The motoring world is divided between those who have driven a Nissan GT-R and those who haven’t. My last ride in an equivalent  Nissan was in the old Skyline – a fearsomely quick supercar that was more bling than a rapper’s jewellery drawer.

In lots of ways, the GT-R is just a grown up version of that legendary Skyline. It boxes well above its weight but still has the visual appeal of a rusty Mondeo. In dark blue.

Whether anybody with £78,000 to spend on a car would choose the GT-R ahead of a Porsche 911, or even a secondhand Aston Martin, is debatable. I do know there are people out there who wear gold ID bracelets and insist on owning a personalised number plate.

On a racetrack the GT-R is quite simply, the best. However, if you have an ounce of aesthetic sensibility in your body, this is not the car to be seen in on the High Street.

I

‘ve been trying to add up how many test cars I have driven since 1984 – some 50 a year for 20 years = 1,000. Plus all the launches, track days and so on. In all that time, I’ve never driven anything as fast from the traffic lights as the GT-R.

Well, there was Damon Hill’s old Arrows F1 car but that wasn’t on the road. No amount of Ferrari or Aston Martin madness comes close to the shove in the back created by the Nissan.

I know that I would stain my driving license with points pretty swiftly if I owned a GT-R. It’s not just the 0-60mph dash in 2.8 seconds, the power just keeps on coming from the 3.8 bi-turbo.

But what makes the GT-R so remarkable is that is serves up all this grunt in a very civilised way. Although you are hurtling towards oblivion with just a blip of the right foot, the Nissan feels rock solid on the road. There are no pointless buttons to make the exhaust sound prettier, it’s not a luxurious gentleman’s club in the cabin and the GT-R doesn’t come with a handcrafted key fob make from virgin foreskin.

No, the GT-R is just very bloody fast and you should try and drive one before you die – even if it does return under 12mpg when angry…

Audi launched the original TT more than 15 years ago. Remember the fuss about the rear spoiler? Apparently, there were a couple of fatal accidents which were blamed on the car not sporting a wind-deflector on the boot. Without it the TT was allegedly unstable.

What happened next was a travesty. Audi allowed the profile of their beautiful coupe to be ruined by the ugliest lip spoiler you have ever seen. It looked like a spoiler that had been designed by a five-year-old with crayon and paper. No wonder later versions of the car had a pop-up version that discreetly tucked away when not needed…

It was the ugliest spoiler – until Nissan slapped a luggage rack on the back of the GT-R. Friends with a more artist eye have already commented on the whopping wing. It looks quite ridiculous and does nothing for the shape of the GT-R.

Of course, when you are travelling flat out at 195mph in the GT-R you might be grateful for a device that keeps the rear end firmly on the tarmac. But with all that other technology on board, I wonder why a pop-up spoiler wasn’t the order of the day…