In a little less than an hour Nissan will launch a live press announcement concerning the future of NISMO worldwide. Up to now little is known and in the original press release CEO Carlos Ghosn was pretty vague on the what this would be about. We do know that the announcement has something to do with NISMO’s future motorsport plans but they might also announce a few new NISMO badged vehicles. Honestly I have no idea.
The good news is that we can find out together! Just scroll down for the live stream of the press announcement!
UPDATE: Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn just announced that in the next 12 months there will be a “GT-R NISMO”
UPDATE #2: Here is the official Press Release on the GT-R NISMO
YOKOHAMA, Japan – NISMO is planning to work its magic on the famed Nissan GT-R as the flagship of a new range of performance models.
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd announced today that NISMO, its dedicated global performance road car and motorsports arm, is developing a new, higher-powered road version of the iconic Nissan GT-R.
The GT-R NISMO will be the third NISMO-badged model to emerge from Nissan’s performance-oriented brand as part of a strategy to add a range of exciting, innovative performance models across the Nissan range.
NISMO, with a new global headquarters near Yokohama, Japan officially opening today, already has deep experience in developing and preparing the Nissan GT-R for the racetrack. That expertise will go into creating GT-R NISMO.
“It would be unthinkable for us to develop a range of NISMO road cars without including the GT-R,” said Nissan President and Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn. “The standard road car is a global supercar and the GT-R’s performance on track reflects the passion and talents of the NISMO team. The GT-R NISMO will be special and I can’t wait to drive it.”
Already a legendary name to millions of video gamers and motorsports fans around the world thanks to Sony’s Gran Turismo® video racing series and Skyline’s on-track success since 1969, it’s no wonder that, together with acclaim for its road-going versions from leading automotive publications, the GT-R has achieved cult status.
The NISMO team’s intimate knowledge comes from their involvement in racing the GT-R and is a good precursor to the development of the new NISMO road car.
“We know that enthusiasts around the world will be itching to know more about the forthcoming GT-R NISMO,” said NISMO President Shoichi Miyatani. “It’s too early to share any details yet, but fans can be certain we’ll be applying all of our motorsport expertise to creating a GT-R NISMO worthy of the name.”
The current production 2014 model year Nissan GT-R has received evolutionary design and engineering enhancements based around feedback from competing in last year’s 24-Hours Nürburgring, and its success in Super GT and Global GT series.
As a result, the vehicle’s overall performance has been dramatically increased, high-speed stability improved and ride quality vastly more refined.
In development now, the new GT-R NISMO will sit at the top of the new Nissan NISMO range of performance vehicles, and be available alongside the standard model in Nissan’s specialized GT-R dealerships next year.
Technical specifications and performance figures will be released closer to launch.
Yesterday some Universtal Studio executive made the mistake of inviting a ninja from Super Street magazine to the set of “The Fast And The Furious 6″ and thought they wouldn’t pull out their iPhone and snap a picture. Luckily for us, that is exactly what happened. The shot you see above was posted to Super Street’s instagram yesterday and got an explosion of “likes”. The picture shows R’s Tuning’s BenSopra widebody Nissan GT-R in the foreground and what possibly looks like a modded Nissan 240Z in the background on the set of the upcoming action flick.
The GT-R is cool and all but what got my attention is that it looks like the cars are parked in the driveway of “Dominic Toretto’s” house from the very first movie. Does the movie’s plot have all the characters coming full circle? Will the famous bright orange Bomex Supra make a come back? This is an interesting development…
We are a little less than two weeks away from the SEMA show and more project cars are starting to reveal themselves. In rendered form at least. Today’s SEMA 2012 preview comes from visionary Mark Arcenal and his Fatlace brand. Arcenal and his team in Northern California have building one of the first BenSopra equipped widebody Nissan GT-Rs in the states for the last several weeks now. You can see build photos on Fatlace.com but yesterday this rendering of the finished product was released to the interwebs. It is pretty clear from the image that the guys at Fatlace are definitely going for a Super GT race car theme. There is not much about this build that says “street car”.
Oh, and if you are worried about the Fatlace GT-R being a purely superficial project then put fears at ease because Mark Arcenal is employing a slew of GReddy power parts under the hood. This includes an upgraded , intercooler, intake manifolds, and custom exhaust. Fatlace will use a Cobb Tuning Access Port module to up boost and fine tune everything to work in harmony. If the final product ends up anything like this rendering (which it probably will) then I am sure it will be the talk of the show.
Earlier today I was invited to the Mazda R&D center in sunny Irvine, CA to meet and greet with some of the newest champions in the Mazda “Road To Indy” Motorsports Ladder. After a nice informal lunch and a round of questions a group of journalists (including myself) were taken down to the “basement” to see the unofficial Mazda Museum, which was pretty much an underground parking garage filled with cars that would make any Mazda fan faint from over-stimulation. There was everything from vintage race cars to custom one-off show cars. However, two cars really stuck out like a sore thumb. I saw a Lotus Elise and a late model BMW 3 series parked next to each other as you can see below in the thumbnail.
