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Filed under: LA Auto Show , Coupes , Sports/GTs , Japan , Nissan , Rumormill Click above for slightly larger version It appears that the current NISMO Fairlady Z S-Tune GT might have a replacement waiting in the wings when the new Z car (370Z here in North America) arrives on scene. The photo above is now making the rounds on the web, and at the very least, it indicates that NISMO will probably have accessories (like the body kit shown) ready to go for the Fairlady Z's JDM launch. The current Fairlady Z S-Tune complete car is equipped with all manner of NISMO goodies (underhood, suspension, brakes, interior, exterior -- the works), and you can pretty much write it down that they'll do something similar with the new ride as well. It's more a matter of when than if. Anyway, we expect to hear much more in the days to come, since the 370Z's official unveiling in L.A. is just around the corner. Thanks to Chuck for the tip! [Source: 370Z Tech ] First look at new NISMO 370Z? originally...
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Filed under: Sports/GTs , Japan , Lotus Click above for a high-res gallery of the K.07 Spyder When the K.O7 Spyder broke cover in Geneva we were struck by its bold design (it was penned by the guy who gave us the Enzo and the Quattroporte), but seriously doubted that the track star/supercar would ever see production. Well, a limited run of 99 K.O7s will go on sale on November 1st for the princely sum of 19,500,000 Yen. Yep, that's near-as-makes-no-difference $200,000 -- an awful lot of money for very little car. And when you consider that it's essentially a modern remake of the fenderless Lotus 340R, which itself seemed expensive back in 2000 at $70,000, you've got to wonder how many more orders Okuyama-san will be taking beyond the 24 cars pre-ordered by Tag-Heuer, who've had a hand in the project since its inception just a year ago. You may remember that the Lotus 340R never reached its performance target of 340 bhp/ton, largely because it was powered by Rover's asthmatic...
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Filed under: Coupes , Sports/GTs , Etc. , Japan , Marketing/Advertising , Supercars , Audi , Lifestyle The Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong bought 13 Rolls-Royce Phantoms for shuttling guests around the city. The Peninsula Hotel in Tokyo has purchased just one car, and will leave the guest to drive himself. That car is an R8, finished in the hotel's trademark Brewster Green, with a gold Peninsula logo outside, and cognac leather inside. To avail yourself of it -- once you've gotten to Tokyo -- you'll need to book the Peninsula Suite, which goes for the ho-hum figure of ¥850,000 per night. That $8,000 U.S. every day to burble at single-digit speeds in Tokyo traffic, although you are allowed to take it outside of Tokyo. Come to think of it, the speeds probably don't matter -- if you have that kind of money, there's a good chance you've got an R8 or better in your own garage already... [Source: Asahi via German Car Blog ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Sports/GTs , Japan , Bentley , Chevrolet , GM , Special/Limited Editions Click above image for a gallery of the Corvette S-Limited In celebration of GM's 100th Anniversary, GM Asia-Pacific has unveiled the Corvette S-Limited, a 30-car special for the Japanese market. priced at ¥7,980,000. The allotment is split evenly by color -- 15 in Arctic White and 15 in Black. All the cars get the full leather-wrapped interior package; a rear spoiler, mesh grillework , and screened inserts for the side coves and the plate between the exhaust outlets. 'Vettes in Japan are probably scarce enough that they still draw plenty of attention. Hey, in the land where the best-selling car's engine displaces 660cc's, a thundering, 430-horsepower American pushrod that displaces 6.2 liters is always gonna make people look. Appropriately, the Corvette S-Limited officially goes on sale on the Fourth of July. Gallery: Chevrolet Corvette S-Limited (JP) [Source: GMAP ] Read | Permalink...
