35, so why not use new technology?

"Newest is always the best answer for this kind of balance."

In the first 30 minutes, it became very clear that Hiroshi is not just a businessman in a suit; he genuinely loves cars, especially the Skyline. It was never about creating an amazing selling car but continuing the legacy of a legendary car, and it takes more than a businessman to do something like that.

We decided to chat further about his involvement in Nissan and why he went to Nissan in the first place.

"I found love for the Skyline GT-R when I was at Fuji Speedway in 1972. [It was] A Hakosuka (the original Skyline GT-R) with a screaming 2.0-litre DOHC which I found out, 'I have to go to Nissan to develop the Skyline'."

"After I started with Nissan in 1984, I always asked the boss 'I want to go for the Skyline team. Even, I want to go for Z team.' To create my idea of a Skyline or a Z."

But it wasn't as easy as working a few years at Nissan before Tamura got to create his vision with the GT-R; he spent a few years working with the lesser-known performance subsidiary, Autech.

But that didn't stop Tamura from inserting a Skyline into the mix with the R32 Autech Edition. The Autech R32 was a very limited edition four-door Skyline with a GT-R RB26 engine and four-wheel drive system. It was automatic and naturally aspirated, unlike the R32 GT-R with its twin turbos and manual-only gearbox.

"Ah, you know about that car? That was my idea," says Tamura.

"We were thinking about doing a 2.6-litre (RB26) single-turbo charger with two pedals, automatic. But that timing Nissan rejected because it was almost too close to the next R33 concept."

Regardless, Tamura finally reached his lifelong goal and joined the Skyline GT-R team in 1993, when the R33 GT-R was reaching the end of its concept period, still offering input into the model.

Where he got to flex the most of his power was during the development of the R34 GT-R, easily the most famous and recognisable car in the lineup thanks to its late burst to international stardom with the Fast and Furious movie franchise.

The R34 still had many of the core components featured on the R32 and R33 GT-R, such as a similar four-wheel drive setup, gearbox, and differential, as well as the same RB26DETT engine.

Hiroshi was tasked with creating an all-new model for the R35 GT-R, dropping the Skyline name, straight-six engine, and manual gearbox.
When asked why he made all of these decisions, he simply said, "I chose two pedals (automatic) because, from a human error standpoint, it's better than three pedals."

"For the V6, you cut off half the engine and move it back for better inertia; it's important for balance.

"I love an inline six; I love RB26; I even love the two-litre original Skyline Hakosuka. The scream of an inline six, high pitch, is such a nice sound. It's exhaust note, don't say noise, it is music.

"I really wanted to keep the inline six for the sound but it was just impossible. I wanted the balance, so I selected the V6. It's a misleading point to say inline-six is a good sound and V6 is a bad sound. Sound was still very important to us."

Of course, I am dying to know which generation of Skyline Hiroshi favoured. When Nissan's PR asked, Hiroshi simply replied, "Do you have kids? Which one is your favourite?"

After holding up my end of the deal, Tamura got an opportunity to play Uber driver as I retreated into the passenger seat. I finally had the opportunity to ask him how he got the job that every young car enthusiast dreams of.

"Enjoyment and struggle are the same keywords for me. I know people don't want to struggle, but life itself is already a struggle. It's important to keep your passion and energy as much as possible and direct it towards something you want, like a sports car.

"In this life, I chose to pursue the sports car; I feel like I didn't have any choice because I selected the sports car.

"Life is short, but life is also long. How can you reach your goals or set your own target? Everything will work. My own experience is what kind of target you can set up in your own life. You need to set out some contents, lay it out page by page and ask what should I need to do before then.

"When I was a kid, I said, 'I want to make a sports car.' Nissan told me, 'No, we cannot do that,' but I was keen, and due to my strong mentality, some day, my dreams came true.

"My point is that you need to decide on your life target. If it fails in the future, don't regret it. Regret is the most dangerous keyword in your life. Of course, you can regret, but you don't need to. Life has so many branches and so many directions you can take. Some parts we just need to accept.

"I selected this direction. It's not perfect, but I'm still happy. How you can enjoy your life is the most important point for me. Because of the sports car, I can now relate to so many friends.

"It's not just a machine; it's a relationship. People love the GT-R, and since it was my project, I'm already happy."

With that, we finally shut off the cameras so Tamura could enjoy the Nismo Z and we could go back to chatting casually.

He enjoys cars and travelling, and as he slows his life down in his new role, you can see his love and appreciation for Nissan.

Even though he had probably driven the Nismo Z  a million times before anyone else in the world, he was still driving it like you'd just handed him the keys for the first time, stabbing it off every set of traffic lights as he giggled taking the tachometer up to redline.

His wisdom may have confused me a touch, but I somewhat understand the sentiment that if you want to be great, no university degree or set path is going to land you your job – just struggle and determination.

Hiroshi Tamura is a bit of a strange guy, but that's a good thing; no one who makes some of the coolest cars in the world is boring.