Watch the Painstaking Process of Building Nissan’s Million-Dollar Italdesign GT-R50 by Hand
In just over four minutes, the video shows how a group of Italian craftsmen re-imagined the Japanese supercar.
This short documentary film released by Nissan shows details of how Italdesign rebuilt a Nismo GT-R into the million-dollar, 700-horsepower GT-R50.
Oh, and unless you're fluent in Italian, you may want to consider turning on closed captioning.
Any shop can install a body kit on a Nissan and call it a day. The work that Italdesign put in, however, is nothing short of admirable. We're talking hand-hammered aluminum body panels, and the car's roof getting chopped off and re-worked entirely. Every inch of this Nismo GT-R was studied, poked, and prodded in order to create a piece of rolling art that is uniquely crafted.
This car was created as a celebration of the GT-R nameplate's 50th anniversary. While it still looks like an R35 at a glance, everything about the GT-R50 is bespoke, from the bodywork down to the interior and lighting. Under the hood, however, is the same 3.8-liter V6 that Nissan has been using for the last decade. This particular engine has been boosted up to 720 horsepower and 760 pound-feet of torque thanks to the addition of new turbos and an improved cooling system. Italdesign helped reign that power in by including a large self-raising spoiler at the rear of the car among other minor aero features.
One of the craftsmen makes a poignant statement mid-way through the video: "Sheet metal lasts forever. I'll always be faithful to it." Those two short sentences sum up Italdesign. Watching these men work, you can see the devotion and expertise that goes on to breath life into the finished product.