Stupid revolutionery French. V8
$5 bucks the r34Nur will still be a better performer.
Nissan has revealed plans for the reincarnation of the cult performance car, the GT-R. An all new GT-R Proto, V8 powered all wheel drive coupe is scheduled for production in 2007 with Nissan Australia stating they want it in the local lineup.
The ever popular Nissan GT-R came to prominence in Australia in the late 1980's in the hands of Jim Richards and Mark Skaife completely demoralizing the opposition in the then named Australian Touring Car Championship.
Nissan officially imported and sold only 100 of the pure fire breathing cars in 1989 with a price tag of around $100,000 although many hundreds of the cars have been 'grey imported' since with the car a cult classic.
The GT-R Proto is the first in the GT-R range to be powered by a V8 engine with all previous models powered by turbo charged in-line six cylinder engines and available in both two and four wheel drive.
With few facts available it is hard to determine the exact layout of the vehicle however Nissan has revealed the new GT-R Proto will be built on an entirely new platform allowing for even better balance than the previous models.
All previous GT-R models have been built on the Skyline platform taking the basis of a four door sedan and modeling a two door all wheel drive coupe on top. The concept sounds strange but the performance of the GT-R has always been nothing short of stunning.
Massive brakes with ABS, six speed manual or sequential gear box, traction and stability control and drive by wire technology are just some of the items we believe Nissan will incorporate into the new car.
But one thing is certain. Under the current regulation of V8 Supercar racing (what was once Group A when the GT-R raced in OZ) there is little chance of the all wheel drive GT-R Proto hitting the race tracks in Australia. But then again they could always develop a two wheel drive car or change the rules.
Cheers
Stupid revolutionery French. V8
$5 bucks the r34Nur will still be a better performer.
Hey Alan, other reports have stated that the new GTR will be powered by a Twin Turbo version of the current VQ35 (from a 350Z) but decompressed. Estimated power somewhere between 350-400kw. Also it has been speculated that it will only be RWD not 4WD like its predecessors. But there are so many different versions of the story floating around, who knows what the correct info really is.
I think Nissan are being sneaky!
They are probably releasing a different version of the specs every day just to screw with us!
Yeah, i read that somewhere but couldn't find it.
Cheers
i've uploaded all the gtr prototype pics here if anyone wants to check them out
When it does come out here it'll be about $120,000 which means its out of the market of your average $30,000 R33 GTR driver (or $20,000 15 year old R32 GTRs).
What they fail to mention is that Nissan barely managed to sell the minimum required to qualify for Australian racing with those R32 homolgation imports. Whatever they couldn't sell went to Nissan executives and partners so that the quantity was met on paper.
Hope the next GTR dosen't flop as bad.
We have a whole section for the next Skyline on SAU (including pics n stuff):
fark thats hot
Yeah I don't mind it. Still would rather the R34
Cheers
taken from the daily telegraph like 2 weeks ago :
Nissan GT-R is coming back
Kevin Hepworth
28oct05
The only Japanese car to conquer The Mountain is coming back and this time the Nissan GT-R is serious. After being mooted as a design concept in 2001 the new generation GT-R is still almost two years away, yet Nissan Australia says the model will return as a mainstream model.
Speaking at the Tokyo Motor Show where the near-production GT-R was unveiled last week, Nissan Australia's product marketing manager Michael Hayes confirms the car is right in the middle of the radar.
"We will have to wait and see the cost before we make any indication of numbers for that car but we will certainly have our hands up for as many of them as we think we can sell," he says. "This car is a bit special and the usual rules you apply to justifying a model for your lineup take a bit of a back seat."
Nissan Australia is painfully aware of the previous experience with GT-R in its showrooms - on the back of Jim Richard's and Mark Skaife's 1991 Bathurst win, it imported 100 Skyline GT-Rs to Australia. By the time Richards and Skaife had claimed the Mountain for the second time in 1992 less than 70 of them had been sold.
Amid accusation and counter-accusation, the GT-R was controversially banned from further competition. Nissan cut its losses and stopped importing the GT-Rs and the door was opened for subsequent cars to ultimately become one of the most sought-after of the "grey import" models.
Sales continued in Japan but by 1999 it was obvious that the GT-R was going to fall foul of increasingly strict emission control laws and Nissan announced that production would cease in 2002. A design concept was released in 2001 and while the first of the new generation of GT-Rs will not be available until late 2007, Nissan is making no apologies for the painstaking development process.
"The reason we made the concept for 2001 was that at the time the previous Skyline - R34 - was terminated because we could not meet the coming emission control levels," Nissan design senior vice-president Shiro Nakamura says. "At that time we were afraid that many people would think that Nissan had abandoned the GT-R. That was not true and the reason we made the '01 concept was to say 'Do not worry, we will not forget GT-R, we have not abandoned it'."
