Nissan GT-R production finally finishes after 18 years

The ‘R35’ GT-R has been around since 2007 and finally the door closes on the longest-running sports car yet.

In almost two decades of production, some 48,000 examples of the ‘R35’ GT-R were built. During that time there were two facelifts and several track-focused derivatives from Nismo.

Each car utilised a twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V6 hand-built by a team of nine engineers. Back in 2007 it developed 353kW and 589Nm, enough for a sprint time of 3.5sec. Its top speed was 310km/h.

The Nismo version hiked that to 441kW and 653Nm. Even then the powerplant was understressed and could handle far greater outputs. Some tuners have managed to extract almost 1500kW from the engine. So the R35 has been a favourite for those into modified cars, as was its ‘R34’ Skyline GT-R forebear.

Read our review of the 2016 Nissan GT-R Nismo.

The final version of the R35 launched in 2023 and Japanese order books for the model were filled by last February.

Back in 2007 when it first launched, Nissan famously claimed to have beaten the Porsche 911 Turbo’s time around the Nürburgring, recording a 7min 38sec lap, compared with the German car’s 7min 40sec. Porsche cried foul and claimed the only way it could have done this was by using semi-slick tyres. Their drivers couldn’t come within 25sec of Nissan’s time using a GT-R off the showroom floor. But Nissan was unruffled and returned a year later to clock a 7min 29sec time. Later on a Nismo GT-R would record a time of 7min 8sec.

The car also earned critical acclaim. Autocar UK’s first drive suggested that “This has to be one of the greatest giant killers there has ever been”. 

In 2008, it won Autocar UK’s annual Britain’s Best Driver’s Car contest.

As to the future of the GT-R, that’s by no means certain. New CEO Ivan Espinosa claims: “The GT-R will evolve and re-emerge in the future”. But when that will happen, and in what form, has yet to be confirmed, especially as the company is in a rebuilding phase.

While the wild Hyper Force concept unveiled at the 2023 Tokyo motor show provided clues to the new GT-R’s styling, a production model is still some years away. Afterall, it took six years after the original concept debuted before the R35 arrived. And that was a far cry from the concept car, so it’s a matter of being patient and hoping Nissan survives its current crisis.