MOTORSPORT: 'Godzilla' won't return to V8s

Speculation that Nissan would develop a V8 Supercar version of its iconic GT-R supercar under new technical regulations for the category that are expected to roll out later this decade have been quashed.

Currently a rear-wheel drive V8 sedan category, V8 Supercars is preparing a white paper considering alternatives such as the adoption of coupe body styles and engines other than V8s beyond 2017, when Australia's last car-makers close their doors.

But Nissan Australia CEO and Managing Director Richard Emery says there’s no way ‘Godzilla’ would be making a comeback to Australia touring car racing, after it bowed out at the end of the Group A era in 1992.

“We wouldn’t do it -- that’s not what GT-R is,” he told motoring.com.au.

Nissan currently races the Altima sedan in the championship via factory-backed Nissan Motorsport.

CEO James Warburton is to present the white paper to the V8 Supercars board within months, as the category grapples with the fundamental shift in the automotive landscape that will come as Ford, Holden and Toyota cease local manufacturing over the next few years.

Coupes are seen as a way to keep manufacturers such as Ford engaged with the category after the Falcon dies in October 2016 and the imported Mustang becomes the Blue Oval’s local performance hero.

Technically, V8 Supercars is a control category, with virtually identical underpinnings across the category. The main differentiation comes with the exterior sheetmetal and under the bonnet, where brands can use their own engines.

While V8 Supercars has not ventured officially into the discussion, media and observes have speculated the Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Challenger and the GT-R would make logical candidates if coupes were given the go ahead.

Emery is emphatic that won’t be happening.

“The thinking we can take the Altima body off, stick the GT-R body on and go V8 Supercar racing is just not what that car is and we wouldn’t do it."

Nissan has confirmed a fully-fledged factory-backed effort to win the LMP1 class of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship and the jewel in that series' crown, the 24 Heures du Mans, using the Nissan GT-R NM NISMO.

But the production GT-R is an all-wheel drive twin-turbo V6, and Emery says the car’s image wouldn’t gel with V8 Supercars.

“I just don’t think GT-R, because of what it is and the way that car is presented to the marketplace in terms of technology and all those sorts of things, I don’t think that is the right environment on a global scale.

“So when we already have a formal factory involvement in place with GT3, I don’t think I would have GT-R running around shoehorned into some other category with a unique specification.”