They say a project only succeeds if the people driving it are equally dedicated. For Nissan and the R35 GT-R project, the man who bore the brunt of that responsibility was known as the ‘Father of the GT-R’, Nissan GT-R chief engineer, Kazutoshi Mizuno. We watched him become an old man from the R35 Nissan GT-R’s first year of production (we’ve lovingly used some of our first ever images of that original 2007 R35 GT-R – all the way through to some lavish renderings of the next R36 Nissan GT-R) to the current 2013 Track Pack iteration.
Countless days, weeks and months of testing were spent at the Nurburgring, shaving off precious seconds. Sleepless nights were spent refining, tweaking and fettling the mighty Nissan GT-R so that it would become the supercar slayer it is today. The Nissan GT-R is unique in that it’s been the recipient of an almost constant upgrade program over its entire lifecycle. So, as a parting shot for Mizuno San, Nissan is working on the 2014 Nissan GT-R Nismo Edition and they have some pretty ambitious goals with the final ‘hurrah’ of the Nissan GT-R. Spies around the famous German racetrack have seen it doing high-speed testing and they’re hoping it’ll smash some production-car records.
It’s not uncommon for a manufacturer to hire out the entire facility, but for timing beacons to be littered around the track and just the one prototype to go around at mega high-speed; that is a clear indication that some timed laps are underway. The fastest time around the Nurburgring set by a Nissan GT-R was set last year at 7 minutes and 18 seconds. The Nismo Edition promises to be a much more potent and track-oriented GT-R beast.
Mizuno and Nissan are also aiming for the Nissan GT-R Nismo Edition to come close to, if not beat, the the world’s fastest accelerating production cars, which are the Ariel Atom 500 and the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport at 2.5 seconds. Nissan hope to achieve this by developing more power than ever before and having the 2014 Nissan GT-R Nismo Edition be significantly lighter than any GT-R before it. Combine that with some seriously advanced launch control tech and tall gearing and Nissan might just be able to pull it off.
The ‘Father of the GT-R’ will be succeeded by Kinishi Tanuma and Tanuma San is already planning many different things for the next-generation GT-R. Production is currently limited because Nissan exercises great diligence when engineering the GT-R, as prefaced by the four dedicated specialists, known as ‘takumi’ master craftsmen, who build every engine by hand. But Tanuma San has said he is a proponent of keeping the Nissan GT-R’s supercar-like performance accessible to the common man; although the car’s pricetag has reached higher territories with the introduction of each new model.
Tanuma has said he was looking to boost volumes for the GT-R and focus on quality and value rather than out and out performance. Tanuma said that a fifth Takumi is being trained to make this possible. The biggest market for the Nissan GT-R is the U.S. where Nissan sold 1 188 GT-Rs last year and 952 this year. The Nissan GT-R Nismo Edition is expected to be unveiled at the Tokyo motor show next month. The Nissan GT-R story continues.
Some images courtesy of LeonsLens
