If you’re in the UK or Europe and want a Nissan GT-R, you’d better act fast. Nissan’s legendary sports car will be gone soon according to Carscoops, and that wonderfully loud exhaust is to blame.
Carscoops spoke to Nissan UK, which confirmed in a statement that the company would be phasing out the GT-R after the current model year because of new noise regulations:
13 years after its European introduction as the icon of accessible automotive high performance, we can confirm that European GT-R production will end in March, 2022 due to the new EU & UK drive by noise regulations starting 1st of July 2021 (No. 540.2014).
The regulations, introduced in 2016, will cap vehicle noise levels at 72 decibels, which is a reduction from 82 decibels in the 1970s. So just how loud is a GT-R? Well, let’s take a look:
One video I found on YouTube of an owner measuring his stock GT-R showed that even at 2000 rpm, the exhaust measured 77 dB. At 4000 revs that jumped to 88 dB. Modified cars can be even louder of course, like the GT-R that was banned from the Nurburgring for being too loud. That one had a modified exhaust that was supposedly as loud as 134 dB.
With European regulations also forcing Nissan to admit that the company can’t make a legitimate business case for bringing the new Z to the continent, it looks as if the era of the Nissan sports car is over for Europe. At least until Nissan figures out what it wants to do with the next GT-R.
This is also part of what has encouraged the big electric vehicle push lately. Not only do EVs reduce emissions from the gasoline combustion process, but they also reduce the amount of noise emitted into the atmosphere.