An automotive legend is saying goodbye. Nissan has announced plans to stop building its extraordinary GT-R performance coupe after the 2024 model year.
Nicknamed Godzilla by the automotive press, the GT-R has long been an impossible monster with a heart that seemed nuclear-powered. It threatened the performance of quarter-million-dollar supercars for less than half their price.
Our expert test driver calls the 2024 edition “an amazing and desirable machine… tremendously quick and almost supernaturally grippy.”
Introduced in 2007, the GT-R was a 5-figure way to make a Ferrari nervous. Its price has risen with its fame, though. The 2024 edition starts at $122,985 (including the mandatory $1,895 delivery fee).
The top-of-the-line Nismo edition gets from zero to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds and tops out at 205 mph.
Sadly, Godzilla has aged. Although its exterior has endured several facelifts, its chassis has remained essentially unchanged since the George W. Bush administration. Nissan stopped selling the car in Australia rather than keep pace with new side-impact regulations and pulled it from the U.K. market when new noise regulations kicked in.
Now, sales will end worldwide after the 2024 model year.
Nissan will say goodbye with a pair of special editions.
Skyline Edition
Automotive enthusiasts have long used the “Skyline” name for the GT-R and the series of Nissan sports cars that preceded it. But Nissan has never officially used the name in the U.S.
Nissan will finally put it on a badge for the final year of GT-R sales. The Skyline Edition comes in “Bayside Blue paint and features a stunning new Sora Blue interior color scheme.” It starts at $132,985.
T-Spec Takumi Edition
The T-Spec Takumi edition will start at $152,985. Takumi, Nissan says, is a term “used to describe a master craftsman who has perfected his skills over years of painstaking work and dedication.” Nissan uses it for the four workers who hand-assemble each GT-R turbocharged V6 engine. Yes, there are only four.
The Takumi edition comes in Midnight Purple, with a gold VIN plate and an ending badge acknowledging the builders. “Like the standard 2024 GT-R T-spec, the Takumi Edition also receives several mechanical enhancements, including GT-R NISMO carbon-ceramic brakes, a gold-painted version of the NISMO’s RAYS 20-inch forged wheels, NISMO-tuned Vehicle Dynamic Control and wider front fenders.”
The Future
The GT-R’s retirement may not mean Nissan is out of the supercar game.
The company’s press release announcing the end of the line ends, “Sunsets always come before a new dawn approaches.”
Nissan used last year’s Japan Mobility Show (formerly the Tokyo Motor Show) to reveal a GT-R-like electric car, the Hyper Force Concept. We know of no plans to put something like it into production. However, the company isn’t likely to let the reputation it built with the GT-R name wither.
