Nissan GT-R Gets One-Off NASCAR V8 Engine

This totally over-the-top NASCAR V8 powered Nissan Skyline GT-R was without doubt the attention stealer of the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon, Japan’s biggest car customizing show that wrapped a couple of weeks ago at the Makuhari Messe complex just east of Tokyo.

No folks, the GT-R you see here is not an iteration of the latest R35 version of Nissan’s legendary GT-R. What one customizer in Japan did was to take a first generation 1970 Skyline GT-R and squeeze a NASCAR spec V8 into its engine bay.

This classic Skyline might be owned by Osamu Hamanaka, but the seemingly bonkers project was conceived and built by ex-champion D1GP drifting driver Daigo Saito at his workshop in Tokyo in conjunction with notable customizer Trail Motor Apex Racing. The end product is the one-off ‘Pandem Widebody V8 Hakosuka’  (with ‘hako’ meaning boxy and ‘suka’ refers to Skyline) based on a first generation Nissan Skyline GT-R. Now while the ultra-wide blacked out, flared fenders look totally insane, those fenders house over-sized tires that are more than necessary for this orange beast.

Why? As if those 8 suspicious pipes poking out of the hood don’t give the game away. Fitted with a Rocket Bunny body kit, this GT-R packs a thumping Dodge NASCAR-spec 5.7-liter V8 engine pumping out an incredible 1,145-hp. The high-revving V8 is married to an RTS G-Force four-speed gearbox and is fitted with a Sikky/Winters quick-change rear-end. Custom control arms for the rear suspension have been supplied by Kei Miura. While the car cannot be driven on public roads, TMAR say they will be doing some testing in the near future with the goal of ‘racing it.’ However, exactly where and when they will race it is still under wraps but it seems fair to say that Saito, the guy who built the car, will eventually take it drifting.

Nissan only made 1,945 so-called ‘Hakosuka’ GT-Rs and word on the street is that around one-third of them survive today. Compared to the Pandem Widebody V8’s 1,145-hp, the original GT-R C10, which won multiple touring car races in Japan, was powered by a 2.0-liter straight-6 engine generating just 160-hp, but still considerable power for those days. Race versions of these cars today can fetch upwards of $300,000 due to their rarity and race-winning history. Just how much this one-off V8-fitted GT-R would cost is anyone’s guess.