Nissan GT-R News

Nissan has debuted the updated GT-R Nismo at the New York motor show, with some mild tweaks that increase the performance car’s credentials.

Nissan and Italian automotive design studio Italdesign have confirmed the GT-R Nismo-based GT-R50 for production, with each of the bespoke supercar’s 50 units priced from €990,000 ($A1.57 million) before taxes ahead of deliveries starting next year.However, Nissan Australia said there are “no plans for this to come to Australia at the moment”, while no sales to date have been made to Australian buyers based overseas.First shown in prototype form at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July, the GT-R50 has lost little in its transition to production model, with buyers able to specify their own colour combinations inside and out in collaboration with Italdesign.The all-wheel drive GT-R50 takes the GT-R Nismo’s 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged V6 petrol engine and increase its outputs by about 89kW/118Nm, to 530kW/780Nm.These gains are thanks to competition-spec turbochargers, larger intercoolers, high-flow piston oil jets, revised camshaft profiles, high-flow fuel injectors, optimised ignition, and revised intake and exhaust systems.Other mechanical upgrades include a strengthened six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, continually adjustable suspension and Brembo brake calipers (six-piston front, four-piston rear).Longer, wider and lower, the GT-R50 features several unique exterior design elements that clearly identify it as a GT-R variant with a lot more flair, while its interior is no different.As reported, the GT-R50 celebrates the 50th anniversaries of the GT-R and Italdesign, which occur in 2019 and 2018 respectively.According to Nissan Motor Corporation global sportscar program director Bob Laishley, the GT-R50 has already delivered better-than-expected results for the Japanese brand."The reaction from Nissan fans around the world – and potential customers of the GT-R50 – has greatly exceeded our expectations,” he said."These 50 cars, which celebrate 50 years of the GT-R as well as 50 years of Italdesign, will be rolling tributes to Nissan’s engineering leadership and rich sports car heritage for a long time to come.”

The Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign will make its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed ahead of being put into limited-run production.

Nissan Australia managing director Stephen Lester has confirmed the company’s focus in Australia will move towards EVs and SUVs, having today announced Nissan will pull out of the Supercars championship at the end of 2018.Citing that there are “other priorities” and that “strategies have changed” for Nissan Australia, Lester said the brand will put the spotlight on positioning itself as a technology leader.“Since my arrival we’ve taken stock of the market and what the possibilities would be,” Lester said. “There are currently no plans to consider other vehicles for racing in Supercars. We have aligned our strategy to focus on EVs, SUVs and Nissan Intelligent Mobility.”The company had been umming and ahhing on the potential for cars like its Leaf EV to succeed in the local market, but Lester stated the Leaf will come here because “the product strategy continues to evolve”.“We will explore all opportunities - this is a fantastic brand of ours, and where we see products that we see fit for Australian consumers we will be more than happy to offer them in Australia,” Lester said.Whether that could mean the relaunch of a full range of passenger cars, rather than the pared back line-up of today which consists of several SUVs, the Navara ute range and two sports cars - the 370Z and GT-R - remains to be seen.The question was put to Lester as to whether the company is considering models such as the Micra, Pulsar and Altima for relaunch locally, but he wasn’t willing to state categorically what the plans are.“As product plans go, it is a fluid process. My personal direction is not to abandon passenger cars. And we will see the Nissan Leaf on sale later this fiscal year, and from that you can see we will bring passenger cars back to the market.“With all product decisions, we will entertain opportunities to bring those vehicles to market. Whether that means the new-generation Altima will come or not is yet to be confirmed.”The decision for Nissan to leave Supercars won't mean there won't be an Altima on the track next year. The Kelly Bros racing team will continue with the mid-sized Nissan sedan as its racer in 2019, but it won't be officially backed by Nissan.The Altima - like the Falcon and previous-gen Commodore - aren't available for consumers to buy anymore. Nissan put the axe to Altima in April 2017, as well as chopping the Pulsar from its ranks.

Nissan's push into electrification continues to gather pace with the launch not only of the new battery-only Leaf but further products using the company's e-Power platform.

Nissan has unveiled plans for a full NISMO assault on the Australian market, with as many as three performance-tuned models to launch locally in 2017.

Nissan's performance arm gets green light at long last for Australia, with $300k GT-R to launch in 2017.

Has the GT-R gone soft? The 2017 update gets more power and torque, but Nissan isn’t quoting performance figures.  Ever since the R33 GT-R V-Spec set a supercar-slaying sub-eight minute (7:59) lap of the Nordschleife circuit at the Nurburgring in 1996, one of the key success measures of a new GT-R has been how quick it could cover the infamous 20.8km track.The demonstrably faster R34 somehow avoided the ‘Ring rite of passage despite being developed there, but the original R35 stunned the world with a 7:29.03 lap time in 2008.  History suggests that Porsche was probably the most stunned, as the German brand bought their own R35 five months later and couldn’t manage anything quicker than a 7:54. The R35’s awesome dual-clutch transmission-enabled 0-100km/h time of 3.9 seconds added a second key metric to determine the scale of Godzilla’s fury. Successive updates knocked this figure down to an astonishing 2.7s for the 2013 model.The official Nurburgring times were whittled down to 7:26.70 in 2009, 7:24.22 in 2010 and 7:18.6 in 2012, before the balls-out 911 GT3-equivalent GT-R Nismo clocked the current best of 7:08.679 in 2013. After almost as many updates as its years on sale, the 2017 GT-R brings more power and torque than any non-NISMO before it, along with the most comprehensive overall refresh since 2007. But, there’s no mention of any lap times or acceleration figures in any of Nissan’s press materials. Visiting Australia for the 2017 GT-R’s Australian launch this week, GT-R Chief Product specialist and die-hard petrolhead Hiroshi Tamura wasn’t able to shed any light on these omissions either.   "I cannot say, we did not check," he told CarsGuide.com.au. This could be interpreted as a veiled admission of new model being slower than before, but widespread third-party testing will no doubt set the record straight. Our own Joshua Dowling recorded a 3.3s 0-100km/h figure at the 2017 GT-R’s international launch in Belgium, some 0.6s slower than the 2013 model’s 2.7s official time. Asked what is more important to 2017 GT-R owners than the Nurburgring and acceleration, Tamura-san highlighted one of our biggest criticisms of all R35s to date.  " too much rough, too much harsh, not good enough."And they were indeed quite rough-riding and noisy on all but the smoothest roads at slow speeds, with Autobot-esque mechanical noises often emanating from the complex dual-clutch transaxle beneath the rear end. The new model brings much more comfortable suspension (in regular and Comfort modes) and improved noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), with design benchmarks like enabling conversation between occupants at 300km/h. "In the past, the GT-R had a racy sound, but was rejected by 80 per cent ", Tamura-san said. The 2017 revisions deliver what Tamura-san describes as "the next premiumness", which he explains as "sophistication, but not just luxury, a solid feel.""Now selected noises are heard, we were not aiming for silence. With sports cars, there is always a tradeoff. A sports car needs some exciting notes for stimulation."Asked whether the GT-R needs to be more of a GT, or Grand Tourer for rapid long-distance travel, Tamura-san says GT-R "originated with GT, but with R", suggesting the GT-R isn’t about to lose its outright ‘Racer’ element of its name any time soon.  

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