Nismo have announced that they’ll be campaigning the Nismo Motul GT-R at this month’s Tokachi 24-hour endurance race, with the race also doubling as a testing ground for Nismo’s new parts range for the R35.

If Toyota Team SARD choose to return to the Tokachi enduro with last year’s all-conquering Supra HV-R then Nismo may face an uphill fight come July 20. Regardless of the race’s outcome though, you can rest assured that when Nismo bring out their much-vaunted R-Tune parts for the GT-R that their mettle will have been thoroughly proven on the tarmac battleground that is the Tokachi circuit.

The buildup of the Tokachi contender has already commenced at Nismo’s Omori Factory in Tokyo and thanks to GTR-World.net (one of the car’s primary sponsors) we can catch a glimpse of what’s going into (or out of) the enduro racer.The most significant changes are in the weight department: a carbon-fibre boot lid and some other composite body panels help shed a few pounds, while much of the interior has been gutted to make way for the roll cage, racing seat, air jacks and safety gear. Apparently there are no power-adders in place, however it would be fair to expect the suspension and braking hardware to be seriously upgraded. Who knows, perhaps those trick carbon-composite brake rotors seen fitted to that Spec-V prototype will make a reappearance behind the TE37-esque rims of the Tokachi car?

Tyres are described as being “Bridgestone Racing Potenza” (most likely the RE55S) rather than racing slicks, so Nismo’s R35 should be fairly close in spec to what most amateur racers would be doing to their GT-Rs. It’ll be very interesting to see how it fares against the fancier cars at Tokachi and we’ll have a post-race report after the event, which takes place from July 20-21.

[Source: GTR-World.net]
[Images courtesy of GTR-World.net]