Italian design and engineering company Italdesign recently announced a unique Nissan GT-R to celebrate its 50th anniversary, which happens to coincide with that of the Nissan GT-R! The prototype vehicle is based on a production 2018 Nissan GT-R NISMO.
The collaboration seems unlikely considering that Italdesign is currently owned by Lamborghini, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The prototype is called the Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign and it is the companies first ever collaboration.
The car was developed, engineered and built by Italdesign using designs created at Nissan Design Europe in London and Nissan Design America. It uses a golden inner element at the front which is replicated across the side of the vehicle (via the wheel vents) and through to the rear. The gold elements are even included in the interior.
The front hood gets a bigger power bulge and thin LED headlights. The roofline sits 54 millimetres lower with a tapered shoulder line which tapers around the base of the rear window. The tailpipes are new, as is the large adjustable rear wing.
21 inch wheels have been designed exclusively for this car. It gets a Liquid Kinetic Gray paint and Energetic Sigma Gold accents. Inside, two different carbon fibres have been used todether with Alcantara and black leather. The steering wheel is bespoke and features a flat bottom.
NISMO have fettled the 3.8 litre V6 engine to produce 720 hp and 780 Nm of torque. It gets GT3 competition-spec turbochargers, larger intercoolers, a strengthened crankshaft, pistons, connecting rods and bearings and a bespoke exhaust system among other components. It uses a dual clutch sequential six speed transmission.
Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan’s senior vice president for global design said: “How often do you get to ask, ‘What if we created a GT-R without limits,’ and then actually get to build it? This is a rare window in time when two big moments intersect: 50 years of Italdesign shaping the automotive world and 50 years of Nissan generating excitement through our iconic GT-R. So to celebrate this convergence, Nissan and Italdesign created this custom GT-R to mark 50 years of engineering leadership. Although this is not the next-generation GT-R, it is an exciting celebration of two anniversaries in a provocative and creative way – wrapping one of Nissan’s best engineering platforms and Japanese design with Italian coachbuilding.”
