Nissan GT-R Spec V just around the corner for Japan(for now)

TOKYO — If you were impressed by the Nissan GT-R, wait until you see the limited-edition Spec V, to be launched in Japan on January 8. No plans have been announced for it to come to North America, Nissan says.

The Spec V arrives barely 12 months after the base model landed in domestic showrooms in December of 2007, and just six months since its debut in the U.S. market.

As this is published, three weeks before the launch, Nissan was remaining tight-lipped about details of the road-going racing car. The company briefly tested a camouflaged prototype at Germany's famed Nürburgring in October, but information on this car was sketchy. However, a source close to Nissan revealed some startling modifications that hint at Nissan's end purpose: to go head to head with Europe and America's legends in the FIA GT Championships.

And as can be expected, basically every piece of hardware has been tweaked. Former top racing engineer and GT-R chief engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno would have it no other way. First things first: Engineers had to get curb weight down. By removing the rear seats and adding lightweight carbon and aluminum body panels, around 198 pounds have been lost, dropping the coupe's weight to 3,638 pounds. Engine output might only be up 5 horsepower, to 478 hp at 6,400 rpm, but it's the beefed-up midrange torque that Nissan was after.

Mizuno instructed his technicians to modify the ECU and exhaust system to focus more of the already available 434 pound-feet of torque in the middle ranges between 3,000 and 5,000 rpm. That gives the GT-R more urgency exiting corners, a prerequisite for racing.

Fitted with a Brembo six-piston brake package, the base GT-R already had superb stopping power. But to take it to the next level, Nissan has added a unique, race-spec six-piston carbon-ceramic setup, developed in-house, that reportedly adds more than $30,000 to the car's base price. And to transfer that braking force to the racetrack, the Spec V offers a choice of either Bridgestone or Dunlop 20-inch semi-slicks on lightweight alloys. For those interested in cost, you can add another $15,000 for the tire/wheel package.

In addition to modifying engine response for faster cornering, Mizuno and his team have fitted specially developed Bilstein shocks and permanently set the car's damping and transmission settings into the R mode for quicker on-track performance.

Now what does all that mean? Having had experience as the man responsible for Nissan's Le Mans 24 Hours challenge as well as GT racing back home, Mizuno knows what GT racing is all about. So expect to see a race-spec version of the Spec V joining the ranks of Porsche, Aston Martin, Maserati and Corvette on the grid in the near future as Nissan takes on the world's best in the FIA GT Championship series.

For those of you with wads of spare cash lying around and a craving for a Spec V, you'd better be prepared to hand over upward of $150,000, because it won't be cheap. And to think that just four months ago, the dollar-yen exchange rate meant you could have picked up a Spec V for under $125,000.

Tim Gallagher of Nissan USA told Inside Line that there are no announced plans for the Spec V to come to North America, but added, "We expect to see some" of the expected Japan-market Nismo package parts for the GT-R offered in North America at an unspecified future time, "but not the entire range of selections."

Inside Line says: Enviably hot car that Americans will only be able to envy for now. — Peter Lyon, Correspondent