For decades, the Nissan Maxima was just a boring family sedan that was good for day-to-day duties, but slow and boring to drive. Things have changed in recent years.
The eighth-generation Maxima, which has been in production since 2015, is powered by a 3.5-liter, naturally aspirated V6 petrol engine delivering 300 hp and 261 lb-ft (354 Nm) of torque. That’s a pretty significant amount of power, especially when you consider that some of Japan’s most famous performance cars from the late 1990s and early 2000s had roughly the same, or less, power on tap.
To see how far performance has come in recent decades, Hoonigan lined up a Maxima against an R32-gen Nissan Skyline GT-R, a true icon of the JDM world. Whereas the Maxima has a CVT, the GT-R features a manual transmission. The GT-R is also all-wheel drive compared to front-wheel drive Maxima.
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In the two drag races held from a standing start, the classic GT-R claimed victory but only just. In fact, the second race was so close that the GT-R only managed to pull ahead of the Maxima in the final moments.
In order to give Nissan’s family sedan a better chance, one of the Hoonigan crew members jumped into the passenger seat of the GT-R. This third and final race was from 10 mph (16 km/h) and shockingly, it was the Maxima that won, pulling ahead of the GT-R and never relinquishing its lead.