Nissan GT-R

Nissan GT-R at a glance

From Skyline GT-R to a separate model

Nissan began work on a new GT-R in 2000 as part of the Nissan Revival Plan, at the request of chief executive Carlos Ghosn. A first concept appeared at the 2001 Tokyo Motor Show and a reworked GT-R Proto at the same show in 2005. Chief engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno turned down the existing FM platform; in April 2003 he built a test car based on the Infiniti G35 and laid out the Premium Midship platform, which no other model ever used. His dedicated team started official development in January 2004.

The production car was unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2007. More than 3,000 Japanese customers had ordered one before the launch, and deliveries began in Japan on 6 December 2007, in North America on 7 July 2008 and in Europe in March 2009. The name was the only link with the Skyline R34 GT-R: the R35 was sold everywhere as the Nissan GT-R, while the Skyline line itself turned into a V6 saloon covered in our Nissan Skyline overview.

VR38DETT engine and output by model year

Every GT-R used the VR38DETT, a 3,799 cc 60-degree DOHC V6 with two IHI RHF55 turbochargers. Nine "Takumi" craftsmen assembled the engines by hand at Nissan's Yokohama plant; one engine took about six hours, and the line produced about 13 a day.

Over the production run the standard car gained 66 kW, an increase of about 19 percent, while kerb weight went up by 45 kg. The 2011 update, presented on 19 October 2010, brought the largest single step of 33 kW together with a revised suspension geometry and a rear diffuser. Our power converter turns these outputs into horsepower and other units.

Gearbox, all-wheel drive and chassis

The GT-R was the first car with an independent rear transaxle combined with all-wheel drive: the six-speed GR6 dual-clutch gearbox, co-designed with BorgWarner and hand-built at the Aichi Kikai plant in Nagoya, sits at the rear axle, and a separate shaft takes drive back to the front wheels. Gear changes take 0.15 to 0.2 seconds. The ATTESA E-TS Pro system normally sends all the torque to the rear and can move up to half of it forward when the rear wheels start to slip.

This layout gives a front-to-rear weight split of 54:46 despite the engine sitting ahead of the cabin. The early car weighed 1,740 kg, the lightest SpecV 1,680 kg and the 2016–2025 standard model 1,785 kg. The boot holds 315 litres.

Performance and Nürburgring lap times

Nissan first quoted a top speed of 315 km/h, and Motor Trend measured 313.8 km/h with a 2009 car. Wikipedia DE gives 0–100 km/h in 2.7 seconds for the 405 kW car and 2.8 seconds for the European 419 kW version and the Nismo. In 2009 the GT-R was named World Performance Car of the Year and Motor Trend's Automobile of the Year, and Guinness listed it as the fastest-accelerating four-seat production car.

Nissan's test driver Toshio Suzuki drove many of the factory laps. Porsche, by contrast, reported a 7:54 lap with a customer GT-R.

GT-R Nismo and special editions

The Nismo was revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2013 and went on sale for 2014 with 441 kW (600 PS) and 652 Nm. It first weighed 1,730 kg and later 1,750 kg. A Track Edition followed in 2013; in North America the T-spec took its place from the 2024 facelift.

The GT-R50 was built together with Italdesign, and its production version was unveiled in Italy in May 2020. The price announced at the 2018 reveal was €990,000; carsales.com.au reported it as about US$1.1 million in 2018.

Prices in Japan, the United States and Europe

Between 2009 and 2016 the German base price rose by 22 percent, while output grew by 17 percent, from 357 to 419 kW. In Germany 1,819 GT-Rs were registered from the launch to December 2022, the best year being 2009 with 220 cars. Japanese sales reached 16,831 by October 2024.

Racing: GT1, GT3 and Super GT

Racing versions of the R35 won titles in the FIA GT1 World Championship, in Japan's Super GT series and in several GT3 championships, including the GT World Challenge. A GT-R Nismo GT3 won the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2015, the same Australian circuit where the R32 Skyline GT-R had won the 1,000-kilometre race in 1991 and 1992.

End of production in 2025

Stricter rules ended the GT-R market by market. Australia stopped sales on 31 October 2021 because of side-impact requirements. In Europe and the United Kingdom the car was withdrawn in 2022, after 13 years, because it could not meet new noise limits; the last deliveries ended in March 2022. Japanese orders closed in May 2022 until the 2024 model opened for orders in March 2023, and the end of North American sales was announced in October 2024. The final GT-R left the Tochigi line on 26 August 2025.

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