Nissan GT-R GT1

The first roadgoing GT-Rs are just beginning to arrive in the UK, but you'll have to head to the car's homeland to find a race-spec version of the supercar. A total of four of these mad, bad Skylines are currently competing in in the GT500 class of Japan's Super GT series - the highest level of domestic motorsport it has. And tin-top race cars don't get much more extreme than this.

The 3.8-litre V6 has been enlarged to 5.5-litres, boosting the road car's output to 600bhp with 650Nm of torque. new for the 2009 season is the introduction of a paddle-shift gearbox, while enormous carbon-ceramic brake discs provide the stopping power. Gone too is the four-wheel drive setup, there's a lighter rear-wheel drive layout instead - helping to shave the kerbweight by 490kg to a featherlight 1,250kg.