Whether a person knows cars in and out or could be tricked into trying to buy blinker fluid, when most of us think of sports cars, we think of sleek, fast and refined. Nissan’s design boss, instead, insists the company’s next six-figure GT-R supercar be “the world’s fastest brick. Less wing, more brick.”
Honestly, that’s refreshing and accurate. Nissan’s current sports-car lineup is made up of a bunch of big ol’ fast bricks, including the current GT-R that makes 565 horsepower standard, and Nissan just want to make big ol’ faster bricks in the future. In the age of expensive sports cars that look like amphibious fish creatures and bugs that could slice you in half, a brick approach is… wholesome, in more ways than one. It’s nice.
In an interview with Autocar, Nissan design boss Alfonso Albaisa didn’t say how the new GT-R would become the world’s fastest brick—whether by some level of electrification or none at all—but did say Nissan is making a new platform for the aging vehicle and that it “has to be the quickest car of its kind.” Albaisa also wants the new GT-R to be different from others of its “kind” in how it looks.
Albaisa said his team can’t start serious work on the car until powertrain and platform decisions are finalized, but did preach the truth of the brick, in the GT-R and in general, to Autocar:
“We simply have to reflect people’s dreams; and I think people dream that the next GT-R will be the hottest super sports car in the world,” said Albaisa.
He said that the next car would have a muscular character like the R35 in order to retain the GT-R “beast”, adding: “It’s an animal; it has to be imposing and excessive. Not in terms of its wings, but rather its visual mass, its presence and its audacity.
“It doesn’t care what every other supercar in the world is doing; it simply says: ‘I’m a GT-R, I’m a brick, catch me.’ It’s the world’s fastest brick, really. And when I review sketches for the new car, I say that a lot: “Less wing, more brick.’”
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That’s a lot to take in right there.
First: “I think people dream that the next GT-R will be the hottest super sports car in the world.”
“Hottest super sports car” is subjective, depending on whether a person likes 2,000-HP electric supercars, 1,400-horsepower gasoline cars with nightmarish fuel economy, cars with American muscle but are pretty bare otherwise, cars that can only be driven on the track, or anything else. You get the idea.
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The point is, someone out there will probably think the new GT-R is the “hottest” supercar in the world. Check.
Next: “It’s an animal; it has to be imposing and excessive. Not in terms of its wings, but rather its visual mass, its presence and its audacity.”
This is hilariously reminiscent of the Rolls-Royce Cullinan SUV. It has to be huge so people are intimidated by it even if the hugeness does inevitably throw off the power-to-weight ratio that heavily influences performance and efficiency.
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Kudos for not doing what everyone else is doing in the sports-car realm, Nissan.
And, lastly: “It doesn’t care what every other supercar in the world is doing; it simply says: ‘I’m a GT-R, I’m a brick, catch me.’ It’s the world’s fastest brick, really. And when I review sketches for the new car, I say that a lot: ‘Less wing, more brick.’”
At the end of the day, no one really wants to catch a brick. It’s one of the least catchable things there is.
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Maybe that’s Nissan’s whole idea.
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