With Nissan having confirmed the GT-R badge will live on, but delivering little else on the matter, we’ve all been left wondering what the Japanese automaker is planning for the halo model—sure, the 2023 Nissan Z is quite something, but we’re still eager to find out more about the model sitting above it. Meanwhile, a digital artist proposes a sedan incarnation for the soon-to-retire R35 GT-R, which has an air of nostalgia to it.
While the GT-R badge has always been a coupe thing, all the iterations of the JDM icon up to and including the ex-gen R34 were tied to the Skyline series. This is a line that dates back to 1954, before Nissan bought the Prince company that made the original Skyline.
As such, it’s not uncommon to see aftermarket sedan conversion for modern GT-Rs, from the R32 introduced in 1989 to the R34 born a decade later. And while such an R35 might exist, we have yet to come across it.
That’s because the current Godzilla doesn’t share its platform with any other model in the Nissan or Infiniti range, despite the Skyline series continuing to be offered in Japan—in its current Gen 13 form, this entered service in 2014 and you might know it as the Infinity Q50.
There’s a Toyota body behind those GT-R fascias
Not even this pixel model uses a Nissan as a starting point. Instead, the 3D work, which is quite convincing, turns to a machine packing a similar configuration (front-engined, RWD or AWD) and dimensions, albeit from Toyota.
This cross-badge digital effort relies on a Gen 14 Toyota Crown, which was built between 2012 and 2018. The name is relevant to the U.S. market since this was Toyota first import back in 1958, which is one of the reasons why the Crown is set to return stateside later this year after multiple decades of absence.
Digital artist Egor Bessonov (aka op80), who is responsible for the work and has played with classic GT-Rs in the past, chose the sportier Crown Athlete version and we can only hope he also threw in the twin-turbo 3.8L V6 of the GT-R in there.
And while we’re talking virtual aftermarket creations, the enthusiast also fitted the four-door R35 GT-R with a set of DUB wheels coming in 21-inch size. Oh, and is that the Toyota badge still hanging in at the back?
Now, if this pixel build seems a bit on the unexpected side, how about a real-world project marrying the body of the R34 Skyline to the chassis and mechanical side of the R35? Dubbed R69 GT-R, this already been completed by B Is for Built and we should hear more from the contraption in the future.
