No, Nissan isn’t building the next Batmobile.
The Japanese automaker will unveil the new concept car hinted at in this teaser image on Monday, but that may not be the only time you see it.
Among a recently-released image of every Nissan model ever featured in the Gran Turismo video-game franchise was a cloaked, low-slung sports car like the one seen here.
Nissan said this mystery machine would be its next Gran Turismo car, so it seems likely that the company is preparing to unveil its own “Vision” concept, like the ones already shown by Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volkswagen.
The Vision Gran Turismo concepts are being unveiled to celebrate the franchise, and so far designers have used them as opportunities to go crazy, and take advantage of the fact that none of these cars will ever have to face a crash test or a corporate accountant.
However, it’s possible Nissan’s car could be more significant.
The carmaker is poised to launch both a new Le Mans prototype racer for 2015, and a new GT-R sometime in the near future. Both cars will wear the GT-R, and there have been hints that they’ll share more than that.
While it’s hard to reconcile the technology of road cars and race cars, one possible way to tie the two GT-Rs together is through styling. The direction Nissan plans to take with that styling could be divined by this concept car.
After all, Nissan first previewed the styling of the current R35 GT-R with a concept that debuted at the 2001 Tokyo Motor Show, almost eight years before the production car went on sale.
So perhaps Nissan’s latest sporty concept will provide a hint at what the next GT-R will look like. Coming hot on the heels of so much news about the car’s future, the timing would certainly be right.
