Nissan has finally pulled the kill switch on the GT-R after 18 years, and what a story it leaves behind. When it launched in 2007, the GT-R was hailed as the Porsche 911 killer—an engineering monster that rewrote performance car rules. But the fairy tale never quite had its happy ending. The 911 was never dethroned, and over the years the GT-R went from being the bargain supercar slayer to costing as much as the very rival it was meant to embarrass. By the time the GT-R Nismo rolled out at over £259,000, Nissan had lost the plot.

I’ve driven the 911 GT3, and here’s the truth: nothing else matches its surgical precision. The GT-R was meant to be sharper, faster, better—but it never quite reached that summit. Yet, ironically, Porsche owes the GT-R a thank you. It was Nissan’s monster that forced Stuttgart to up its game, and Porsche did so brilliantly—while Nissan stumbled.

The downfall came as predictably as gravity. Costs spiralled, demand shrank. In the U.S., Nissan sold 1,730 GT-Rs in 2007; in 2024, just 256. Meanwhile, Porsche moved over 14,000 911s in 2024. The scoreboard is brutal: the GT-R was crushed by the 911 both on track and in the marketplace.

The GT-R was once the giant killer, but in the end, it became the giant that fell. Yes, its engineering was sensational—arguably superior to the 911 in places. But the 911 carried something the GT-R could never conjure: timeless refinement, aura, heritage. That intangible magic.

And so, the GT-R wasn’t beaten by Porsche. It was beaten by itself.