While recently speaking with Road and Track, company found Stephen Biogioni said that in the process of making the ultimate GT-R drift car a few years ago, they removed the sports car’s standard drivetrain and swapped in a Chevrolet LS V8 supplemented by a massive Garrett turbocharger. That meant they had a GT-R drivetrain just sitting around in the shop but nothing to slot it into. The idea of creating an insane Navara was then born.

Biagioni has spent roughly two years working on the ultimate Navara on paper, with development work kicking off in earnest in November last year. As SB Motorsport competes with its GT-R on the European drifting circuits, it didn’t have much time to build the so-called Navara-R. However, with motorsports on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, it has started really ramping up development work in recent months.

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Road and Track reports that the motorsport company won’t just slot in the GT-R engine and call it a day. Instead, the entire Navara body has to be lifted off its frame before the 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 and its transmission are fitted. KW suspension is also being installed to ensure the crazed pickup truck can handle all of the power.

"We’re adding everything to the frame. The Navara frame is in our booth, and we’re fabricating the front and rear subframes from the GT-R to fit that. It’s a bespoke build allowing us to use all the bits from the GT-R,” Biagioni said. "In theory it’ll make the Navara handle like a Japanese supercar. It’s going to be slightly longer and slightly wider than a GT-R. There’s not much difference in wheelbase between the two.”

On top of that, SB Motorsport plans to tweak the engine up to approximately 1,000 hp and it wants the Navara-R to be street legal. A number of bespoke exterior parts will also be fitted to ensure the cars looks just as mean as it is fast. Can’t wait to see the finished item now, can we?

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