TOKYO - The car long dubbed a 'wolf in sheep’s clothing' is going back to sleep. Nissan’s GT-R saw its final unit completed on Tuesday, drawing a curtain on an 18-year run for the current model.
Workers climbed into the driver’s seat as the car prepared to leave the line, and the last unit will be delivered to a customer in Japan.
Sports cars once captivated young drivers and were the stars of motor shows; among them, few were more storied than the Nissan GT-R. The lineage traces back to the Skyline GT-R launched in 1969, nicknamed “Hakosuka.” It marked Japan’s first attempt to install a full-fledged racing engine in a production car, setting a milestone in the country’s motorsport history.
After a 1972 model change, the car became affectionately known as “Kenmeri.” Yet as environmental concerns took hold and exhaust-emissions standards tightened, production was limited to just 197 units, earning it the moniker “the ill-fated GT-R.”
The name returned during Japan’s bubble era, only to vanish again amid Nissan’s management crisis. Then in 2007, the GT-R was revived. “The GT-R is the product of our passion for cars. We wanted to push our technology to its limits,” said Nissan Motor President at the time Carlos Ghosn. The model found fans worldwide for its speed and the legend built around it; tennis star Naomi Osaka once said her favorite Nissan was “the GT-R” because “it’s fast.”
On its final day, the last GT-R rolled off the line to a send-off from many of the people who built and supported it. As consumer priorities shifted from speed and style toward ease of use and fuel economy, the sports-car market shrank.
“The development costs and man-hours became enormous, and the biggest issue was that the price would exceed what we could offer customers,” said former GT-R development lead Mitsutaka Matsumoto.
Marking the end of an emblematic model, Nissan also released a video message. “This is not a farewell forever to the GT-R. The GT-R will evolve and return. We ask everyone to be patient,” said Nissan’s Ivan Espinosa.
