Doylestown Auto Repair

New Nissan GT-R aims to be ‘fastest super sports car in the world’

Audi Repair Shop Doylestown
Call 267 279 9477 to schedule a appointment

The automotive press

has spent five years hypothesizing

about the next-generation

Nissan GT-R

, and the

prognostications won’t stop soon

.

Autocar

spoke to

Nissan

head designer Alfonso Albaisa, who revealed that the design team hasn’t yet begun working on the car in earnest because the powertrain isn’t decided. There’ll be a new platform, and there are exterior sketches, but until the internals get locked in, the shell remains a mystery. The most important consideration, Albaisa said, is that the next

GT-R

be “the fastest super

sports car

in the world.”

How will the GT-R achieve that? The designer would only say the new coupe would “play the advanced technology game,” adding, though, that said game didn’t necessarily mean

hybridization

. It’s possible Godzilla could omit an electric motor. However, we’d be shocked if that happened when the primary competition — the

Porsche 911

and even the C8

Chevrolet Corvette

— have hybrid options planned or

rumored

over the lifecycles of their next-gen models, and super sports cars like

Lamborghini

and

Ferrari

are already confirmed for hybrid conversion.

Years ago, during the dark days of the LMP1 GT-R LM NISMO, sabers rattled about the next GT-R getting some version of the 3.0-liter V6 in the race car, and assumed electric assistance. Former

Nissan

EVP Andy Palmer said there was the “very real prospect of enhancements coming from [the race car] and ending up on a sports car like the

Nissan GT-R

,” and, “I’d expect to see some form of hybridization on the next generation of car.” The design would be a toned-down

version of the 2020 Vision Gran Turismo

, and power would stand at around 786 horsepower and 737 pound-feet of torque, shifting through a new eight-speed dual-clutch. But the race car died an awful death, Palmer’s now the head man at

Aston Martin

, and the

Vision Gran Turismo

never left the video game.

Even more confounding, Albaisa’s comments make it sound like the new GT-R might need to overcome its own bodywork on its way to being “the quickest car of its kind” and owning the track. The new coupe won’t shrink from its heavyweight stance, with Albaisa saying the visual mass and “audacity” will need to communicate that “It’s an animal; it has to be imposing and excessive.” We should expect a cohesive design that does its aero work without a lot of extra appendages. Said the designer, “It’s the world’s fastest brick, really. And when I review sketches for the

new car

, I say that a lot: ‘Less wing, more brick.'”

A 2016 report from

Autoevolution

ties into Albaisa’s comments. We were told not to expect major weight loss, with

GT-R father-figure Kazutoshi Mizuno suggesting

in interviews that the coupe’s corpulence “ensures a correct level of handling for all customers.”

So all we think we know now is that

we’ll get 2+2 seating, a twin-turbo V6

in front, a transaxle layout, and an all-wheel-drive powertrain. And based on this latest insight, and what the competition’s doing, we can probably

expect a healthy price increase

for the standard model whenever it finally gets here.

Related Video:

from Autoblog https://ift.tt/2LjgP5E