Nissan celebrates 50 years of the GT-R with the 720 hp GT-R50, a gold embellished commemorative concept in partnership with Italdesign.

Considering the Nissan GT-R’s storied heritage – the crown jewel of the Japanese automaker’s stable and a beastly automotive expression of “ugly delicious” on four wheels ? Nissan’s decision to celebrate the model’s 50th anniversary arrived as no surprise. What caught us off guard was the celebration’s co-host, the Italian design and engineering studio, Italdesign. Together, they’ve unveiled a collaborative effort resulting in a (nearly) elegant rendition of the legendary GT coupe.

Embellished with golden accents across its expanse of glossy sheetmetal painted in Liquid Kinetic Gray, the Nissan GT-R50 engineered by Italdesign (also celebrating its own 50 year anniversary) exists as a one-off prototype that doubles down in the audacity department, gilding the brutish aesthetic of the GT-R with gold paint, unique bodywork and even more performance.
One might assume it was an Italian eye responsible for smoothing out the chiseled muscularity of Nissan’s most brutish expression of speed, but the customized commemorative GT-R NISMO turned GT-R50 was in fact the work of Nissan?s design centers in London and San Diego. After dropping the roofline, a blush-inducing “power bulge” was added across the GT-R50’s hood, arching down to the front where a pair...