Nakamura says a determination to produce the "perfect" GT-R meant taking a measured approach to the development. "We did not want to disappoint. This is a very special car ... it is not a bread-and-butter car. We needed a lot of time to experiment and we had a clear target for the performance of the car.
The show car (at Tokyo) is now 80 to 90 per cent production ready. It has spent many, many hours in the wind tunnel ... we are communicating with the wind. Body: "The shape of the car is supported by wind tunnel testing and during that time we have made many, many changes to the original design of the car - mainly to the front end to optimise lift and CD (coefficient of drag)."
Nissan's executive vice-president of product planning Carlos Tavares says the car had been tested at the famous Nurburgring.
With its dramatically sloping roofline and overall body profile, the new GT-R is a step away from the previous car, which was a sports development of a mainstream model.
Just what is under the bonnet or in the cabin remains a closely guarded secret but the smart money is on a 3.7-litre bi-turbo V6 punching out something in the range of 350kW, driving all four wheels through a seven-speed sequential gearbox.
"This will be one of the highest-cost vehicles in the Nissan range - highest cost price and highest development cost - so we put everything into the car," Nakamura says.
"It has been designed as a global car but within a Japanese design philosophy - it is not an Italian supersports, it is not an American macho design, it is not a German functional design - it represents areas of Japanese culture ... it has a great deal of energy."
and another from the daily telegraph again :
Skyline the limit
Chris Riley
27oct05
Godzilla is coming.
The car that conquered Bathurst, and with it, the best that Ford and Holden could muster, is set to make a return to Australia.
It probably won't be next year or even the year after, but Nissan has confirmed its commitment to building the next generation Skyline GT-R and it is headed our way.
The company unveiled the GT-R PROTO at this week's Tokyo Motor Show which it says is now 80 to 90 per cent production ready.
The car grabbed centre stage at Tokyo where the unveiling caused what could best be described as a media frenzy as photographers fought to get first pictures of the car as the worldwide head of Nissan and partner company Renault, Carlos Ghosn introduced the GT-R PROTO to an adoring crowd.
The red hot sports coupe enjoys a huge cult following especially in Australia where it is eagerly sought after on the grey import market.
Grey imports are cars that are privately imported without the benefit of manufacturer support and that often do not meet stringent Australian design standards.
Officially Nissan brought just 100 of the GT- R super cars to Australia in 1991 under the low volume import rule.
Even at $110,000 apiece, it had little trouble selling the batch.
Although many GT-Rs can still be seen on the road, most are grey imports and very few are in fact the fire-breathing V-Spec model.
Nissan remains tight-lipped about the specification of the new car, which is due to make its debut at Tokyo in 2007, suffice to say it will be a car without compromisep.
But as a global model, designed to compete with the best in the world, and no longer hamstrung by Japanese power restrictions, the specs are sure to be impressive.
Insiders are tipping a power output of 350kW based on a twin turbo version of Nissan's brilliant 350Z engine.
One thing is certain and that is the GT-R will not be adapted from any other model, but will be a purpose built coupe.
Some have even suggested that it will be branded Infiniti and lead the return of the Nissan's prestige brand to our shores.
In a press conference shortly before the wraps came off PROTO, Ghosn explained that he did not want Nissan engineers to be constrained by figures, but rather deliver a car that meets and exceeds all expectations - whatever it takes.
He said the GT-R would offer a driving experience second to none, with a car that is able to respond and perform exactly as the driver dictates.
"I'm sure you will not be disappointed," he said.
Engineers have spent countless hours in the wind tunnel refining the design which exhibits strong links to the previous model.
At the front a single centre air intake is designed to optimise airflow as well as provide a strong visual link to the previous R34 and GT-R concept shown in 2001.
Front guards have been designed after intensive analysis of airflow around the tyres and the air vent behind the front guard also optimises aerodynamics.
The sides of the body are sculptured towards the rear fender, expressing the power and dynamic tension of the car.
The signature four-ring shaped tail lights also provide a strong visual link to previous GT-Rs.
Four large-bore exhaust pipes complete the powerful picture.
Unlike the previous model sold here, Nissan Australia confirmed the car will be submitted for full compliance so that it will not be limited in the numbers it can sell.
With a three figure price tag the car is likely to sell in only small numbers, but the powerful image it projects is even more important to the company.
Nissan Australia's marketing manager Michael Hayes said the company had a history of selling cars such as the GT-R.
"We've always done very well with things such as 200SX, with things such as 350Z," he said.
"When we sold GT-R in Australia, we were the only market outside of Japan to take the car.
"We've got our hand up for GT-R absol- utely."
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