IRENE - Jolanda van Onselen has been elected to chair the  GTR and Z club for 2026, the only officially sanction Nissan fan club in Africa. She will be assisted by Poppie Potgieter as treasurer, Nic Nomicos in charge of events, Tim Pillay as registrar and Kevin Britz on social media.

The elections took place at the club’s annual general meeting, which was hosted for the first time at Nissan South Africa’s head office in Pretoria.

The club, established 20 years ago, is for owners of the iconic Nissan GTR and Z models with a number of events scheduled every year to allow members to meet as well as put their prized vehicles to the test from a skid pan day at Redstar to the SAES nine hour endurance race at Kyalami’s grand prix circuit and other track days at Zwartkops and Kyalami. The group is made up of owners of either the Nissan GT-R or the Z series.

The Z series began life in 1969 as the Nissan Fairlady Z, becoming the Nissan 300ZX, the Nissan 350Z and finally the Nissan 370 Z, while the Nissan GT-R was launched in South Africa in 2008, less than a year after it was first revealed at the Tokyo Auto Show in Japan.

Code-named the R35, this model redefined high-performance motoring a 3.8 litre front-mounted biturbo V6 and a rear-mounted dual-clutch transmission system that powered all four wheels.

The first models had over 470 horsepower (353 kW), but this was gradually increased to a peak of 550 Nm (408 kW) in the 50th Edition models of 2019. At the same time, this supercar's 0-100 km/h acceleration was improved from 3,2 seconds to 2,7 seconds, a feat which has only been beaten by a handful of super and hyper cars since.

It was this incredible performance that made the Nissan GT-R one of the most popular race cars in South African motorsport, especially the Simola Hillclimb in Knysna. In this format of racing, the Nissan GT-R won nine King of the Hill titles, more than any other marque.

In South Africa, over 500 Nissan GT-R models were sold before it was officially discontinued in 2022, making the Nissan R35 GT-R one of the most popular supercars in local history.

“We are diehard fans of this incredible automotive brand and especially these models,’ says Van Onselen, “what makes us unique is that we are the only Nissan club in the country to have be recognised by Nissan and in fact we had to get official permission from Japan for our club logo.”

For years, the club would hold its meetings at the old head office in Rosslyn, but this had fallen away after COVID, with this year marking a triumphant return to the home of the brand for the club, she said.

Nissan Africa head of communications, brand and customer experience Ramy Mohareb said it any brand would be fortunate to have a group of owners with the kind of passion that the GTR and Z Club of South Africa had for Nissan.

“Both the Nissan GTR and the Z are fantastic examples of the high tech innovation, performance and daring that has run through Nissan since its inception more than 90 years ago and we are looking forward to working closely with the GTR and Z Club in the coming years.”

The club, which is based in Gauteng, is currently exploring ways of creating a Cape and Eastern Cape chapter. If you would like to know more about the GTR and Z Club – or becoming part of it, please write to the chair, Jolanda van Onselen at [email protected] or visit https://gtr-zclub.co.za/