The annual Tokyo Auto Salon coming up in a couple days promises to be quite eventful thanks to its numerous talented attendees, but this Nissan GT-R convertible will still stand out from the crowd.
Built by a NATS (Nihon Automotive College) student team, the conceptual 3D renderings showed the iconic sports car with its roof sawn off and its body finished in light-blue and silver, just like the Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R from the 2 Fast 2 Furious. Overall, the concept looked great, but we were wondering how they would be able to pull it off. As it turned out, we were tricked, in a way.
When the real-life photos went live, it became apparent that the students chose the Nissan 350Z convertible to work with, locally called ‘Fairlady Z’ in Japan. Rather than slice the roof off the real GT-R, they took a 350Z instead and fitted it with GT-R-like body panels.
As controversial as this decision may seem to you, it is probably the best way to go in most cases. Sawing a roof off a sports car is an exceptionally difficult and risky task. Even if you succeed in making the body sufficiently rigid afterwards by adding bulk and weight, the car may end up not nearly as comfortable or easy to steer as before the conversion.