End of the Line for the Nissan GT-R

 

Fifteen years is an incredibly long time in the car world. For mainstream cars, where consumer tastes and technologies change at breakneck pace, keeping the same car on sale without major updates for that long would be suicide. Supercars operate on a slightly different timetable. Models from Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Aston Martin are sold in small numbers, so redesigns on a regular basis can be costly to implement. The Nissan GT-R may come from a mainstream brand, but its performance figures put it squarely against competitors from boutique manufacturers. On sale in the United States since the 2009 model year, 2024 will be the last chance for Americans to buy a GT-R before it is finally retired.

To understand the car that enthusiasts refer to as Godzilla, you first must turn your mind back to the year 2007. The R35 Nissan GT-R entered the automotive world at the Tokyo Motor Show that year with an asteroid-sized impact and sent shockwaves through the automotive landscape. 

Styling-wise, there was and still is nothing else like it. Four round taillights harken back to previous Skyline GT-Rs. But a gaping grille, swept back headlights, bulging wheel arches, and angular body lines made the GT-R look more like a jet fighter than a car. Inside the car, the driver and passengers could keep track of various metrics such as coolant and oil temperatures, g-forces, boost pressure and other engine parameters through a central touchscreen with graphics made by the same company behind the Gran Turismo video games. 

But the real meat of the GT-R story lies in its numbers. Courtesy of a twin turbocharged 473 horsepower V6, a sophisticated all-wheel drive system, and a six-speed dual-clutch transmission, 0-60 miles per hour arrived in 3.3 seconds and a quarter mile took only 11.5 seconds to cover at 124 mph. A stock GT-R ran around the famous Nürburgring racecourse in seven minutes and 29 seconds. Notably, all of these stats bested those of the Porsche 911 Turbo with an MSRP nearly double the GT-R’s $70,475 price tag. Few if any other cars before the GT-R made going so fast so easy for so little money.

Rolling updates kept the GT-R competitive with its contemporaries over the years. Power and torque increased gradually to its current state of 565 horsepower and 467 pound-feet. 0-60 dropped to 2.9 seconds. A hardcore NISMO model arrived in 2015 with more than 600 horsepower. Chassis and suspension refinements addressed concerns of the car not being involving enough to drive.

Unfortunately for Nissan, while its engineers were improving the GT-R, the engineers at other carmakers were busy working on their own sports cars. In the fifteen years the GT-R has been on sale in its current iteration, Chevrolet has developed two generations of Corvettes cumulating with the current mid-engine C8. Porsche has likewise gone through two generations of 911s. The current 911 Turbo S offers near-Bugatti level performance (0-60 in 2.1 seconds) for a relative fraction of the price.

Speaking of price, MSRP for 2024 GT-Rs have risen consistently over the years to just under $123,000. That’s a heavy sum for a car that on the outside hasn’t changed much in fifteen years. It also hasn’t changed much on the inside either. The GT-R still makes due with an 8-inch touchscreen in a world where 10 inches or more is the norm in everything from compact sedans on up. And those Gran Turismo mimicking performance readouts that captivated car geeks remain carbon stamped in the PlayStation 3 era. Interior materials on early cars probably would be best described as adequate for a car costing a little less than $100,000. While quality has gone up somewhat as the GT-R solidly breached the six figure threshold, you can still find richer materials in Audi, Porsche and Mercedes sports cars costing similar amounts of money.

Then there’s the way the GT-R drives. It still does a fantastic job of making a novice driver feel like a racing champion, but the march of powertrain technology has ironed out a lot of the kinks that are still experienced when driving a GT-R. Back in 2008, there weren’t many other turbocharged V6 all-wheel drive supercars. Nowadays, forced induction is nearly ubiquitous, engines are downsizing, and many supercars also have electric components to smooth out and increase power delivery. Nissan rewrote the performance rulebook with the GT-R all those years ago, but everyone from Porsche, to Chevrolet, to McLaren, to Ferrari have been making amendments ever since. Driving a GT-R today means putting up with turbo whooshes and transmission clunks that have mostly been bred out of fast cars.

It's unclear what the future holds for the next generation GT-R, if there even is one at all. No doubt electric power will play a factor. A recent concept car called Hyper Force may offer a clue as to what a new GT-R could look like. In addition to active aero elements, the Hyper Force has a full electric drivetrain with dual motors and a sold state battery pushing out more than 1,000 horsepower.

While we wait for whatever comes next, we will continue to celebrate all that the R35 GT-R accomplished over its lifetime. It pioneered or was one of the early adopters of go-fast technology that is taken for granted in most modern supercars. It’s been immortalized in popular culture both in its home market of Japan and abroad. It is unquestionably the vehicular Godzilla.

Wish Granted? The Fairly OddParents Return in a New Series

Few animated children's shows last for more than a few seasons. Even fewer spawn a franchise of follow-ups and spin-offs that lasts for decades. The Fairly OddParents is one of those exceptional shows that managed to do just that. 

The series originated from shorts created by animator Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon. Due to their popularity, the shorts were green-lit to become a half-hour series, which premiered on March 30, 2001. The Fairly OddParents received critical acclaim and quickly became the second-highest-rated children's program on both network and cable television behind another Nickelodeon property, SpongeBob SquarePants. Key to the show's success was an intriguing premise - a lonely and bullied boy named Timmy Turner is given a pair of fairy godparents named Cosmo and Wanda to help make him happier by granting him wishes, slick animation, and a bevy of jokes and pop culture references that appealed to children and their parents in equal measure.

