When Nissan retired the stupendous R35-generation GT-R earlier this year, the company said a new version of the performance car would make a return.

“To the many fans of the GT-R worldwide, I want to tell you this isn’t a goodbye to the GT-R forever, it’s our goal for the GT-R nameplate to one day make a return,” Nissan president and CEO Ivan Espinosa had said in a news release in announcing the final model has rolled off the assembly line in Japan on Aug. 26.

Espinosa admitted the company had no precise plan finalized at the time, but said the GT-R would evolve.

Now, a couple months later, the company has revived the GT-R engine, but it is not for a production sports car.

Instead, the GT-R’s twin-turbo V6 engine has been revived to take the company’s large, body-on-frame luxury SUV and crank it up a notch.

The company unveiled the Infiniti QX80 R-Spec for the 2025 SEMA Show.

Don’t worry, that’s not the GT-R replacement promised by Espinosa; it is a concept of what a luxury, three-row SUV can be.

For this specific build, the company cranked the GT-R’s engine to a whopping 1,000 hp. Engineers fitted the engine with custom turbochargers, intercoolers, exhaust manifolds and an upgraded fuel system to squeeze out more oomph.

“QX80 R-Spec is extreme, aggressive and a showcase of what Infiniti can do when our engineering and design teams take off all the guardrails,” said Tiago Castro, vice president, Infiniti Americas, in a news release. “With the QX80 R-Spec build, we challenged ourselves to explore an even more extreme direction for QX80 as we look to a future with high-performance variants that offer a broader breadth of adrenaline-pumping capabilities for our clients. We gave our team the freedom to be creative and dream of the unexpected as we redefine the future of luxury in a way that combines visceral performance with incomparable refinement.”

The SUV also takes various visual elements from the GT-R T-Spec Takumi Edition.

It rides on bronze 24-inch wheels with a 12-inch width. The wheels are shod with 315 section-width tires.

There’s a custom body kit and various visual elements inspired by the GT-R T-Spec Takumi Edition, including that car’s Midnight Purple colour, restyled exhaust finishers, diffusers, fog lights, badges and more.

This also happens to be the second performance-focused QX80 concept as the automaker showed off a QX80 Track Spec near the end of summer, though that one wasn’t quite as aggressive as the R-Spec.

While the QX80 R-Spec is not a production vehicle, it may hint at the automaker preparing to launch a performance-focused version of the full-size SUV. After all, the company has launched a Nismo version of the QX80’s twin, the Nissan Armada, which will be available for purchase soon.

Other Nissan SEMA concepts

The QX80 R-Spec isn’t the automaker’s only SEMA offering. The company also had fun launching several unique concept vehicles from its mainstream Nissan brand.

Nissan Dune Patrol

The Nissan Dune Patrol concept builds on the Nissan Patrol, which is marketed as the Armada in Canada and is a twin of the QX80. The concept vehicle takes the full-size SUV and turns it into a rugged off-roader with an array of custom and prototype Nismo off-road parts.

Nissan Frontier Rapid Runner

Just as the Dune Patrol above, for the Frontier Rapid Runner concept, Nissan took its Frontier pickup truck and converted it into an off-road hero with various Nismo off-road elements.

Forsberg Racing Nismo GT-Z

The Forsberg Racing Nismo GT-Z is a collaboration with Forsberg Racing and turns the Nissan Z Nismo into a track-ready race car. This car will be entered into competition in the Gridlife GLGT in 2026.

Forsberg Racing Patrol

In yet another collaboration with Forsberg Racing, the team took a classic Y60-generation (1989-1998) Nissan Patrol and turned it into a beast with a turbocharged 4.8-litre inline-six engine producing 1,000 hp. The off-road SUV was also given various Nismo off-road bits.

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