Source:Autoblog.com

Japenese car mags sometimes provide the juiciest of news for us Yanks to drool over. Take these scans from an unnamed Japanese car mag that show Nissan's upcoming GT-R. The pictures look a bit photoshopped, as they differ from spy shots we've seen of the car testing at the Nurburgring in Germany and elsewhere in the world. The car in these pics is much more aggressive with an extra intake for rear brake cooling behind the doors and accompanying vent behind the wheel wells. The rear wing is also larger and a more serious looking affair.

Then again, the GT-R will come in three flavors, standard, V-Spec and EVO, so most of these shots may be showing the GT-R EVO trim that ups the car's aggression by a factor of ten. The translation of the article accompanying these photos tell us that the standard GT-R will start at $57,000 and feature a 480-horsepower version of the VQHRTT. Whether or not the twin-turbo V6 is 3.7L or 3.8L large wasn't mentioned. The V-Spec GT-R, meanwhile, will start at $67,000, while the top perfroming EVO spec will begin at $94,000 and feature a 530-horsepower version of the VQHRTT engine while shedding 220 lbs. from the car's overall weight through the use of lighter seats, ceramic rotors and the like.

 

Sounds like a great thing, and looks cool with all the carbon fiber, but I am just not buying it that even if it IS available in multiple specs such as the Evo or Nismo Z-tune, etc., I doubt to an extreme extent it would be available in the first year of production--ala Z06. I do believe they are working on several variants though for different production times, which is often necessary. This thinking also lets any manufacturer, not just Nissan, work out the bugs of a first year model, before debut of their pinnacle variant.

 

I think it is more than just marketing, it comes down to cost. The GTR will be a small production volume vehicle and the cost to profit margins will be small. Adding more options and trim levels simply costs more money. When the ZO6 was first released options only came in certain packages that made manufacturing easier.

It will interesting to see how Nissan will attempt to keep price down. At least the Yen rate is currently in our favor, which definitely helps!

-AL

 

funny how old this article is but they had basically the finalized front in some of the pics..