Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Nissan Motor Co. will unleash a more powerful version of its GT-R sports car in Japan to take on Porsche AG, and Fiat SpA's Ferrari and Maserati.

The GT-R, which starred in the Sony PlayStation video game ``Gran Turismo'' and the movie ``2 Fast 2 Furious,'' features a 3.8-liter engine and a G-force gauge, earning the nickname `Godzilla' on fan Web sites. Japan's third-largest carmaker unveiled the sports car today at the Tokyo Motor Show and will begin domestic sales in December.

Nissan, Toyota Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. are all introducing new sports models at this year's show to halt the defection of customers to European brands. The Japanese carmakers will try to win over muscle-car enthusiasts like 45- year-old physician Ryuhei Sukegawa.

``European sports cars have a sophistication, tradition and style that Japanese makers don't have,'' said Sukegawa, who runs a clinic in central Tokyo and bought his second Aston Martin, a V8 Vantage, in January for 17.6 million yen ($154,000).

U.K.-based Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd., Stuttgart, Germany- based Porsche, and Turin-based Fiat's Maserati and Ferrari divisions all boosted their Japan sales in the first nine months of this year, according to figures released by the Japan Automobile Importers Association.

By contrast, domestic sales of leading Japanese sports models fell, according to data from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

Domestics vs. Imports

Overall car sales in Japan are declining as the country's shrinking population ages and as wages have fallen about 10 percent in the past decade. Sales fell for 26 of the past 27 months, according to the auto dealers association.

The decline includes domestically made sports cars. Sales of Nissan's 306-horsepower, 3.5-liter Fairlady Z, known abroad as the Z, dropped 5.2 percent in the first nine months of this year. Mazda Motor Corp. sold 12 percent fewer of its rotary-engine RX- 8, and sales of Honda Motor Co.'s 2.2-liter S2000 fell 27 percent.

Imported sports cars, by comparison, gained in popularity. Porsche, the maker of 911 and Cayman cars, sold 3,252 vehicles in the nine-month period, up 17 percent from a year earlier.

``I love the speed,'' said Hidefumi Jinnai, a 42-year-old oil-company employee who bought his first Porsche, a used 993 Carrera, in January and likes to take it for midnight spins on Tokyo's highways.

Ferrari, maker of the F430, sold 327 cars in Japan through Sept. 30 this year, up 9 percent from a year earlier. Aston Martin, best known as James Bond's favored brand, increased sales 14 percent to 191, while Maserati, maker of the GranTurismo, sold 366 cars, up 17 percent.

From 2003 to 2006, Porsche's Japan sales rose 78 percent while Maserati's almost tripled and Aston Martin's quadrupled.

`Japan's Mustang'

The new GT-R will take on the imports with a starting price of 7.7 million yen ($67,000). The model is a revival of Nissan's Skyline GT-R series, made from 1969 to 2002.

``It's a longstanding and legendary name plate for sports cars,'' said Karl Brauer, editor in chief of the Edmunds.com automotive Web site, based in Santa Monica, California. ``Culturally, it's kind of like Japan's Mustang.''

Previous versions gained a global following even as they were sold mainly in Japan. The new model will be sold in markets worldwide.

John Fuggles, a 43-year-old sales manager in London, planned to fly to Tokyo this week to witness the new GT-R's release. Fuggles, who races his R33 version of the model, said fans prefer the GT-R's power over the aesthetics of European sports cars.

``Ferrari is an art and a sculpture,'' he said. ``We are looking for technology.''

GT-R vs. 911 Turbo

The 480-horsepower GT-R features a 3.8-liter V6 engine and is capable of accelerating from 0 to 100 kilometers (62 miles) an hour in 3.6 seconds, Nissan said today. The 480-horsepower Porsche 911 Turbo Tiptronic S, which starts from $130,000, can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles an hour in 3.4 seconds, according to the manufacturer.

At about half the cost, ``you're going to get a car with the same performance as a Porsche 911,'' said Brauer of Edmunds.com.

Other Japanese automakers are also introducing new muscle cars at the Tokyo Motor Show.

Toyota will exhibit its 5-liter, 400-horsepower Lexus IS F, which goes on sale Dec. 25 in Japan from 7.66 million yen. Mitsubishi Motors will show its Lancer Evolution X, which went on sale in the country Oct. 1 and starts at 3 million yen.

Sales Target

While profit margins on sports cars are higher than those of other models, they won't make a significant impact on earnings for carmakers like Nissan or Toyota.

``The new GT-R won't boost overall profit at all because the number of units it will sell are too small,'' said Atsushi Kawai, a senior analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co. in Tokyo.

Nissan aims to sell 200 GT-R cars a month in Japan. The first three months of production are already sold out, Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said in an interview at the motor show today. ``Demand is very strong,'' he said.

The model is likely aimed at driving up traffic at dealerships, said Koichi Sugimoto, an analyst at Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co. in Tokyo.

``It's like the 100 million yen diamond in the window of the department store,'' Sugimoto said. ``Even if no one buys it, it gets attention.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Terje Langeland in Tokyo at tlangeland1@bloomberg.net; Kiyori Ueno in Tokyo at kueno2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 24, 2007 02:49 EDT