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Filed under: Sports/GTs , Japan , Nissan If we were in charge of Tokyo's inner city expressway we probably wouldn't use the Shutoko racer's favorite weapon of choice to promote safe driving. Scratch that, we probably would, but we're amazed that the owners of the Wangan got themselves a new GT-R to publicize their current Tokyo Smart Driver Campaign. If the fact that this R35 will spend its life pootling along the highway at 80km/h doesn't make you sick to the bottom of your stomach, the Tokyo Smart Driver website certainly will. Truly vomit worthy. Thanks to PLR of Le Blog Auto for the tip! Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Spy Photos , Sports/GTs , Japan , Supercars , Acura We've known for quite some time now that the Acura NSX replacement would feature a V10 engine likely at the front of the vehicle and possibly powering all four wheels via a version of the brand's SH-AWD. Now that Nissan's amazing new GT-R has set a new standard for what a Japanese supercar can be, the next NSX had better be something impressive indeed, and rumors are that it will be just that. What we still don't know is what this car will look like, so we're very interested in what Japanese car-buff-mag Best Car claims is a rendering of the new NSX. If this is an accurate portrayal, we're glad that Acura stylists found a way to leave off the big metal triangular grill that is plaguing the rest of its lineup, as it just doesn't seem befitting for a sportscar. Although the only rendering offered is an angled shot from the drivers-side front, this coupe still seems a little generic to our eyes, but...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Sports/GTs , Japan , Nissan Click above for a high-res gallery from the SuperGT season opener. Nissan GT-Rs first hit the track in 1969, and won their inauguaral race. 23 years later the R32 GT-R race car won its first Japanese GT Championship race at the first attempt, and yesterday at Suzuka, the Xanavi NISMO R35 driven by Benoit Trulyer and Satoshi Motoyama continued the tradition by taking round one of the 2008 Super GT Championship. Trulyer, who was also one of the drivers who took the R34 GT-R to victory in its last appearence in Japanese GT in 2003, reckoned that his new car is more stable than its predessor, the Super GT Z, and thus much easier to drive on the limit, but has lost a little in terms of top speed, which may hurt the GT-R's chances when it visits the world's longest straight at Fuji Speedway in May and November. Unless the GT association take exception to the GT-R's dominance this race and impose extraordinary penalties on the...
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Filed under: Sports/GTs , Japan , Supercars , Nissan click above for a high-res gallery of the Nissan GT-R. Contrary to a few reports that began surfacing around the web this morning, Nissan will not be showing off a hopped-up version of the GT-R at the Geneva Motor Show next week. With all the spy shots , general speculation and history of the GT-R badge, it's just a matter of time before Nissan evolves it's super GT car into an even more competent performer, but its not bound anytime soon. While Nissan has already confirmed that a V-Spec GT-R is coming , there are no official details about what Gozilla will be packing when it's released. Nissan officials have said that the V-Spec is definitely going to be launched in Japan, but exports outside of Nissan's home market are still undecided. Gallery: Nissan GT-R (US-spec) Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Aftermarket , Tuners , Sports/GTs , Japan , Toyota There have been a fair number of tuners that have made the trek to the Nardo test track in Italy to see if their modified rides could break an illustrious top speed. The MTM Bimoto TT comes to mind, as does AC Schnitzer's GP3.10 3-series , Edo Competition's Lamborghini LP640 and 9ff's insane GT9 . Another contender has been added to the list and it's just as impressive as the rest. Top Secret has been making the show rounds with its twin-turbo'd V12 Supra for the past year, but it's finally putting its money where its mouth is and going for a top speed of 400 km/h (248 mph) later this year in Italy. Breaching 200 km/h hasn't been an issue since the boosted 6.0-liter V12 is supposedly pushing out over 1,000 hp. You can read up on Kazuhiko "Smoky" Nagata's golden boy here and check a Japanese-language video of the Supra after the jump. [Source: Kulitivate , Photo by Bulletproof Automotive...
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Filed under: Aftermarket , Tuners , Sports/GTs , Japan , Supercars , Nissan MotorTrend 's Scott Kanemura sat down with Michizio Niikura, the president of MINE'S Motor Sports, the first aftermarket firm to get its hands on the new Nissan GT-R. The conversation centered on the roadblocks Nissan has put in place to stimy high speeds and limit modifications to the GT-R. We've previously reported on how the GPS system fitted to the GT-R would remove the 111 mph (180 kph) speed limiter when the car arrives at a track, but according to Niikura, it will only work on pre-approved racetracks. However, the GPS sensor doesn't automatically remove the limiter by itself, it has to be manually changed by navigating through a series of menus on the GT-R's touch screen. While having to go to a Nissan-approved track is daft in its own right, it's even worse when you leave. After the track day, owners are required to head on over to a Nissan High Performance Center where a $1000 safety...
