What's the news?
Well, when two great motoring names celebrate a 50th birthday in the same year, what else would you expect but for them to get together for a bit of a party?
Italdesign, the great consultancy created by Giorgetto Giugiaro opened its doors in the same year that Nissan made the first Skyline GT-R, and now those two hands have been put together and OMG the results are stunning.
This is the Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign, based on the 720hp GT-R NISMO, and it will be shown off around Europe next month. The design and build of the car are a collaborative effort between Italdesign, and Nissan's design studios in Europe and America.
At the front, the grille has been widened and stretched a bit, with a burnished-gold inlay, while the bonnet gets a bigger power bulge, and there are new LED lights that stretch almost all the way down to the ground.
The roof is 54mm lower, and there's a faint 'double-bubble' shape thanks to the lower centreline, while the 'Samurai Blade' vents also get that distinctive gold inlay effect.
Around the back, the wheelarches have swelled a bit, there's even more burnished gold effect, while the trademark twin round rear lights have been hollowed out and now appear more like structural elements. Oh, and there's a socking great rear wing, fully adjustable for those who want to tweak their downforce package for track days.
The wheels, custom-made of course, are all 21-inch diameter while the paint work is officially called 'Liquid Kinetic Gray' (sic).
The interior is a riot of different carbon-fibre finishes, Alcantara suede, black Italian leather, more gold highlights, and 'futuristic, race-car inspired' switches.
The familiar 3.8-liter V6 VR38DETT hand-built engine benefits from Nissan's GT3 racing experience, and develops 720hp and 780Nm of torque. There are new GT3-spec turbos, bigger intercoolers, heavy-duty crankshaft, new pistons with high-flow oil jets, new camshafts, and a reinforced dual-plate clutch.
The suspension has also had some work, with new Bilstein adaptive dampers, and there are Brembo brakes with six-pot front calipers, painted red (not gold? For shame...).
"How often do you get to ask, 'What if we created a GT-R without limits,' and then actually get to build it?" said Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan's senior vice president for global design. "This is a rare window in time when two big moments intersect: 50 years of Italdesign shaping the automotive world and 50 years of Nissan generating excitement through our iconic GT-R. So to celebrate this convergence, Nissan and Italdesign created this custom GT-R to mark 50 years of engineering leadership. Although this is not the next-generation GT-R, it is an exciting celebration of two anniversaries in a provocative and creative way - wrapping one of Nissan's best engineering platforms and Japanese design with Italian coachbuilding."
The Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign isn't officially for production, yet, but we'd be very surprised if a few weren't built for sale. Here's hoping.