Nissan GT500 GT-R Race car: first official pictures

By Stephen Dobie

First Official Pictures

15 January 2008 16:16

Nissan's new GT500 GT-R race car is a far cry from the Forum concept the Japanese company has just unveiled in Motor City. Nissan chose the past weekend’s Tokyo Auto Salon to show off their new GT-R racing car. Not content with the standard GT-R stirring up the establishment Nissan will enter their supercar into Japan’s Super GT Series.

The Super GT series is a competition split into two classes, GT300 and GT500, with the latter being the Premier League of the pair. GT500 regulations are fairly simple – don’t go past 500 horsepower, and you’re fine. While Nissan is being mum on technical details until the end of the month, the company already has a pretty good starting point. The road-going GT-R has 473bhp and will reach 193mph flat out. 

The GT500 GT-R will be up against rivals from Lexus (SC430) and Honda (NSX). But before you complain that the opposition is soft or old, remember that GT500 regulations are so lax that a team can use any engine the manufacturer makes, and even add forced induction. It’s part of the reason why FIA GT1-spec cars like Lamborghinis, and even the odd Maserati MC-12 have struggled.

One of the reasons for the lack of regulation in GT500 is to enable manufacturers to avoid the expenses of road-going homologation specials, often essential in GT racing. Bad news for us perhaps, but Nissan has produced homologation special Skylines in the past, so fingers-crossed for a super-Godzilla. A V-spec GT-R is already in the works but we’re hoping for more from NISMO, Nissan’s motorsports operation.

The GT-R racer also showcases Nissan’s new racing livery, the result of a close collaboration with NISMO. The red apparently shows Nissan’s passion for racing, while the black signifies the supreme performance the new GT-R offers. We’ll ignore the PR talk for now, but if Nissan gets its way expect the opposition to be staring at those iconic quad rear lights for much of the season.

By Stephen Dobie