The Nissan GT-R 50 by Italdesign are about to leave Italdesign plant in Italy to reach their respective owners worldwide. 

Collaboration with Nissan started back in 2018 to celebrate both Italdesign’s and GT-R’s 50 year-anniversaries. 

These first cars, out of a limited production of 50 units, were assembled by hand by Italdesign professionals in Turin, Italy, and are tailor-made as clients chose to customize them with special liveries and colors.

One of these units is inspired by the famous 1972 GT-R showcar; the Italdesign team worked hard to design dedicated livery and a colour to homage it, producing the Verde Kenmeri tint for this only car. 

Two owners drew inspiration from the concept car introduced as a world premiere during the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Despite each car features specially made graphics, they all feature the Liquid Kinetic Gray/Energic Sigma Gold colours combination. The last two body tints are inspired by Italdesign’s experience and by one of the greatest Renaissance artist: the renowned Argento Italdesign and the Nero Caravaggio. 

Pure performance plus

To achieve the high performance, reliability and emission standards required of the Nissan GT-R50, NISMO carried out development with Nissan Technical Center (NTC). Utilizing know-how from the race specification VR38 engine installed in the FIA GT3 specification NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3 and other race engine development know-how, approximately 12% of the engine’s parts were newly developed, including the turbocharger, pistons, connecting rods, crankshaft, fuel injectors, camshafts, and catalyzer. Furthermore, fully utilizing NISMO’s many years of experience developing performance parts for road cars, a high strength material was employed for the transaxle and its surface treatment processing was modified to ensure sufficient strength to withstand torque of 780 Nm.

The durability and reliability of the engine and transaxle was confirmed by performing benchtop simulation durability (acceleration durability) testing that reproduced on a 4-wheel chassis dynamometer the mode cycle of the time recorded by the Nissan GT-R NISMO at Nurburgring (Germany) in 2013, 7 minutes 8 seconds 679, which was the fastest time for a mass-produced car at the time. By utilizing race and road car development technologies unique to NISMO, which is behind Nissan’s motorsports activities, we have achieved both a high output of 720 PS and compliance with the strict “Euro 6” emission regulations in Europe.

In in-house testing, the NISMO-developed 720 PS powertrain achieved a reduction of 0.8 seconds (7%) for acceleration from 0 to 200 km/h compared to the current GT-R NISMO.