“If things go well … we want to expand the models that we cover through this program.”
For any lover of this Kiwi favourite, NISMO’s — Nissan’s in-house tuning, motorsports and performance division — most recent announcement is bloody huge. Falling in line with other manufacturers, especially German ones, the company is launching a program to recreate discontinued parts for selected Nissan vehicles — not the kind your grandma is rocking, either.
First on the cards for the Heritage Parts program is he R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R! Beyond the opportunity to buy genuine parts for your R32 fresh from Nissan again, it shows how big of a demand there is for such an undertaking within the Skyline community, and you don’t need to tell us how sought after GT-R bits are in little old New Zealand. Imagine being able to buy an entire N1 kit straight out of the factory … it’s almost too good to be true.
But thankfully it isn’t as the program comes as part of a reshuffle of Nissan’s corporate structure, seeing a newly established NISMO Cars division, now part of Nissan’s Autech subsidiary, which aims to focus purely on road cars and operate independently from the motorsports side of things.
Autech president Takao Katagiri said during the press conference: “If things go well … we want to expand the models that we cover through this program.”
A fitting time for such an announcement as April marked the 60th year of the Nissan Skyline, now spanning 13 generations starting from the Prince Skyline back in 1957 — we take a much closer look at the entire history in the next issue NZ Performance Car (issue No. 247, out May 29).
The announcement, however, doesn’t mean entire cars will be remanufactured and sold on the dealer’s lot. But with the chance to buy what sounds to be a number of crucial components, we think there will be a huge influx of genuine parts-kitted conversions floating around in the near future …