Nissan's GT-R test team has shown up at the 'Ring with a lightly camouflaged prototype that appears to be the upcoming SpecM edition. The SpecM has been dubbed as the most gentlemanly version of the GT-R, with a more compliant suspension set-up and more sumptuous interior tailoring. Early reports tell us that SpecM GT-Rs can be highly personalized with specially-hued leathers and paint options. The graphic camo on the front and rear bumpers appears to hide some subtle visual revisions to the standard GT-R.

The GT-R SpecM is pegged for a debut at this Fall's Tokyo Motor Show.

At 10:30 a.m. United Arab Emirates time (GMT+4), expert driver Mohammed Ben Sulayem who is FIA Vice President and President of the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE pointed the aggressive nose of the Nissan GT-R at the mountain, set the car's electronics to full launch mode and dropped the twin clutches to unleash 485PS (357kW) through the car's permanent all-wheel drive system. Just a few minutes later having negotiated the mountain's 22 corners and 7kms, Ben Sulayem crossed the line to set a first ever official time for ascending the mountain of 3 minutes and 39.008 seconds.

"That was fun!" exclaimed Sulayem at the conclusion of the run. "I have been familiar with the development of the GT-R for sometime now and to achieve this first ever officially recorded time on the Jebel Hafeet mountain road is a fitting event to mark the regional launch of what I believe is one of the most capable performance cars ever developed. This car is true to its design philosophy of being a super car for anyone, anywhere, at anytime. Timed "hill climb" events like these have been popular - especially in Europe - since the very early days of the motor car and when Nissan set a new record time around the Nordschliefe at the Nürburgring we immediately thought a similar feat in our region would be appropriate...and so it has proved," he concluded.

The Jebel Hafeet mountain road on the outskirts of Al Ain in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi rises approximately 4,000 ft (1,219 m) with 22 corners and three lanes (two climbing and one descending). The road scales the mountain and ends at a scenic parking lot and passes a hotel and a palace on the way. A seven-km stretch of the mountain road was used for the GT-R Jebel Hafeet Challenge.

For this very special event, Nissan received the permission of the Abu Dhabi authorities to temporarily close the road, while under the auspices of the Automobile & Touring Club of the UAE (ATCUAE) the closed road was monitored by marshals to Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) safety standards. Official timing of the run was also conducted to regional FIA standards.

Ohio based Switzer Performance Innocation has developed a Nissan GT-R performance package called P700 that supposedly delivers more than 700-HP on 93-octane gas.

Tests so far have shown that the street-legal performance package does infact go beyond the limits of the standard ECU calibration, but 700-HP? For real? Sort of. In the end, with P700 package installed, the SPI Nissan GT-R manages to produce more than 626 all-wheel HP with 383 lb-ft of all-wheel torque. Impressive, but I’d like to see them bump it up just a little bit more.

Switzer’s P700 GTR package should set you back a decent USD $16,650.

Forget the GT-R saloon and meet what you get when you combine a 35 with a R35 front end: A StaGT-R at the Nagoya Auto Trend show. Its not the first time Nissan GT-Rs to have been converted in Japan but it’s certainly the first time I’ve seen a conversion of a new Nissan GT-R.

It’s confirmed: Nissan is making a return to FIA GT racing. The news came from Nissan Motors Australia Managing Director and CEO Dan Thompson at the press day of the 2009 Melbourne Motor Show.

Nissan will submit the R35 Nissan GT-R into the FIA GT 2010 Championship series while British company Gigawave MotorSports will be teaming up with NISMO on an non-championship entry to check, test and develop the racing GT-R.

The specs on race-ready GT-R haven’t been officially revealed, but there’s a possibility that NISMO will drop the twin-turbo’d V6 in favor of the 4.5-liter VK45D8 V8. Output is estimated to be between 540-590 hp and 450-500 lb-ft of torque, with a curb weight as low as 3,000 pounds.

Some image of the new Nissan GT-R SpecV