Throw us the keys to any one of these two sports cars, and we will gladly take them for a very, very long spin without a second thought. And all for good reason.

While the GT-R has entered its fifth year in production, it doesn’t realty show its age in any other departments than the styling and the interior, which to be honest, wasn’t anything special to begin with.

In many ways, the GT-R was years ahead of the competition when it debuted in 2007, and let’s not forget, Nissan has been religiously tweaking and upgrading it every year.

The Porsche, on the other hand, is a brand new model that continues a tradition stretching back to the early 1960s.

In its latest iteration, it uses an entirely new platform, only the third since the 911’s inception in 1963, with the German automaker having introduced four models to date, the Carrera and Carrera S in rear- and all-wheel drive variants.

New it may be, but the Porsche 911 has already been compared against the similarly priced but much, much more powerful Nissan GT-R many times over the past months.

With this in mind, “Head 2 Head” assistant road test editor Carlos Lago teamed up with Motor Trend testing director Kim Reynolds to take a slightly different approach by comparing the models on a figure eight run and taking an in-depth look at the technologies featured on the two cars.

The vehicles in question are a 2013 Nissan GT-R, which as you probably know, makes 545-horses from its twin-turbo 3.8-liter V6 and the Porsche 911 Carrera S that drags around a flat-six with 400 ponies. In the U.S., the GT-R starts at $96,820 and the 911 Carrera S from $96,400, with both prices excluding destination and handling fees.

For those of you who want to watch a more traditional test between the same two cars, we’ve also added a second video with EVO’s Tiff Needell right below the break.

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