The Goodwood Festival of Speed will host the world debut of the new Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign.
Being the first product of collaboration between Nissan and Italdesign, the GT-R50 prototype could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship and pave the way for an extremely limited run of hand-built production vehicles.
This GT-R50 jointly commemorates the 50th anniversary of both Italdesign and the GT-R coming up in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan’s senior vice president of global design, commented that: “The Goodwood Festival of Speed is the ideal setting to showcase the Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign, which combines power and artistry to celebrate 50 years of inspiring the dreams of our customers.”
Whether or not a full production version of the GT-R50 is developed will depend on the success of the prototype at Goodwood as well as other global appearances in the coming months.
If it is a smashing success though, no more than 50 examples, based on the GT-R50 prototype, will be produced by Italdesign. Each car will be built specifically to each customer’s preferences with an estimated starting price of around €900,000 (approximately 1.5 million local dollars).
Speaking of the GT-R50 though, the prototype by Italdesign is based on the Nissan GT-R Nismo.
It packs a special 3.8-litre V6 VR38DETT engine which develops roughly 537kW of power and 750Nm of torque, this equates to roughly 89.6kW more power than the stock engine.
To handle the extra power a revised Bilstein suspension damping system and upgraded Brembo braking system are employed.
Italdesign suggests that the exterior and interior design was inspired by Nissan Design Europe and Nissan Design America with key features including a pronounced power bulge on the bonnet, stretched LED headlights, a lowered roofline and prominent “samurai blade” cooling outlets behind the front wheels. Also distinctive is a large, adjustable rear wing, mounted with two uprights at the back end.
A Liquid Kinetic Gray colour with distinctive Energetic Sigma Gold anniversary accents has been selected for the exterior paint finish.
Internally Italdesign has equipped the GT-R50 with two different carbon fibre finishes which are used on the centre console, instrument panel and door linings.
A combination of black Alcantara and fine black Italian leather cover the seats with gold accents throughout the cockpit to reflect the external paint choice.
It remains to be seen whether a production version of the GT-R50 will see the light of day. Stay tuned!
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