Nissan wanted to do something special for the upcoming 50th anniversary of their legendary GT-R brand and as such, they tied up with Italdesign who were also celebrating their 50th anniversary to come up with a fantastic prototype/concept car. Hence we have the stunning Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign concept car.
Italdesign is an Italian design house with history in coach building and these guys are seriously good at making beautiful cars. They are the ones who built the Zurouno and Zerouno Duerta lightweight supercars under the brand Italdesign Automobili Speciali.
The GT-R badge dates back to 1969 when Nissan took over Prince and introduced the first-ever Skyline Gran Turismo Racing variant or Skyline GT-R. Since then the name and the car have been icons in the Japanese car culture and around the world as well for offering fantastic performance with room for so much more (tuners love it).
At present, Nissan calls it just the GT-R or as the fans call it – Godzilla. The current iteration, the R35, has been around for about a decade now and the legend is starting to look a bit dated in comparison to some of its rivals from across the world. An all-new GT-R is keenly awaited by petrolheads everywhere but this celebratory concept car is a good sign for the future.
On the surface, this GT-R50 is based on the current GT-R NISMO which looks like it has been cut into to unleash the beast within. With a distinct golden inner element stretching across the entire width of the car and most notably at the back, it looks like it’s evolving. The hood’s got a bigger bulge for the more powerful motor and the thin LED headlights stretch from the wheel arch to the plump lip above the front grille. The front grill is possible the only design that I find a bit questionable with the large gaping intakes and gold ‘lips’.
From the side, the roofline is lower and the “samurai blade” cooling outlets just behind the front wheel arches are more prominent now with the gold accents. Making our way to the back and we’re mighty impressed by how they’ve incorporated the GT-R’s twin round taillights. Redesigned as a ‘floating’ feature with thin light rings and hollow centres they are mounted on to the outer buttress and the central bit of the boot structure. The rear-end now highlights how wide the GT-R is and its muscular haunches while the gold elements make the rear window appear as a separate modular element at the back. There is also a big rear-wing which is adjustable and is mounted with two uprights to complete the ‘floating’ look. The exterior colours are named ‘Liquid Kinetic Grey’ and ‘Energetic Signa Gold’ for the accents.
Inside the cabin of the celebratory concept car GT-R50, the details feel more modern and plush. Carbon fibre has been used for the centre console, door linings and instrument panels with the rest of it being covered in Alcantara and the seats are leather. There are more gold accents in here across the clusters and switchgear to match the exterior styling.
We move on to go into the GT-R50’s hood and find a familiar 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6, hand-built and fettled by NISMO to now produce 711bhp and 780Nm of torque. There have been quite a few tweaks to this power plant including GT3 competition-spec turbochargers and large intercoolers; heavy-duty crankshaft, pistons, connecting rods and bearings; and a reinforced dual-clutch sequential 6-speed gearbox to direct power to the wheels.
The suspension has been revised as well and features the BILSTEIN DampTronic® I continuously adjustable damping system. The custom built rims are wearing Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires sized 255/35 R21 in front and 285/30 R20 at the rear for all the grip you’d need.
While Nissan made it clear that this is NOT the next-generation GT-R, it’s quite an exciting project for them. After the response the brands got for the GT-R50, they actually decided to do a limited run of this beautiful celebratory design. Can you guess how many? Yep, 50. But what you won’t expect is the price tag for all that engineering and gold – €900,000.
The Nissan GT-R50 Italdesign made its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2018 and garnered a lot of attention even amongst all the hypercars around it in the paddock. Share your thoughts on the Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign in the comments below the gallery and don’t forget to subscribe to The Auto Loons for plenty more updates from the world of cool cars.
The Auto Loons 
One thought on “Celebrating an icon: Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign”