Last week we saw the reveal of the official safety car for this year’s F1 season in the form of the lightened SL63 AMG from Mercedes-Benz, and now we have a first look at the car that will fill the same role in this year’s Super GT touring car series. The car is none other than Nissan’s new GT-R supercar, which sports a pearl white finish and safety car hazard lights on its roof.

The safety car needs to be almost as fast as the actual race cars because otherwise the sensitive racing engines would overheat when slowed for too long and the tires and brakes would cool down excessively causing a loss in performance. We couldn't think of a better car for the premiere Japanese event than the GT-R.

The Nissan will first take to the track on March 16 when the 2008 GT series official kicks off at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan. To celebrate the event Nissan will conduct a series of demo runs prior to the race using a number of past GT-R racing models. These include the 2003 Xanavi Nismo model, 1998 Pennzoil Nismo GT-R, 1996 Nismo Clarion LM car and a 1990 Calsonic Skyline.

Nissan R35 GT-R

Nissan GT-R in depth