Farewell to a Godzilla as Nissan Retires the GT-R, the Engine Cries and So Do We
There’s a certain guttural thunder that echoes through your ribcage the moment a Nissan GT-R ignites. Not just a mechanical rumble, but the sound of an era—the symphony of twin-turbo V6 engineering fused with digital sorcery, screaming through a titanium exhaust.
But come the end of this production cycle, that noise will be no more. Nissan is officially winding down the GT-R. After 18 years of fearsome evolution, Godzilla will roar no more.
Now, Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s petrolhead-in-chief and spiritual steward of the GR Supra, recently proclaimed that a proper sports car should always have “an engine and a sound track.” You’d struggle to find a better distillation of automotive soul. Sadly, Toyoda-san’s philosophy is becoming increasingly endangered, like the internal combustion dinosaurs it so lovingly champions.
While Toyota is fighting the good fight with its Gazoo Racing lineup, Nissan is quietly dimming the lights on one of the greatest engineering statements of the 21st century.
The GT-R wasn’t just a car, it was a challenge hurled at the likes of Porsche, Ferrari, and anyone else with an ego. Here was a snarling, PlayStation-generation coupe from Japan, weighing in at nearly two tonnes, with a 3.8-litre V6, two turbos, and the kind of AWD system that felt like it had precognition.
It demolished Nürburgring lap times, embarrassed six-figure exotics, and rewrote the rulebook on what a modern performance car could be.
It also aged like a samurai blade, gracefully, but always with purpose. Over 18 years, tweaks were made, power was upped (eventually hitting 600bhp in the GT-R Nismo), and tech sharpened. But the essential character remained: brutal, confident, almost clinical in its pursuit of speed.
And now, silence. Doomed to shuffle off into the ever dimming past; to be a faded poster in a forgotten bedroom.
There’s no immediate successor on the cards, no hybrid howler or all-electric spiritual twin. Just a slowly cooling factory line and a few final-edition models for those with a spare six figures and a taste for the end of things.
Is this the way the GT-R goes? Not with a bang, but a legislative whimper? Blame emissions, blame electrification, blame changing tastes and global strategies. But none of it makes the pill easier to swallow.
For those of us who grew up with this monster postered on our walls or downloaded into our Gran Turismo garages, the GT-R isn’t just a car, it’s a feeling. A reminder that speed should be visceral, noise should be earned, and perfection is best served through turbo lag and telemetry.
So here’s to you, GT-R. You weren’t subtle. You weren’t always pretty. But by god, you were unforgettable.
And as for the future? If Akio Toyoda has his way, it might still have a pulse. But if Nissan’s current silence is anything to go by, we may just be looking at the twilight of something truly great.
