Nissan donates GT-R police car to Japanese police force

Nissan has a pretty cool history of building police cars for Japanese police departments. There have been Silvia cop cars, black and white Fairlady Zs and, of course, Skylines. Some of those Skylines were the four door sedan models, but there have also been GT-R versions for catching particularly quick crooks. Now, the tradition continues as the Tochigi Prefecture police department has received the first R35 GT-R police car in the country. It's no coincidence that it was the Tochigi Prefecture police department that received the GT-R, either. Tochigi is where the GT-R is made, and the factory there just turned 50 years old.

Although the R35 GT-R has also been in production for over a decade now, its powertrain is still respectable at 565 horsepower. Combined with its all-wheel-drive, the GT-R sounds like a serious police cruiser. The light bar will probably knock a few miles off the top speed, though. Even so, we bet the GT-R Police Special doesn't have the 180 km/h (112 mph) speed limiter that its civilian counterparts in Japan have. As such it should still be one of the fastest machines on Japanese public streets.

The GT-R will also be used for public relations work in the community, so it's not just about catching speeders – even though the officers are reportedly very excited about the car. We, and surely the officers, are glad the new police car wasn't a special edition Leaf.