Nissan updates GT-R for European market

Nissan has made a series of subtle tweaks to the performance, paint work and pricing of its flagship GT-R sports car ahead of its introduction into the European market in 2009. The European spec GT-R's hand-built 3.8-litre V6 twin-turbo engine gets a slight power boost of around one percent thanks to some electronic fine tuning along with a new, lighter pearl white exterior colour and Dunlop SP Sport 600 DSST tyres fitted as standard.

The additional power brings the GT-R's output to 485 PS (up from 480PS or 353kW) while torque remains unchanged at 588Nm.

In addition to the new tyres, which were developed specifically for the GT-R, modification has been carried out to the suspension spring rate settings to improve ride performance and along with the new pearl white "Storm" colour option, Gun Metal grey coloured Rays seven-spoke alloy wheel designs have been added for the standard and Premium Edition GT-Rs.

Production of the European specification Nissan GT-R begins in its Tochigi plant in Japan this month and deliveries will begin in April. Nissan has so far taken in excess of 2500 customer orders in Europe with 1200 coming from the UK. Any new customer will have to wait until mid 2010 for delivery and can also expect to pay a little more - as of 8 December 2008 the price of the GT-R will increase by £1995 and start from £56,795 on the road with a further £1300 for the Premium Edition (£58,095) and another £1300 for the Black Edition (£59,395). This represents an overall increase of 3.8 percent.