Nats R35 Roadster Or How You Turn A Nissan 350z Into A Gt - R Convertible

January 11, 2020

The students over at NATS are gearing up to showcase their builds at the Tokyo Auto Salon later this week, but until then, they’ve provided us with new pictures of the near-ready NATS R35 Roadster. Check it out below. [Updated 1/8/2020]

The Tokyo Auto Salon is shaping up to be particularly memorable thanks in part to a series of impressive projects from Japan’s Nihon Automotive College (NATS). Recently, a four-door Toyota 86 Sedan was previewed by students from the college and now we’ve come across images showing a Nissan GT-R Convertible in the works.

Also Watch: Nice Try, But This Ain’t A Real Nissan GT-R Convertible

Viewed from the front, the car looks much like any other modified GT-R with a bespoke bumper and tweaked grille. Glance beyond the front-end, however, and you may notice something rather odd. The car doesn’t appear wide enough to be a GT-R. That’s because it isn’t a GT-R but a Nissan 350Z, sold as the Fairlady Z over in Japan. While chopping the roof of a real GT-R would certainly be possible, it would be much more expensive and time-consuming than simply starting with a 350Z Roadster and affixing GT-R body panels to it.

The rendering of the finished car previews it wearing a near-identical silver and blue paint scheme to the Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R featured in 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Not too long ago, students from the Nihon Automotive College brought the drop-dead gorgeous RX-Vision to life using the underpinnings of an RX-8. Work is also currently underway on a Toyota A90 Supra Roadster for the Tokyo Auto Salon that uses the platform of a Lexus LC400.