Kicking off at Fuji Speedway on December 8th, the NISMO Festival has a particularly interesting theme this year. The 50th anniversary of the GT-R is bringing together every generation of the breed, from the Skyline GT-R of '69 to the R35 for the 2020 model year.
As you can tell in the following video, the newcomer is a special edition celebrating half a century since the GT-R started rolling off the assembly line under the internal designation of PGC10. The 50th anniversary edition R35 is an extremely different breed, but nevertheless, and these changes come courtesy of continuous updates inside as well as outside the car.
From an inline-six engine with 2.0 liters of displacement and natural aspiration, the GT-R without the Skyline nomenclature leveled up to a 3.8-liter V6 with a twin-turbo setup and up to 600 PS (592 horsepower) for the NISMO. Nissan didn’t switch from straight-six to V6 until the launch of the R35, and some enthusiasts weren’t happy at all about this.
On the upside, the RB26 is back into production thanks to the NISMO Heritage parts program. If you were wondering, the crate engine will set you back approximately $40,000 at current exchange rates. Core parts such as the camshafts can be purchased separately too.
Turning our attention back to the event, “the festivities will also highlight the racing machines representing the NISMO division’s rich history.” Abbreviated from NISsan MOtorsport, the in-house performance department is also specialized in Z cars such as the 350Z and 370Z as well as the Sentra and Juke. As far as racing is concerned, NISMO is contesting the Super GT, Blancpain GT, and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The thing is, there’s no denying the Skyline GT-R is the star of the show. Pretty much every high-performance coupe from the 1990s was benchmarked against the R32, and on the racetrack, the R32 earned the nickname “Godzilla” for dominating every single competitor in Group A, winning the Japanese Touring Car Championship and the Spa 24 Hours.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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