There are only a handful of vehicles in existence that can change you permanently – ones that have the power to rewire your concept of speed to fit their definition. Some five years after the Nissan GT-R legally touched down here in the US for the first time, the coupe is still bending perceptions of what it means to be a supercar in the modern age. For 2014, engineers reworked the GT-R’s twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 engine for more power, tweaked the transmission and massaged the suspension for ever more speed. Yes, that’s right, I said more speed.

The changes have sharpened one of the best performance buys on the market into a weapons-grade track assault vehicle that just so happens to be street legal. More than ever, this is a car that rankles established supercar players with names like Lamborghini, Ferrari and Porsche, and does so with a Nissan badge on the hood.

Aesthetically, the GT-R hasn’t changed all that much since the car first bowed, but that doesn’t stop onlookers from busting out their cell-phone cameras at every stop light. I’ve had the pleasure of driving some incredibly expensive and rare vehicles, and none have courted attention the way the 2013 Nissan GT-R does. The car is still downright stunning, and in the flesh, there’s no avoiding just how much gravity this thing generates. With all of its weight thrown down low into those wide front fenders and a flared tail end, the GT-R has all the pull of a neutron star. The car rolls down the freeway cocooned in an orbiting cloud of eyeballs.

And much of that draw comes from how clearly the GT-R communicates its purpose. Those chunky, 20-inch RAYS forged aluminum rollers look built to turn the weighted wheels of time, and the gleaming bronze six-piston Brembo monoblock calipers up front peek through the spokes to hint at industrial levels of brake force. The front rotors are a batty 15.35-inches across and 1.28-inches thick. Out back, engineers fitted the GT-R with four-piston Brembo monoblocks that squeeze 15-inch discs. It’s the kind of hardware you need to repeatedly bring a 3,829-pound missile down from speed.