The Nissan GT-R50 is a stunning vehicle, and fans can appreciate it more with the knowledge that the car was almost entirely built by hand.
A new video from Nissan traces the production process inside Italdesign, the Italian firm responsible for building the modified GT-R. Both the GT-R and Italdesign celebrate their 50th anniversaries this year, and that was the impetus for the two to team up for the special project.
The Italdesign team turned to sheet metal to create the wonderfully fluid shapes that grace the GT-R50, and a 3D printer created all the new lighting elements. The lighting design received special attention to give the LEDs the effect of infinite elements.
Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign
The Italdesign team cut sheet metal and created the shapes by hand using old school metal-forming tools. Italdesign put real blood, sweat, and tears into the car with hand-pounded creases via mallets, scalpels, and hammers.
The same hand-built thoughtfulness lies inside. Designers fitted custom components, including hand-stitched fabrics and carbon-fiber components, over the standard switchgear, and highlighted the cabin with gold hues.
All of this work required Italdesign to study the innards of the GT-R to ensure the GT-R50 retained the character of the original and to make sure everything would still work as intended.
Nissan's American and European design studios sketched a GT-R with no boundaries, and Italdesign worked to bring the sketch to life. That makes it one unique hand-built creation.
