Nissan Set to Shake Down 2026-Spec Z NISMO GT500

Nissan is set to undertake its first shakedown with its 2026 SUPER GT challenger this week at Fuji Speedway as it prepares to revamp the aerodynamics of its Z NISMO.

With the current aerodynamic freeze for GT500 cars being lifted this winter, Nissan has the opportunity to make the first visible changes to the Z NISMO since its introduction at the start of 2024, when it replaced the first iteration of the Z.

The Yokohama-based manufacturer is set to conduct two days of running on Tuesday and Wednesday at Fuji, where it will share the track with Honda as the latter continues development work on its all-new Prelude-GT contender.

Nissan’s SUPER GT executive director Shinichi Kiga said during the final round of 2025 campaign at Motegi that the brand is hoping to make the Z NISMO a less “nervous” car after struggling for competitiveness against Toyota in the last two seasons.

“This year’s car was a bit nervous, so we want to try and improve this aspect and make the car more robust, so that it isn’t as badly impacted by having a slower car in front, or the wind direction being strange, for example,” Kiga told Sportscar365.

“We are aiming to make the car more stable on braking and turn-in, and to make it easier to drive in any situation or conditions.”

Boosted by their victory at Suzuka, NISMO pair Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi ended up as the top Nissan crew in the drivers’ standings in seventh.

However, 40 of the 49 points scored by the No. 23 crew came from the Suzuka race onwards, as the works team struggled in the first half of the season.

Those struggles meant Chiyo and Takaboshi, along with the remaining Nissan crews, went into this month’s Motegi finale already out of title contention.

Reflecting on an up-and-down 2025 campaign for Nissan, Kiga said: “Towards the end of the season we were able to improve our performance, but we couldn’t score enough points in the first half of the season, and that gave us a big problem.

“The second half of the 2024 season wasn’t good for us, and even coming into this year, we were trying all sorts of different things with the setup. We ended up making up quite significant changes and that made the balance even worse.

“For the Fuji sprint, we decided to go back to a previous set-up concept, and it was like, ‘ah, this is how we should run the Z’.  It was a painful season, but I’m sure that this experience will help us also heading into next season.

“I want to keep this momentum heading into next year.”

Nissan announced earlier in the year that the traditional end-of-season NISMO Festival will not be taking place this year, which also signifies that the brand’s shootout test at Fuji, which usually takes the place the next day, will also not be held.

“Unfortunately the period for updating the cars [to 2026 specification] falls exactly when we would normally hold the NISMO Festival,” Kiga explained.

Kiga refused to comment when asked about the possibility of Nissan scaling down from four cars to three in 2026 amid the marque’s well-publicized financial issues, with the No. 3 NISMO NDDP car most likely facing the axe.

Nissan typically announces its GT500 lineups for the upcoming season in mid-January.