What's the news?
Well, we've got good news, and then again, we've got bad news.
Want the good news first? OK...
Nissan has confirmed that it's going to put the GT-R50 into production. What's a GT-R50? Well, it's a special version of the famed GT-R supercar, with bodywork re-imagined and re-designed by legendary Italian styling studio, Italdesign (once the home of the great Giorgetto Giugiaro), toe celebrated the 50th birthdays of both the GT-R and Italdesign itself.
Well, kind of. Italdesign will doubtless get the credit for the re-design, but actually much of the work originated from Nissan Design Europe and Nissan Design America. Key design features include a pronounced power bulge on the hood, stretched LED headlights, a lowered roofline, and prominent "samurai blade" cooling outlets behind the front wheels. A large, adjustable rear wing, mounted with two uprights, completes the overall look. The original concept car had an exterior finished in a Liquid Kinetic Gray color, with distinctive Energetic Sigma Gold anniversary accents, but the new images show a bright blue body colour, and Nissan says that customers will be able to specify their own colour choices.
Want more good news? It's getting the same powertrain as the concept car, so that means the familiar 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 engine, taken from the standard NISMO (Nissan Motorsport) version of the GT-R, and amped up to a whopping 720hp. Yup, that's McLaren-rivalling power in a relatively practical 2+2 with all-weather four-wheel drive ability.
Deliveries of the GT-R50 will begin next year, and will continue on into 2020. And that, I'm afraid, is where the good news ends.
Now for the bad news. To get one of these cars is going to cost you an utterly whopping €990,000 and that's before local taxes. Which means you're looking at the guts of €1.5 million to get one imported and registered here. At minimum.
The worst news? There will be, kind of appropriately, only 50 built. Sigh...
"The reaction from Nissan fans around the world - and potential customers of the GT-R50 - has greatly exceeded our expectations," said Bob Laishley, global sports car program director at Nissan. "These 50 cars, which celebrate 50 years of the GT-R as well as 50 years of Italdesign, will be rolling tributes to Nissan's engineering leadership and rich sports car heritage for a long time to come."
Having already been shown off at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year, the GT-R50 prototype has made appearances at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion in the U.S. and Nissan Crossing in Tokyo's Ginza district. It will be on display at the Nissan Gallery in Yokohama from 7 December.