The R35 Nissan GT-R has always been an incredible performance machine, but it hasn’t been traditionally beautiful. In fact, it departed quite a bit from tradition by splitting off from its R32/R33/R34 predecessors to become its own thing. However, a company from the UK has an answer to the question, “What if the R35 design was more evolutionary rather than revolutionary?”
Artisan Vehicle Design takes the R35 and redesigns it with a whole new face that is much more reminiscent of the R34 Skyline GT-R. It achieves that effect with rectangular headlights and wide grille. A body-colored bumper separates the grille from the lower intakes to avoid some of the early R35’s catfish-mouth look, and the blocky surfacing of the hood also a bit more R34.
At the rear new taillights mimic the spacing and proportions of the R34’s. The curvature of the rear haunches smooths out some of the R35’s square-ness. Tidier lines and a large diffuser break up some of the vertical height and busy-ness found on the R35.
Artisan says that the panels will be carbon fiber, because if you’re going to re-body the entire car you might as well go with that. Other flourishes include vents that flow behind the C-pillar. We wonder if this has been wind tunnel tested, because GT-R engineers go through great lengths to make sure the car is stable at Dottinger Hohe speeds.
Currently the car seems to only exist as a 3D rendering, but judging on looks alone the Artisan redesign looks better than many aftermarket reskins of the GT-R. The lines are cohesive and not just an amalgam of garish aftermarket trends. Artisan will offer the car in two versions, Track and Ultimate, but it did not detail what the differences between the two would be.
Only 36 examples will be built, making it even rarer than the ItalDesign GT-R50. We could’ve seen this catching some momentum a few years ago, but with the R34 becoming legal for import next year it’s going to be hard to resist getting the real thing.
Additional Images:
Images: Artisan Vehicle Design
This looks great. Fantastic even. Yet I’ll never have great interest in the R35 without a manual option.
I rarely like these types of things, but this really does look good. My only complaint is that the front kinnnnnnnda sorta maybe looks a bit too Honda-y. Maybe squint a bit. Not that I dislike Honda by any means, its just a bit confusing.
Wow! Artisan Vehicle Designs out Nissaned, Nissan and made a better looking GTR. If they are able to reduce weight by 600 lbs they will not only have a great looking car but one that preforms much better. Not that the GTR preforms poorly. It’s just over weight.
I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but unless I see some photos and videos of a real-life conversion, those above all look like another render of JDM hype culture.
For me, the styling alone is… not all that revelant to the R34 either, honestly. I think knowing that Nissan made a switch and disconnected the GT-R from the Skyline name themselves, it will never work too well when one tries to mimic the R34 with R35.
In Bayside “battle” blue, very nice.
No doubt the design is excellent, proportionally to the square shitbox the Skyline R-34 was, since both sedan and coupe shared the same floorpan, pillars, glass and everything else.
Perhaps in a fog night you can easily mistake this blue R-35 for an R-34 at distance, but the current model (both Infiniti Q-50 and Skyline GTR-35) have more fastback feeling of “kenmeri” than the long-lasting “hakosuka” design practicality. We should always remember that the Skyline was only possible because Nissan understood that Prince never ran away from making luxury sedans accessible to everyone.
Ocidentals will not understand or accept the evolution of classic things. I’m glad that my mindset really don’t click here in Brazil with most whites. You reach a point where you respect many other things rather than being “cherry-picky” on a specific thing.