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Filed under: Coupes , Sports/GTs , Etc. , Japan click above for plenty more images of the Mitsuoka Orochi This is for all of our Japanese readers out there. We know that the only thing holding you back from running right out and buying the Mitsuoka Orochi is its hefty price tag of ¥11,945,000 ($111,572 USD). The car's exuberant styling is a fusion of inspirations that combines elements of the mighty Humpback Whale (see grille) with the attention-grabbing power of Britney... being Britney on any given day of her life. Yes, the Orochi is a peerless car (we won't call it a supercar, you can't make us), and now Mitsuoka is making the hand-built monument to bad taste less expensive for the average Japanese consumer. By using less metal-plated parts and artificial leather for 25% of the interior, the oddest Japanese automaker of them all has slashed 2.6 million yen from the car's starting price, which now begins at ¥9,345,000 ($87,287 USD). That's a big drop in the...
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Filed under: Sports/GTs , Japan , Supercars , Nissan Click image to see a front view, too (also blurry!) The new Nissan GT-R isn't short on power -- this much is known. Whether its sizable punch calls for the addition of an adjustable race-style rear wing is debatable. After all, the stock machine conquered the 'Ring in 7:38 without raiding the Boeing 757 parts bin for stuff to bolt to the rear deck. Engineers... they're generally a thorough bunch, after all. Now, perhaps this Japanese car owner is race-prepping his personal Godzilla, and if that's the case, then it's all understandable. We're probably just jaded from seeing wings like this on stuff like first-gen Altimas. With GT-R badges on them. [Source: NAGTROC] Gallery: Nissan GT-R with big wing Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Coupes , Sports/GTs , Etc. , Japan , Supercars , Nissan click above image for gallery of Jim Marshall's Nissan GT-R shots The Nissan GT-R is undoubtedly the rock star of the auto industry at the moment. So it makes since that Nissan hired noted rock and roll photographer Jim Marshall to capture the GT-R's gestation over the past year. The series of images released by Nissan are quite unlike the official images we've seen so far, as well as the shots taken by enthusiast mags. Those are all perfectly staged shots of the GT-R being posed like a super model. Marshall's collection dives deep into the background of the GT-R's development, showing scenes like a pair of GT-R engineers on a smoke break , a hanging map of the Nurburgring that taunts from the wall , and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in a full racing suit sitting in front of two towers of worn tires . Indeed, these are much more thoughtful and telling pics than we're used to seeing of the GT-R, and in...
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Filed under: Coupes , Sports/GTs , Japan , Nissan The Inside Line gang has just returned from Japan, where they performed instrumented testing on Japanese journo Jun Nishikawa's privately-owned 2009 Nissan GT-R. The test car had 1,500 km on the clock and was equipped the same way the US-spec cars will be. Boy, did it ever bring the goods. Zero to sixty came in 3.3 seconds, and the quarter mile flashed by in 11.6 at 120.9 mph. This, according to Inside Line, makes the '09 GT-R the quickest car that they've ever hooked their test equipment to. Some time is spent detailing the GT-R's launch control system, which involves flipping the transmission and damper settings to R mode, killing the VDC, and basically doing a brakestand. Once you let go of the stoppers, you get what IL describes as "crushing acceleration." The full test also touches on the car's predictably good braking and handling. You can read the whole thing here . After reading it, you're left with...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Coupes , Sports/GTs , Japan , Supercars , Nissan click above image for a great gallery from the 2007 NISMO Festival While top billing at the recent annual NISMO festival went to next year's Super GT500 GT-R , the surprise appearance made by the GT-R prototype that set the 7:38 lap time at the Nurburgring earlier this year got the most attention. First Nissan had the masked maverick run a slalom course, flat out, down Fuji Speedway's mile-long main straight, demonstrating the preternatural abilities of the latest ATTESSA-ETS system. It then ran a quick 1/4-mile drag race against a 2007 Super Taikyu Class 1 350Z race car, which it didn't just win, it won by several car lengths. Unfortunately, the run wasn't timed and neither were the following laps, where the GT-R out-classed the endurance racer in every section of the circuit. Follow the jump for more. Gallery: 2007 NISMO Festival Continue reading Nissan GT-R - Too fast to race? Permalink | Email...
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