Who would have thought that the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 engine for the Nissan GT-R is painstakingly assembled by hand? And only five individuals are certified by Nissan to this, a labour of love that earns them the title of ‘Takumi’, or master craftsman.
Why? For maximum performance and greatest quality. As you can see in the video below, each Takumi is trained to ‘feel’ minute details as they put the engine together; something that machines would not be able to do.
In fact, to ensure the performance of such an amazing piece of engineering expected to perform just as well on city streets as it does on a racing track, the Takumis rely on their senses quite unexpectedly. For example, they asses if there is any contaminant on the pistons by listening to the sound it produces as it is hammered into the cylinder block.
Also, they physically touch the engine as it is run on a dyno at 3000rpm, trying to assess the vibration produced and then grading it. We don’t know about you but that’s incredible.
