The Nissan GT-R and Italdesign are each celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. As a result, the two decided to celebrate by collaborating on a project, namely the design of a unique version of the Japanese manufacturer's famous car.
Dubbed GT-R50, the work is a perfect representation of the sports car's spirit and showcases the talent that abounds within Italdesign's team of stylists.
However, before going any further, let's make it immediately clear that the unveiled car is not a preview of the next-generation GT-R. This was specifically mentioned by Nissan design boss Alfonso Albaisa, who described the sports car as a GT-R without limits.
“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 coach building,” he said.
It was Nissan's team that drew the interior and exterior lines of this GT-R50. Italdesign's mission was to bring them to life. Among the notable differences from the production model, we note the presence of a golden inner rim that extends over nearly the entire width of the front of the vehicle. The hood has a more pronounced power bulge, however, and the thin LED headlights stretch from the wheel arches to the edge that hangs over the air intakes.
To give the car a sleeker look, the roof was lowered by about 5 cm. In the rear, the gold accents are ubiquitous, serving to enhance the car's muscularity. The rear window line, meanwhile, extends further down on this concept than it does on the production version.
Unique 21-inch wheels wearing Michelin Pilot Super Sport wheels complement the spectacular visual looks of this special edition.
Under the hood, performance was substantially boosted. For example, the well-known 3.8-liter V6 twin-turbo engine now boasts 710 hp and 575 lb-ft of torque. That's 110 hp and 94 lb-ft more than the GT-R's NISMO variant.
Powertrain has been upgraded, including the six-speed manual gearbox that equips this beast.
If you are in Europe this July, you can see it's official debut. No doubt, we will have the opportunity to see it elsewhere, at a later date; at least we hope so.
As for the next generation of the GT-R, while we know that this is not a preview, we can hope that it will inspire ideas for future generations.
Mechanically, at the very least, we would not object.