The Nissan GTR‑50 will be built – for £1million each

What we didn’t perhaps expect is just how close the 50 customer cars would stay to the prototype that blasted up the Goodwood hill at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard. Lower, sharper and with colour-contrasting nose and tail sections, the ultimate Godzilla carries with it all the drama of the concept in a shape that’s clearly familiar GT-R but reimagined to be edgier than ever. It is “virtually unchanged” from the prototype, says Nissan.

If you thought the FOS car’s grey body with contrasting gold nosecone and rear deck was a little bling fear not, for Nissan is promising that each of the 50 owners can choose any colour combination they like. The first GT-R50 by Italdesign, as it is badged, features a blue/metallic grey combo, and no gold. All the body panels, including the 54mm lower roofline, are believed to be bespoke and in carbon-fibre, with carbon in the cabin, too, helping explain the price of €990,000 plus tax, or £1.06million on the road in the UK.

Staying true to the concept, the GT-R50 is based on the latest GT-R Nismo but with a reworked 720PS (710bhp) version of the twin turbo 3.8-litre V6 complete with GT3 competition-spec turbochargers and larger intercoolers. The six-speed dual-clutch auto has been beefed up for the job, as has been the suspension.

As Nissan design head Alfonso Albaisa says (see interview below), the first-time collaboration with Italdesign began as a way of marking the VW-owned design house’s 50^th anniversary and also the half century of the GT-R nameplate. Although the car was designed by Nissan, Italdesign engineered and developed it and, it is thought, will build it in Italy. The 50 owners around the world can expect delivery in 2019-20 says Nissan. 

And what of a new series production GT-R? Here’s what Alfonso Albaisa told us in the summer:

If this isn’t the new GT-R, when do we see the next-gen car? The current model is 11 years old already and the programme to replace it must be very advanced?

We are still thinking about what that [the next GT-R] means. We are thinking about all our sportscars. We also have a Z car by the way. We don’t have a plan yet but obviously our muscles are warm because you can see a car like the GT-R50 by Italdesign here at Goodwood. The GT-R is part of our company… people come to work at Nissan because of the GT-R.

How did this collaboration between Nissan and Italdesign begin?

Very strangely to be honest. Italdesign reached out to us – I was flattered. They had just done the Zerouno and asked us if we had something we could work together over. We said, how about the GT-R?

Where was the design done?

In Nissan studios in London and in California. They had a bake-off. The hardest part was controlling them. Usually when we have a design competition we have 20 concepts. This time it was a roomful of dreams that just exploded on to paper. It was quite impressive.

What did the GT-R engineers make of it?

I wanted the project to celebrate all the engineers who have done so much for the GT-R. They are all like mad scientists. I don’t want to say they are odd because that can be taken negatively. But they are unusual. Everything to them is about horsepower and speed and they are relentless in searching for it. I don’t think they are human.

What do you like most about the car?

I really love the sense of the edge. In Japan there is an expression “the cutting edge of the everyday” and Nissan is very much about everyday life. The GT-R is not quite everyday but if you can represent the most modern object in this cutting edge way, then that is what Nissan is about.

Are there design elements here that will appear in Nissans of the future?

I would say yes to that. What is plain is the sense of expressive geometry which is the thing we are working with right now.

What is expressive geometry?

The collision of angular shapes. The GT-R50 is not the embodiment of our new design language but in its expressive geometry it does make something romantic and a little nostalgic but also fresh. You will see this in the next Qashqai. The GT-R needs to be a little bit special as well. It is such a special animal.

Godzilla indeed. Do you mind us calling it Godzilla?

No. But legally we can’t say it ourselves…

How important to Nissan are high performance cars like the GT-R?

How important to me are my lungs or my heart? They are everything.