Production of Nissan GT-R has ended

Nissan has said ‘sayonara’ to its symbol of performance – the GT-R – which has been in the market for 18 years. The very last unit was a R35 GT-R Premium edition T-Spec finished in Midnight Purple paint. The final unit, destined for the domestic market, was one of around 48,000 cars sold since 2007 when it was launched at the Tokyo Motor Show.

However, Ivan Espinosa, President & CEO of Nissan Motor, said that it isn’t a goodbye to the GT-R forever. “To the many fans of the GT-R worldwide, I want to tell you this: Nissan remains committed to the GT-R nameplate. It’s our goal for the GT-R nameplate to one day make a return,” he said at the ceremony at the Tochigi factory.

“We understand the expectations are high, the GT-R badge is not something that can be applied to just any vehicle; it is reserved for something truly special and the R35 set the bar high. So, all I can ask is for your patience. While we don’t have a precise plan finalized today, the GT-R will evolve and reemerge in the future,” said Espinosa.

In its time, the sportscar set a new standard as the ultimate Grand Tourer. More than any of its predecessors, Nissan’s planning and engineering team sought to imbue the R35 GT-R with a ‘multi-performance’ character, delivering a true GT with a comfortable ride, high levels of refinement, and benchmark fit and finish, while also enabling the driver to enjoy world-class performance that embodies the ‘R’ in the GT-R namesake, a nod to racing technology.

Rather than the typical product lifecycle involving a major update midlife cycle, the R35 GT-R continually evolved throughout each model year. Depending on the grade, Nissan’s engineers aimed to unleash either more power or greater levels of control, increased comfort and luxury, or in the case of GT-R NISMO, exceptional track-honed performance.

With its powerful VR38DETT twin-turbo V6 engine, ATTESA ET-S all-wheel-drive system, and innovative aerodynamics, the R35 GT-R consistently delivered superior driving experiences both on the road and the track.

Remarkably, over the course of its production run, a core team of just 9 master craftsman – called Takumi – at the Nissan plant passionately hand-assembled each of the engines installed in the cars. Their names are immortalized on a plaque attached to each engine.

Throughout the course of production, maximum power rose from 480 ps at launch up to 570 ps from the 2017 model year onwards. In parallel, NISMO engineers were able to extract even more, adopting GT3 racecar-spec turbochargers as well as high-precision, weight-balanced parts including the piston rings, connecting rods, crankshaft, flywheel, crank pulley and valve springs. The result was faster revs and quicker spooling turbo, delivering up to 600 ps for GT-R NISMO models.

Motorsports legacy
The R35 GT-R departs having collected long list of track and motorsports accolades. The extensive list includes five GT500 class and three GT300 class wins in Japan’s SUPER GT Championship, victory in the 2013 Blancpain GT Series Pro-Am class, a Bathurst 12-hour victory in 2015, and five Super Taikyu Japanese endurance racing series victories.

In 2016, the R35 GT-R set the Guinness World Records title for the fastest ever drift. At a special event held at Fujairah International Airport, UAE, a specially tuned MY16 R35 GT-R drifted at 304.96 km/hr with a 30-degree angle.