Nissan GT-R production ends after 18 years

NISSAN has officially ended production of its R35-series GT-R sports coupe after an impressive 18-year production run.

Workers at Nissan’s Tochigi plant north of Tokyo gathered to celebrate the legacy of the legendary model, of which some 48,000 units have been produced.

Commenting on the occasion, Nissan president and chief executive officer Ivan Espinosa said that while the production of the current GT-R has come to an end, the nameplate is set to live on in the brand’s future line-up.

“After 18 remarkable years, the R35 GT-R has left an enduring mark on automotive history,” he said.

“Its legacy is a testament to the passion of our team and the loyalty of our customers around the globe. Thank you for being part of this extraordinary journey.

“To the many fans of the GT-R worldwide, I want to tell you this isn’t a goodbye to the GT-R forever, it’s our goal for the GT-R nameplate to one day make a return.

“(But) the GT-R badge is not something that can be applied to just any vehicle; it is reserved for something truly special and the R35 set the bar high.

“So, all I can ask is for your patience – while we don’t have a precise plan finalised today, the GT-R will evolve and reemerge in the future.”

Looking back on the legacy of the R35-series GT-R – the brand’s longest serving GT-R model – it is obvious it left an imprint not only on Nissan customers, but also on the motorsport landscape.

The R35-series GT-R took five GT500 class and three GT300 class wins in Japan’s Super GT Championship, victory in the 2013 Blancpain GT Series Pro-Am class, a Bathurst 12-hour victory in 2015, and five Super Taikyu Japanese endurance racing series victories.

It also set a lap record of seven minutes, 38 seconds at Germany’s famed Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit in 2007, marking one of the fastest laps ever achieved by a production car.

The GT-R smashed that record a year later, slicing nine seconds from its own record, and cracking the seven and half minute barrier for the first time.

Nissan beat that record thrice more, clocking a seven minute and 26 second lap in 2009, a seven minute and 18 second laps in 2012, and finally in 2013 a seven minute and 8.679 second record in a Nismo enhanced variant.

The R35-series Nissan GT-R also set the Guinness World Records title for the fastest ever drift at a special event held at Fujairah International Airport, UAE, where a specially tuned MY16 coupe drifted at 304.96 km/h and 30-degree angle.

Nissan’s R35-series GT-R will be remembered fondly for its clean-room-built VR38DETT twin-turbo V6 engine whose production run ended with an output figure of 419kW/633Nm from 3.8 litres’ displacement (and 441kW in Nismo variants), each hand assembled by nine master craftsmen from the firm’s Yokohama engine plant.

The model was the first to be offered with a Borg-Warner developed six-speed dual-clutch transmission, ATTESA E-TS Pro all-wheel drive system, finnicky launch control system, and a suite of other technologies now commonplace in modern performance cars.