source: NissanUSA

There are those that say the Supercar Wars have already been won. After seeing the likes of cars like the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, Lamborghini Huracán Performante, and MacLaren 720S — one would be quick to proclaim Europe the victor. The Yanks would dispute that, as they have a few contenders of their own in the form of the Ford GT, the Corvette ZR-1, and as-of-yet unreleased Tesla Roadster. Now that all those desires for performance have been sated, are consumers expecting manufacturers to settle down and focus on building the less remarkable, more efficient, more electric fleet of the future?

Others will say the Japanese have already shifted their focus. Unlike European companies like McLaren, Lamborghini, and Ferrari that do nothing but breed driving exhilaration, Japanese and American automakers have a much wider offering. After all, there are more profits to be made from selling millions of trucks, hybrids, minivans, and crossovers than hundreds or even thousands of supercars.

With the superfluous Lexus LF-A long out of the picture, the sole torchbearers for Japanese supercardom are the Acura NSX and Nissan GT-R — more on that in a bit. Sure there are other “sporty” cars from Japan, performance cars even. Trailing far behind the LF-A’s wake in the Lexus stable are the RC-F and LC-500. Limited horsepower and hefty curb weights slot these two as Grand Tourers nipping at the heels of the BMW M4 and Mercedes C63. The Lancer Evolution is dead, but along with it’s arch rival the Subari Imprezza STi, it was more of a road going rally car than anything else. Nissan’s other performance car, the 370Z, has become a bit of a zombie and has become a little long in the tooth. The upcoming Supra — a joint venture between Toyota and BMW — may not pack the hardware required of a supercar either.

The current NSX was supposed to channel the ethos of it’s aluminum bodied predecessor that took the world by storm. With a turbocharged v6 paired with a trio of electric motors to perform torque fill and torque vectoring, the NSX would have piggybacked on the GT-R’s momentum. This car had all the makings of a baby P1/918/LaFerrari at a much lower price. That begs the question, why didn’t it sell?

So far only 51 units have been sold in the US for 2018. Just eight — eight! — cars were sold in all of Europe during that same period. At a starting price of $156,000 it was till too much for prospective buyers. In fact, these low sales figures came in despite Acura dealers offering massive rebates upwards of $30,000 USD.

To be fair, the NSX is a gorgeous car and a technological tour-de-force. However the market doesn’t seem to be there — not at that price point at any rate. The new technology has it’s quirks and some have likened the driving experience to be “detached” and “digital” even when compared to Godzilla which just a decade ago had everyone likening it to a video game.

The GT-R isn’t doing so well either. Dubbed internally as the “R35”, it made headlines when it debuted in 2008 as the sub-$70,000 Porsche 911 turbo slayer. With a 478hp twin turbocharged v6 mated to an advanced AWD system it caught all the other performance marques with their pants down. It’s gumption and squared off, polarizing design proved to the world that this car was uniquely Japanese, and it was the supercar that only Japan could build.

Ten years later, long after it’s replacement should have been released, the R35 GT-R soldiers on. Much like Marge Simpson’s Chanel suit, Nissan has tweaked it’s halo car over the years in an effort to keep the car fresh. It’s gained a bit of power (565hp as of the last revsion not counting the Nismo which pushes 600 horses) as well as a bit of weight. In 2017 the car received a cosmetic facelift inside out and softened a bit more — pushing it more towards GT than R. Along with the “improvements” came annual increases in price. As of 2017 the GT-R stickered for $109,000.

source: NissanUSA

Meanwhile, just about every single competitor has caught up and surpassed mighty Godzilla. Porsche’s 911 — the benchmark that the R35 designers originally set their sights on — has leapfrogged ahead with just about every variant between the 911 turbo and the GT2/GT3. Chevrolet’s managed to make a Camaro that can outrun a GT-R not at a dragstrip which is more suited to the Chevy’s muscle car origins, but on a road course. The fabled 7:08 Nurburgring laptime that the 2018 GT-R Nismo set with a bevy of non standard track options has been usurped by the Viper, the Porsche 918 Spyder, and most surprisingly, the Subari STi RA (the RA stands for Record Attempt). Let that sink in. A 4 door, 4 cylinder Subaru based on an econobox chassis with half the horsepower ran a 6:57 on the Green Hell — over ten seconds faster.

Now that the halo has faded, the R35’s weaknesses have become more pronounced. At over 3900lbs, it is heavy. So heavy in fact that extended track sessions would overwhelm it’s already beefy six piston Brembo brakes and Dunlop runflat tires. Transmission cooling became an issue if the car was run too hard when the ambient temperature was too high. It’s relatively small 3.8L engine was picky and wouldn’t make it’s advertised output on anything less than 93 octane gasoline.

