- The Nissan GT-R has officially ceased production
- The automaker has finished accepting orders for the planned production quantity
- Top models of the GT-R made 600 horsepower
That’s all, folks. According to a statement from Japan, the gearheads at Nissan have officially put the mighty GT-R to bed.
“We have received many orders for the Nissan GT-R and have now finished accepting orders for the planned production quantity,” reads a statement on its home-market sire. “We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all our customers for their support since its release in 2007.”
Nearly 20 years is a gob-smacking eternity in the car biz, even by the standards at Nissan where design cycles have always moved at a pace mirroring glacial progression. Still, it’s not like the model was stagnant or left to wither on the vine during that era; meaningful updates were hove at the GT-R just three years after its introduction, again in 2016, and once more a couple of years ago. Even if its styling was, erm, instantly recognizable throughout the years, it’s not like other sports car makers haven’t held to the same trick – look at the Porsche 911, after all.
Production for cars destined to North America has actually been done for some time, having wrapped up last October. Fans could have availed themselves of either the T-Spec Takumi or Skyline trim, models which served as limited-edition swan songs. The mighty GT-R departed other markets even earlier, such as Oz and the UK, thanks to nanny-state regs like noise and emission caps.
A tremendous twin-turbo V6 engine has always lived under the hood of this GT-R, handcrafted by real humans in Japan who always had to shed blood in front of a holy samurai or something each day before starting work. Actually, the task of assembling these power towers was placed in the hands of select Takumi craftsmen, carefully selected for their skill and whose name was appended to each mill they produced. More than one GT-R owner has made the pilgrimage to Yokohama and met the very person who built the engine in their car. Not many gearheads can claim that experience.
Power from these engines was officially rated at 473 horses at introduction, rising to 565 ponies after the revamp two years ago. Special NISMO variants stretched that figure to 600 horsepower. It is highly suspected that some cars made more power than others, owing to the handcrafted aspect of its build, to say nothing of the propensity to understate actual output.
What might the GT-R R36 portend? There’s every chance in the world it will be an outrageous supercar that showcases a raft of technology – including electrification. That doesn’t mean electric per se, but some level of hybridization is all but assured. RIP, Godzilla.
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