The 2017 Nissan GT-R NISMO will make its U.S. debut at the 2016 Japanese Classic Car Show. The 12th annual event will take place in Long Beach, California, on Saturday, September 24 and Nissan has also teamed up with Matchbox to show off a brand new scale model toy. The company’s booth will be buzzing throughout the event with special giveaways, including some of the new Matchbox 1:64-scale models. See a preview of Nissan’s lineup below.
“Nissan is looking forward to returning to the Japanese Classic Car Show as both a participant and an event partner,” said Michael Bunce, vice president, Product Planning, Nissan North America, Inc. “It’s an ideal venue to show off our latest supercar – the 2017 GT-R NISMO – as well as some current and vintage racing and street machines.”
Meanwhile, the 2020 Nissan GT-R will be a hybrid with hypercar performance, GT-R, Expert Predicts. The final refresh for the R35-generation 2017 Nissan GT-R was just unveiled, and although it may not look that different to the average passerby, Matt McCulloh was still more than impressed.
McCulloh is the co-founder of the North American GT-R Owners Club and helps run the GTRLife Forum. He has owned three GT-Rs and currently drives a 2015 Nissan GT-R NISMO with serial number 1, which is the first GT-R NISMO built for the U.S. His daily driver is a Nissan Juke NISMO RS.
He shared a few thoughts with AutoGuide.com on the refreshed GT-R: “It looks very much like a car that exists in 2016 versus the original design in 2007,” he said. “It’s almost nine model years old now, and they did very specific things to make it more competitive with some of the other trends you’re seeing in the industry. Overall, it’s a sharper, more angular car in general.”
He said Nissan GT-R designer Shiro Nakamura pulled a lot of inspiration from the Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo as well as the Proto concept unveiled in 2005.
He also noted that although the changes may seem small to an outsider, the result of the refresh is greater than the sum of its parts.
McCulloh has a tight relationship with Nissan executives, so he also has some pretty good insight into what the next-generation R36 model of the 2020 Nissan GT-R will be like.
“It will be more of a revolutionary car than an evolutionary car,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t be surprised if the next GT-R is a two-seater.
