5 VR38-Powered Cars That Aren’t An R35 Nissan GT-R

It may not have the status of the 2JZ or RB26, but Nissan’s VR38 engine has well and truly established itself as one of the finest bits of engineering to come from Japan.

Designed for, and used pretty much exclusively by, the R35 GT-R, the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 has gained a reputation for its brash nature and being able to take shedloads of modifications in its stride.

Note ‘pretty much’ in that last paragraph though, as the lump has found some other fascinating engine bays over the years.

Praga Bohema

While the R35 became known as nightmare fuel for mid-engined supercars, we do wonder what could’ve been had Nissan decided to mid-mount the VR38 into something.

We may never know, but courtesy of a Czech car manufacturer you’re probably not familiar with, we do have an idea.

This is the Praga Bohema, a £1m, sub-1 tonne road-legal track monster. It’s in production now, and Praga wants to make 89 of them – each with 700bhp extracted from the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6. That extra increase comes courtesy of UK tuner Litchfield, which knows a thing or two about high-power R35s.

Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge

Here in Europe, Infiniti’s legacy is one of a failed attempt at taking on Lexus courtesy of some drab tarted-up crossovers. It was no shock when they bailed on the UK and the rest of the continent in 2019.

It gave one ‘what if?’ in 2014 though – the Q50 Eau Rouge. It took the otherwise sedate saloon and shoehorned in the underpinnings of an R35 GT-R to create a potential BMW M5 killer. It even had the blessing of four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Sadly, it never made it beyond the concept stage despite some pretty positive reviews from the hard-to-please UK motoring media. It was deemed too costly at the time – although with hindsight, you do have to wonder if it could’ve had a halo saviour effect on the brand.

Renaultsport R.S. 01

The Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance hasn’t thrown up much excitement for us enthusiasts, in truth. It’s mostly helped the three develop crossovers together and in the case of Mitsubishi, offer up the laziest of rebadgings for its half-arsed modern European presence.

That mild rant aside, it has at least resulted in one pretty tantalising machine. The Renaultsport R.S. 01 was designed from the get-go as a racing car for a one-make series, using a bespoke carbon fibre monocoque and drawing power from a VR38.

Beyond its own series, the R.S. 01 made some brief appearances in GT3 racing including a crack at the N24, but never really left a mark. Still, a very cool bit of kit in isolation.

Nissan Juke R

We must admit, once we’d gone beyond the vomiting stage when the Nissan Juke was first released, we can’t say we ever wondered what it would be like with R35 GT-R running gear.

Fortunately, Nissan did. This led to the Juke R which, despite looking like the ungainly crossover, shared nothing with it beyond the bodywork and most of its interior.

Originally, the Juke R had 485bhp but clearly, that wasn’t enough. When the 2.0 came around, it arrived with a monstrous 600bhp. It never made series production but, apparently, Nissan quietly made two of them for one customer. We’ll be very, very intrigued to see if either ever comes up for sale.

GT300 Nissan Fairlady Z

The VR38 is no stranger to a race car, but its most intriguing use on the track is still on the go today.

Over in Japan’s wonderful Super GT series, a GT300-spec (the second-tier category in the series) Fairlady Z is running around with the 3.8-litre unit in place of the road car’s VR30 at the hands of privateer team Gainer.

A fun, somewhat related fact is that top-tier GT500 GT-Rs never ran the VR38 in all of its years. Instead, it ran a V8 in its early days and later a 2.0-litre four-pot. Keep that one in your mind for your next Super GT-themed pub quiz.