[News/Rumour] New GTR in "three to five years", might be "co-developed with next Honda NSX"

     Next-Gen Hybrid Nissan GT-R Coming Within Five Years,
     Could Be Co-Developed With Next Acura NSX
     -----------------------------------------------------
     The R35 Nissan GT-R is not long for this world, but as it shuffles
     off its mortal coil it leaves us with a promise: the GT-R badge
     will live on. Nissan has long said an R36 would come, but the
     New York International Auto Show provided the first few details
     about the upcoming car's development. According to Nissan North
     America's chief planning officer, speaking with The Drive, the
     next-generation hybrid-powered GT-R is just three to five years
     away - and if Honda wants to let Nissan piggyback off of NSX
     development, the latter company is willing to play ball.

     Nissan North America senior vice president and chief planning
     officer, Ponz Pandikuthira, told The Drive that the R36 will be a
     hybrid - preferably a plug-in hybrid that can operate to some
     degree on electric power alone, and ICE power will come from a
     twin-turbo six-cylinder engine. He noted the VR35 V6 in the new
     Armada, which shares its VR series with the R35's VR38 mill, and
     the whole setup could take advantage of Nissan's foray into
     solid-state batteries. Pandikuthira particularly emphasized the
     GT-R's daily usability as a point towards hybridization, ensuring
     the car remained usable to "drive your kids to school" or "go to
     the grocery store." 

     But what about Acura?
     That makes Pandikuthira's other remarks, about the possibility of
     working with Honda on the R36, sound particularly odd. The
     second-generation NSX's much-maligned development time could
     theoretically fit within Nissan's three-to-five-year timeline, if
     the two companies started working together right this very second,
     but the two models come from very different walks of life.
     Pandikuthira himself seemed to recognize the oddity of the
     suggestion when speaking to The Drive:

     "Can we do a next-generation NSX and GT-R off the same platform,
     make the NSX authentic to what it stands for and make a GT-R
     authentic to what it stands for? So they are not clones?"
     Pandikuthira asked rhetorically. "Can you co-develop two cars like
     that? I think we can."

     "The authenticity of this matters," Pandikuthira continued. "An
     Acura NSX had a very different origin of what that car was. Super
     lightweight, all aluminum." The VP described the supercars'
     differences as the NSX being "super precise, lightweight,
     aerospace execution, whereas a GT-R is a brute, but a sophisticated
     brute."

     It's certainly possible for one platform to support both four-seat
     front-engine and two-seat mid-engine designs, particularly with
     the versatility of modern modular platforms, but the NSX and GT-R
     would likely end up on something bespoke - cars like the second-gen
     NSX and the Porsche 718 and 911 all run on unique platforms. The
     outgoing GT-R, like the Toyobaru twins, runs on a modified version
     of an existing platform: Nissan's FM for the former, Subaru's SGP
     for the latter. Getting those divergent designs, with divergent
     goals and divergent approaches, onto a single platform would not be
     a trivial task. Nor would it be a quick one, with that
     three-to-five-year deadline looming. Add that to Honda's indecision
     about whether to make the third-generation NSX a full EV, and you
     start ending up with a lot of ingredients that don't quite mesh
     into one final dish.

     As of right now, it's not clear where Nissan really is in
     development of the R36. Some level of development is certainly
     going on behind closed doors, to have a deadline so fast
     approaching, but things seem to be early enough in the process that
     roping another manufacturer - one with a product so different - into
     the equation is still not only possible, but desirable. Maybe the
     two have been working on such a plan for months, or maybe
     Pandikuthira's comments are more aspiration than cold hard fact.
     Either way, we win - the GT-R is coming back. 


     
<https://www.jalopnik.com/1840214/next-gen-nissan-gt-r-co-developed-acura-nsx/>