Originally scheduled to end on November 25, 2006 after five seasons and 80 episodes, the series was revived in 2008 for an additional five seasons. New characters were added to the main cast to generate fresh interest, including a baby fairy named Poof in season six, a fairy dog named Sparky in season nine, and a girl named Chloe with whom Timmy must share his fairies in the tenth and final season. Amidst all that, three live action television films based on the series were made. These films featured a now adult Timmy Turner played by actor Drake Bell. Production of The Fairly OddParents ceased permanently after Hartman left Nickelodeon in February 2018. It remains Nickelodeon's second longest running animated show, once again behind SpongeBob SquarePants.

It's impossible to talk about The Fairly OddParents without bringing up a certain yellow sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea. The fact of the matter is that SpongeBob SquarePants, released all the way back in 1999, set a Mt. Everest-high bar that every animated Nickelodeon series has been measured against ever since. Out of everything produced over the last quarter of a century, The Fairly OddParents is the only show that has come close to matching SpongeBob's critical and commercial success.

L-R: Wanda, Timmy Turner, and Cosmo from the original series.

That is why Nickelodeon has tried constantly to keep the property alive. The first attempt to revitalize the franchise came in May 2022 with the release of the hybrid live action / animated series The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder. Picking up years after the original series, the new series followed Timmy's cousin, Vivian "Viv" Turner, and her stepbrother, Roy, as they navigate life with the help of Cosmo and Wanda, who are gifted to them by a now older Timmy. Fairly Odder debuted on the streaming service Paramount+ with thirteen episodes over a single season. Reviews were fairly lackluster, with criticism aimed at the acting, cheap production, and creative limitations imposed by the live action setting. In January 2023, the series was removed from Paramount+ and Nickelodeon's official website.

Now in 2024, Nick is trying again, this time going back to full animation, albeit 3D computer generated animation, with The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish. Cosmo and Wanda are now responsible for granting the wishes of a ten-year-old girl named Hazel, who is feeling lonely and unsure of herself after moving to a new city and being without her older brother who left to start college. A trailer shown ahead of the series premiere seems to capture the manic spirit of the original in a way that Fairly Odder simply could never replicate.

It can be argued that the Fairly OddParents franchise has run its course and effort should be made on producing something new and unique instead of retreading old ground. Unfortunately, the greater good rarely outweighs studio executives' self interests and they tend to stick with what works. The Fairly OddParents, together with SpongeBob and Rugrats, make up Nickelodeon's crown jewels. Networks generally aim to strike a balance between airing reruns of popular shows to generate consistent revenue and investing in new shows to attract additional viewers and advertisers. Sometimes the easiest way to do both is to reboot existing franchises so that audiences get something new with characters and themes they recognize from their past.

The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish will premiere on May 20, 2024 at 4:30 PM EST on Nickelodeon.

Stylish and Tech-Savvy 2025 Kia K4 Debuts

Kia unveiled its replacement for the Forte compact sedan at the 2024 New York Auto Show today. Now christened K4, the new name brings Kia's smallest model's nomenclature in line with the midsize K5 sedan. Armed with an expressive new design and a plethora of standard and available features, the K4 reaffirms Kia's commitment to the compact sedan market as more automakers turn their focus to SUVs and electric vehicles.

"2023 was the biggest year yet for Kia with growth across our entire lineup," said Eric Watson, Vice President of Sales Operations for Kia America. "Simply put, customers are truly excited about our products, and we're ready to give them more of everything they love about Kia. While others continue to retreat from the ICE compact sedan segment, our entry was Kia's second best selling model last year, and its market share has more than doubled since 2018."

Kia's tiger nose grille now plays with the company's latest design language called "Opposites United," which Head of Kia Design, Karim Habib, claims gives the K4 a confident and technical impression. The K4 sports a radically sculpted body incorporating a steeply raked roofline and rear door handles integrated into the C-pillar. T-shaped headlights give the K4 familial resemblance to other recently redesigned Kia models such as the K5, Sorento, and Carnival.

Inside, the K4 dashboard has been upgraded to a full digital display. Two 12.3 inch screens handle gauge cluster and central infotainment functions. A small 5 inch screen between them operates the climate controls. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are now standard after requiring wired connection on some Forte models. Other available features usually seen on more expensive cars but rare to find in mainstream compact sedans include a panoramic sunroof, an available 360-degree surround view monitor and an available blind-spot view monitor that displays a live video feed of left and right blind spots in the gauge cluster. Kia also touts the availability of a voice assistant on higher trim levels to help the driver adjust climate controls and audio settings. Furthermore, certain models will be able to receive over the air updates, allowing owners to download available digital features and services.

Powertrains remain unchanged from the Forte with a 147-hp 2.0-liter inline-four powering lower trim levels. The top trim Forte GT has been replaced with the K4 GT-Line Turbo. Although it uses the same 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-four, horsepower drops from 201 to 190. This may be due to a switch to a conventional torque-converter eight-speed automatic transmission in place of the Forte GT's six-speed manual and seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. No fuel economy figures have been unveiled yet.

The 2025 K4 also marks the return of a 5-door hatchback after the Forte became sedan only in 2019. By offering two body styles, Kia will be able to better compete with compact cars such as the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, and Mazda 3. More details about the hatchback will be available at a later date.

The Kia Forte is one of the most affordable new car models left on sale with base prices starting around $21,145 and fully loaded versions topping out at less than $28,000. Forte owners have come to appreciate their cars' affordability, sharp styling, roomy interior, and plentiful standard and optional features. No doubt, they should expect more of the same with the new K4. 2025 K4s are expected to arrive in dealerships in the fourth quarter of this year.