ImportJap.com is no longer avail­able at http://www.importjap.com/blog, instead we’ve moved to just http://www.importjap.com, and removed the old forum. Please update your book­marks, and don’t worry, old links will still work fine.

We’ve also got a brand new design com­ing shortly and a few long awaited suprises!

We’ve been con­tin­u­ously hacked, and in a turn of bad luck com­pletely removed from Google for hav­ing spam inserted yes­ter­day before any of us could remove it and fix it. 8 hours grace since inser­tion, and with no warn­ing of removal is a harsh call, Google, very harsh. How a major search engine can pun­ish us with­out warn­ing, due to the actions of mali­cious web users is unbe­liev­able, hardly fair and not war­ranted, but these are the breaks.

In light of this, we are mov­ing from Word­press to Dru­pal, throw­ing up a new theme and get­ting a good makeover. The update will take a few weeks to do, but we’ll be back. If there’s any­thing your par­tic­u­larly want to see on the site, feel free to send us a suggestion!

In the mean­time we’ll con­tinue to post if we’re able.

To all loyal and new vis­i­tors, thankyou for your con­tin­ued patronage!

Accord­ing to Pres­tige Motor­sport, the new R35 GT-​​R can now be imported legally under SEVS!

How­ever, com­pli­ance is as far as 12 months away (2009), and prices are expected to exceed AU$100,000 for the new Nis­san super­car. Regard­less, this is a big fist in the eye of Nis­san Aus­tralia, as enthu­si­asts will now be able to grab the new car directly from the JDM with­out Nis­san Australia’s interference!

[Source: Pres­tige Motor­sport]

A crawl of the blo­gos­phere brings this awe­some video of the Nis­san GT-​​R doing the Nur­bur­gring in just 7:38, 2 sec­onds ahead of it’s 380KW Ger­man rival, the Porsche 911 Turbo. What a week it’s been for the new GT-​​R!

What’s also cool about this, is theres an inside view! Check it out below.

And while you’re doing so, com­pare that lap time to these:

• 7:38 — Nis­san GT-​​R, 480PS/​1720kg, 26,600 Meter Timging Sep­tem­ber 2007
• 7:40 — Porsche 997 Turbo 480PS/​1565 kg Wal­ter R�hrl
• 7:40 — Mercedes-​​Benz SLR McLaren, 626PS/​1768 kg Klaus Lud­wig (Auto­Bild 07/​04)
• 7:40 — Bugatti Vey­ron 16/​4, 1001PS/​1888 kg (Wheels mag­a­zine Aus­tralia, 12/​05)
• 7:41 — Man­they Porsche GT3 M410, 413 PS/​1320 kg (160.868 km/​h), Lucas Luhr (Auto­bild 07/​04)
• 7:42 — Porsche 997 GT3, 415 PS/​1440 kg, Wal­ter R�hrl (Auto­mo­bil 05/​06)
• 7.42 — Corvette Z06 (Jan Magnussen)[2]
• 7:42 — Ford GT, 550 PS/​1521 kg (as indi­cated by Octane mag­a­zine, 11/​05) (news release, pictures)
• 7:43 — Lam­borgh­ini Mur­cielago (Auto­car mag­a­zine 02)
• 7:44 — Pagani Zonda S 550 PS/​1280 kg (sport auto 02/​05) 7:46 — Porsche 996 GT2, 462 PS/​1450 kg (sport auto 06/​01)
• 7:46 — Jaguar XJ220, 3.5-litre V6, John Neilsen.
• 7:47 — Porsche 996 GT3 RS (sport tyres) [cita­tion needed]
• 7:47 — Fer­rari 599 GTB Fiorano,620PS/1690 kg (sport auto)
• 7:47 — Lam­borgh­ini Mur­cielago LP640 E-​​gear (sport tyres) (sport auto 01/​07)
• 7:48 — Porsche 997 GT3, 415 PS/​1440 kg (sport auto 07/​06)
• 7:49 — Hel­mut D�hne, Honda VFR750R

[More times here]

[Source: Youtube via Autoblog]

Yes, for the first time, the Nis­san GT-​​R will be sold directly into Australia!

As con­firmed on CarAd­vice, Nis­san Australia�s boss Shinya Han­nya has said that all strings will be pulled to get the GT-​​R dow­nun­der before 2009 (We cer­tainly hope so, but we’re look­ing for more like 2008, Mr Han­nya!). No other infor­ma­tion on localised spec­i­fi­ca­tions (if any are in the works) are cur­rently available.