The loss in competitiveness and increase in price has caused sales to languish as well. In 2017 Nissan sold 578 GT-Rs, the lowest yearly sales ever recorded for this platform — which incidentally is about as many NSX’s sold. 2018 sales — 69 sold — are even more abysmal. In light of the 1.4 million cars that Nissan sells annually, it has become increasingly hard to justify the continued sales of the GT-R, much less the R&D required to create it’s successor.

What would it take for a supercar to be competitive in 2019? For starters you would need to “add lightness”. The McLaren 720s and Porsche 911 GT3 are in the low 3000lb range. You would need power in excess of 600 horsepower — 700 if you can manage it. The fastest hypercars like the LaFerrari employ the use of active aerodynamics, changing the shape and profile of the car to reduce drag while accelerating in a straight line, and channeling air to increase downforce when braking and turning. Throw in better tires, better suspension, better brakes and all of a sudden, building a supercar at a sub $200,000 price point has become a daunting task.

A quick look at GT-R message boards have current owners clamoring for just that — 800+hp, 3000lb curb weight, hybrid drivetrain with torque fill, active aerodynamics. They want a McLaren P1 killer for under 911 turbo money. Faced with that challenge, it’s not surprising that after all this time, Nissan remains tight-lipped about the R36. Sure there was the Nissan 2020 concept with a purported turbocharged 3.0 liter v6 and hybrid powertrain, however it’s anybody’s guess as to how close to reality it would actually be. After seeing the markets reaction to Acura’s NSX, would Nissan rethink it’s strategy? After all, no one purposefully goes into business to lose money.

The answer might lay in the past, rather than the future. The last legendary GT-R was the R32. Like the R35, it was a performer and did so well in several racing series that it ended up getting banned. The last two models that came after it — the R33, and R34 were more evolutionary steps than revolutionary ones. The chassis was tweaked, but at it’s heart the Rb26DETT twin turbo inline 6 and ATESSA AWD system stayed the same.

If you stop to think about it, historically it makes a lot of sense. The current 370z and 350z share a lot of powertrain components and those two generations go back 15 years. The infamous S-chassis (better know stateside as the 240sx) had three generations in the rest of the world — the S13, S14, and S15, all of which had the same SR20DET 2.0 turbo four and RWD drivetrain (with some minor configuration and packaging differences).

Taking this evolutionary approach, what if the R36 were to address the weaknesses in the current platform? First of all, tackle the weight. Make the car slightly smaller, increase the use of aluminum (like what Ford did with the F150), titanium, and carbon fiber to get the curb weight down in the 3200–3300lb range. Add a carbon ceramic brake rotor option to improve braking and further decrease weight — all of it rotating mass no less.

All this weight reduction means improvements to the chassis and handling are even more pronounced. Employ the same bonding techniques from the Nismo to further stiffen the chassis. License GM’s magnetic ride control to both improve handling and tame ride harshness at the same time. Ditch the runflat tires and replace them with stickier, wider, and lighter rubber, such as the Pirelli Trofeo-R. Mind you, this is the tire responsible for shedding seconds off laptimes for cars ranging from the Camaro Z28 all the way up to the McLaren P1.

Leave the existing powerplant untouched to retain compatibility with the vast GT-R aftermarket. After all, the GT-R is not a destination — it’s a starting point. The average GT-R owner sees it as a platform to add more power. In most cases, 650hp is just a few hardware modifications away. Throw enough money at it, and quadruple digit horsepower numbers are readily attainable.

That being said, ship the R36 with the same engine, but with the larger turbos from the Nismo. No hybrid powertrain or brake-by-wire nonsense to dull the experience. With a bit more injector headroom, it should be fairly easy to squeeze 650 horses from this package. 650hp and 3200lbs may not chase down a P1, but it might put it within spitting distance of a 720s or a Huracan.

Finally, leave the price alone at ~$110,000. If it was possible to sell the R35 at $70k, it should be within the realm of possibility to sell the R36 at this price point. You’ve got some engineering costs in the chassis certainly, but you’re also cutting costs by licensing some pieces from others, sourcing a lot of off the shelf components, and raiding the existing GT-R parts bin.

Of course, this is all pie in the sky conjecture at best. No one really knows what the R36 will be, or if it’ll even materialize anytime soon. Perhaps Nissan will surprise us all.