The JRM GT23 is a road‑legal racer

That’s to say, a track car that doesn’t start with a road car that’s made hardcore. This is a racing car softened to be tolerable on the road. "The objective of the JRM GT23 project was always could we road legalise a GT-R GT3 race car,” said Elliot Dason-Barber, JRM Motorsport Technical Director.

“By making it friendly enough to be driven on the road, but competent enough that you receive a genuine flavour of a race car when you take it to the track.”

Under the bonnet is a familiar 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 engine, albeit sitting much further back and lower in the now rear-driven chassis and boosted to as much as 750PS (552kW). That power is put down via a specially-prepped six-speed sequential transmission.

With the lightweight that comes with a racing car basis, the GT23 achieves a power-to-weight ratio of over 500PS per tonne. It also features an innovative aerodynamics package that will be familiar to GT3 racing enthusiasts but taken to the next level. It’s described by JRM as “far more aggressive”.

A big difference between racing cars and road cars is their cabins. They’re certainly a bit rougher around the edges. What’s different here? Well, a layer of Alcantara adds a bit of a boujee feel in what is in effect a fully-stripped racing car cabin. A leather-lined, padded CarPlay-equipped cockpit, this certainly ain’t.

The project comes ten years on from the JRM team’s GT-R Nismo GT1 World Championship win and sixth-in-class finish in the LMP1 class at Le Mans. What’s the 23 in the GT23 name mean? Well, just 23 are going to be made. ‘Invitations to view’ the car are now available, if you’re interested.

So is it a proper racecar for the road? If you’re the kind of masochist that needs that experience, we’d argue it’s about as close as you’ll get. Even a Lanzante-converted McLaren P1 GTR didn’t technically start life as a homologated racing car. This GT-R is like if AF Corse road-converted a Ferrari 488 GT3. That sounds pretty epic to us.