Terrifying, enervating, sublime, engaging and motivating. These aren’t terms one might regularly associate with Nissan’s R35 GT-R, a car that’s as regularly maligned for its lack of feel and driver involvement as it is applauded for its stunning grip and incredible electronics. While the latest GT-R is a divisive car, it seems as if there’s a group of purists who want to put to rest all the misapprehensions about Japan’s legendary techno titan. That company is Litchfield, a UK-based tuning shop with plenty of expertise in turning a GT-R into something that will quickly and gratefully reshape the idea of Nissan’s flagship being a bland, uninvolving sports car.

American tuners have had their way with the GT-R’s engine, turning it up to quad-digit power figures gleefully and setting them up to dominate the 1320, and providing turnkey packages for the avid enthusiast. Litchfield has taken a different route with this machine, and developed not only the powerplant, but the stopping power and the handling balance as well.

The better part of five liters of displacement and huge turbos allow for big slides, even in fourth gear.

Understandably, marketing a factory car to the public with nearly 600 horsepower, Nissan made the GT-R reasonably docile with an extra helping of safe, predictable understeer. Once Litchfield got their hands on it, they aimed at sharpening the response from the front end so a talented driver would feel confident in chasing lower lap times. A custom set of Bilstein coilovers all around help give their Nissan the edgy handling fitting of a supercar, but regardless of the suspension setup, any car will tend to oversteer when the motor has been stroked to 4.6 liters and fitted with a pair of turbochargers from an Indycar.

That amount of grunt – somewhere in the 1,000 ponies-range – isn’t for the faint of heart. Even in the dry, traction in fourth gear is an issue, and that sizable engine means torque is developed across a wide powerband. Aiding that lightspeed acceleration is weight reduction – nearly 450 pounds of it – in the form of carbon doors and carbon wings. Bolt on a set of Alcon ceramic brakes, which are absolutely necessary at this point, and the GT-R really lives up to the hype that surrounded it before it made its way to American shores. However, it will require a cool $150,000 to take a donor GT-R to this level of insanity. Worth the expense? If it’s capable of terrifying seasoned racers, as seen here, we certainly think so.