Nissan’s European design chief says the next GT-R will have ‘Godzilla’ elements

What does the future hold for Nissan’s design team? To get a better understanding, TopGear.com sat down with the brand’s vice president for European design (and tallest man in Britain), Matthew Weaver, to see what’s what. First up? Let’s talk heritage design…

TG: How important is it to maintain certain cues from generation to generation?

MW: I think in the case of some iconic products - such as the GT-R - you’ve got to pull familiar details through. If it’s a GT-R follow-up, the customer and fanbase want to know it’s still a GT-R. So with vehicles like that and the Z, or the Patrol, we pull DNA from previous generations. We know what customers like, so we must ensure it remains recognisable with that particular marque. But we will try and evolve things where we can.

So what can you tell us about the design of the next GT-R?

The thing with the GT-R is that it’s got to perform in each area: aero, speed and performance. That’ll dictate it. The GT-R was never about winning beauty contests - it’s very much a functional machine. I remember working on the last one, where we spent days and nights in wind tunnels. I’ve never done anything like that since with any other product. So, without a doubt, these things will dictate the shape of the next car. On top of that, we’ll add certain ‘Godzilla’ elements in where we can.

Nissan’s fleet is looking rather sporty these days, can we expect the strong form to continue in the future?

A car for me is a very dynamic product. It should have character. Even if we’re moving towards electrification, they should still have an emotional attachment to it. But ‘sporty’ can mean different things. The Juke is quite sporty but not in the usual way, whereas the car with three letters in its name has a very different approach. Nissan has a rich racing heritage, which is something we can tap into moving forward.

If Nissan brought back a few more vintage models - like the Silvia - what sort of approach would be taken? 

What I like about the Silvia, and those Nineties cars in particular, is how clean they look. Super minimal in a way. It’s quite a loud world now - it’s become stranger than fiction - so it takes a lot of confidence to have something pure and clean. I wonder if the new noise in the future is actually silence. Because in a loud room, silence might be the thing that makes the most noise.