What results when film geniuses Clash Productions are combined with a snow camo’d Nissan GT-R, a ski slope, and snowmobile chase cameras? Two and a half minutes of AWESOME that is as pure as…well the driven snow (I make no pun apologies!).
This is one of those occasions in which a “where” and especially a “why” are completely unnecessary. All that you need to know is that a crew out in Sweeden dubbed “Team Ice Ricers” decided to answer the question: “can a GT-R climb a ski slope?”
Having good credit is essential to many financial milestones of life. Good credit is needed for things like renting a nice apartment, buying a house, getting a business loan, even some employers check the credit history of potential employees. However people do not usually associate good credit with test driving a car; financing a car sure but a test drive?
It looks like a new trend is starting to develop among dealerships. If you want to test out their flagship cars then better be ready to have your credit run! User “aj996tt” of the 6SpeedOnline forum (lets call him “AJ”) from Texasfound out the hard way. See, AJ was in the market for a new car. Hes a family man so he had a few trucks and SUVs on the top of his list but he kept his options open for sports cars as well. On his list of potential sports cars was the upcoming Corvette Stingray and the current Nissan GT-R
He stopped by one local Nissan dealership to check out the GT-R for himself. The staff at the dealership seemed to be from the “pinky ring and gold chain” crowd as AJ described it but the manager was nice and gave him a quick tour around “godzilla. Unfortunately, the weather was bad that day so he never went on a test drive.
Later, he was contacted by a sales rep from the Orr Nissan dealership in Corinth, TX. The rep invited AJ to check out a 2013 GT-R they had in stock. The listed price seemed like a good deal so AJ took them up on their offer and went out to the location of the car which was actually a good 50 miles away from Corinth, in Greenville, TX.
Once he reached the location he was told only a manager could show him the car. Once he finally met said manager he immediately informed AJ he could only test drive the car after filling out a credit application and being approved for financing. AJ promptly expressed his displeasure of being subjected to a credit check for a car he wasn’t even sure he wanted and then left the dealership after some choice words were exchanged.
AJ happened to have a friend who works in the legal dept at Nissan corporate and she informed him that the “credit before drive” policy is something being adapted by many OEMs with their dealerships. AJ says he has never been asked to do such a thing when shopping at Mercedes or Porsche dealerships. Frustrated, he vented to his fellow forum members.
Many users agreed that the practice smacks of “poor business etiquette” and that they have never been subjected to such a thing in their past dealings. However a user “YellowBull” who also happens to be a GM of a dealership chimed in and made some good points.
YellowBull’s take is with a car like the GT-R which is just as popular with young broke college kids as it is with affluent older adults, dealerships need to take measures to weed out the “tire kickers” and joy ride seekers, from serious buyers.
But AJ was a serious buyer and the whole experience has turned him off to GT-R’s period. What do you think? Would you be willing to submit a credit application to test drive a GT-R? Or do you think its wrong for dealers to demand such a thing from customers, even if it is in regards to a high-dollar sports car?
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…
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.
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!
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.
We realize this is the third green car in a row that we are posting but the Jotech Motorsports widebody Nissan GT-R just needs to be seen! We can’t help it if all the best car builders decided to go with green this year! Anyhow, even though some could argue that current Nissan GT-R is old news, we just can’t get tired of them around here. Especially when people do crazy things with them like epically widening the rear! It shouldn’ t look good but it does! Jotech is no rookie when it comes to widebody treatments so it should be no surprise that their GT-R project looks so good with stretched fenders.
This GT-R is also a beast in the power department. It makes 942HP thanks to a “stage 4″ Jotech tuning package which includes upgraded turbos by GReddy and a pletheora of internal engine components. All of that makes this green GT-R capiable of a 9.76 second quarter mile. Ladies and Gentlemen we give you the REAL Godzilla..
GReddy continues to make GT-R owners very happy with a continuous turn out of performance improving awesomeness. The newest choice on their menu is a High Flow Fuel Rail that promises to improve fuel flow over the stock unit by increasing the inner diameter of the main fuel tube to 14mm. The connecting line to each bank has also been bumped up to 10mm. This should be more than enough room to feed your hungry GT-R no matter what your air/fuel mix is. Nice work Greddy!
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