Someone must have saw me scratching my head because soon after, a Mazda associate filled me in. I was told that whenever Mazda is working on a new car they typically procure a competitor’s car to use as a “benchmark”. As you might guess, the Lotus Elise was the benchmark used in the development of the last few generations of the Mazda Miata. The BMW 3 series was used as a benchmark during development of the Mazda 6. After it was explained to me, it made a lot of things clear. This is how Mazda continues to punch above their weight with their offerings, by benchmarking cars that are tens of thousands of dollars above the products they want to put out. It is a pretty good strategy when you think about it.
After the tour was over and the group made its way outside I noticed out of the corner of my eye a rather large car under a cover. Once I turned my head it was clear to me that this covered car was in fact a Nissan GT-R. The moment I recognized the Nissan I immediately thought back to what the associate had told me earlier. Is the Nissan GT-R the benchmark for Mazda’s next sports car? Why else would they have a car like that at their R&D center? Even the Mazda associate confirmed that it really was a GT-R under the cover but they refused to elaborate on why it was there.
Is this the reason why Mazda really killed off the RX-8? Because they have been planing a GT-R killer all this time? Color me curious!
It was only about a month ago when fear was spreading wide over the interwebs that Carlos Ghoson, CEO of Nissan has not officially signed off on development for the next GT-R. This left a lot of people thinking that the GT-R was going to ride off into the sunset, again. However, today Nissan released a mini-documentary dubbed “A new page was turned in the evolution of GT-R” which suggests that the GT-R’s time with us has not come to an end yet. In the subtitled Japanese doc. viewers get taken behind the scenes of the club spec GT-R’s entry into the 24 hours of Nurburgring and what Nissan’s true intentions were in that effort.
The documentary also takes viewers back to the GT-R’s debut and how far their supercar as come since then. There are also many references to the “future of the GT-R” so perhaps Godzilla is not going away after all. Or maybe this documentary was done as some type of internal push to get Mr. Ghoson on board for signing for an extension of the GT-R’s lifespan. Either way, it has been a fun ride so far!
In the meantime check out the documentary below, but fair warning the video is in Japanese (with English subtitles) and nearly 20 minutes long. Given its duration, if you are at work you may want to wait for your next break to watch it.
Last Saturday morning I decided to once again torture myself for you by waking up earlier than time itself to make the trek to Mazda North American HQ in Irvine, CA for the weekly Cars & Coffee meet. OK, so maybe I did not wake up quite as early as I should have but it was still early! I still managed to get there with enough time to snap some shots of the nicer cars at the show and there were some nice rides indeed. A Ferrari Enzo made an appearance as well as few Audi R8′s and a nice Lamborghini that I will show you in depth later. For now you can check out a few pics below and then head to our Facebook gallery to see the full set.
Today’s hype video is the latest from the aweome crew over at Clash Productions. In this piece we basically get 5 minutes of car porn featuring a Porsche GT3 cup car, a Nissan GT-R, and a BMW M3 complete with art car wrap. If you are wondering what this video is really “about” then stop. It really isn’t about anything, nor does it need to be about anything. This is purely awesome cinematography of sweet cars on a race track. Now scroll down and enjoy!
If you like excellent cinematography and awesome cars then you really need to subscribe to Clashproduction’s YouTube channel. These people are masterful at making awesome car related videos. Their latest work turns something as simple as a GT-R race car at a track and makes it into pure awesome! The funny part is despite all its drama and excellent direction this video is effectively a commercial for the Nismo/JR Motorsport customer GT3 race car program. If I had a spare $350k laying around and I saw this commercial I would definitely be a customer.
Remember Tommy Kaira? My first exposure to the Japanese tuner was the very first Gran Turismo for Playstation. Their one-offs of Japanese supercars were wet dream fodder for any Japanese car enthusiast. Well despite the economic downturn Tommy is still kicking and still tinkering with Japan’s best. The “Silver Wolf” is Tommy Kaira’s take on the Nissan GT-R. Their package is mostly superficial though with the crazy body kit you see in the picture plus a completely redone interior. Although they do add some performance with a titanium exhaust and improve stopping power with an AP Brake kit. I will say they took it too far with the sicssor doors though. A bit over the top there Tommy!
Anyhow if you want the exterior parts for yourself, the complete kit will set you back about 1,600,000 yen or just under $19,600 USD. Not to mention a 4 to 6 month wait since everything will be coming to you via boat from Japan, which means you would probably want to spring for the “Godzilla insurance”…
Widebody Porsches are nice (Thanks RWB) but I personally would like to see more widebody Japanese cars so I should thank BenSpora for what they are doing with the Nissan GT-R. If you have not heard of BenSopra of Japan it is likely because they normally deal with Lamborghinis but with the resurgence of godzilla, BenSopra has decided to apply their talents to Japan’s favorite supercar. While there are not many widebody kits for the GT-R I will say I really like what BenSopra has done here. My favorite part about the kit is that the entire front end is actually one piece. I am not sure if that improves aerodynamic efficiency much but I just think its cool that they took that step, and I am not the only one that thinks so. GReddy chose BenSopra to outfit their 35RX top speed time attack car. In fact, if you live state side and you are interested in a BenSopra kit for your GT-R you can actually order one through GReddy instead of doing it the hard way and trying to go through BenSopra Japan directly. I am guessing it is only a matter of a few months before we see the first BenSopra kit stateside.
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