Tag Archives: Nissan

A New Page in the Evolution of the GT-R

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I’m not going to do my usual number of posts today because I’d like everybody to focus their attention to this video released by the Nissan Newsroom. It’s a 20 minute mini-documentary about the GT-R development team’s experience at this year’s 24 hours of Nurburgring. I know it’s a lot to ask of your internet browsing time, but please trust my judgement on this one if you have enjoyed the content of this blog. The documentary has a backdrop of racing, but I wouldn’t say it was about racing. Instead, it’s a truly moving record of a group of engineers and mechanics who have the utmost passion for the development of the automotive pride of Japan. The GT-R development team entered the 24 hours of Nurburgring as a separate entity from Nissan’s factory racing branch, NISMO. Their goals were not to produce a special race car for the event. Their entry was a 2013 GT-R Track Package that was mostly production based. The team used the race to expose the GT-R’s weaknesses at higher speeds and more importantly to grow the skills of the engineers and mechanics responsible for the car’s development under harsh conditions. They knew that they would have to become better at building GT-R’s if they were going to meet the hopes and dreams of their future customers. The GT-R program is unique in that it has continued in full scale development even after the car was released. That’s why the new 2013 model is almost incomparably good when put next to the first 2007 GT-R. In the end, the failure of a 12 cent c-clip prevented the team from having perfect race results, but they were more than successful in growing the teams ability to shape the future of the GT-R. Head over to our Facebook page to discuss this video with other Flux Auto fans.


Source: Nissan Newsroom on YouTube

Nissan Juke-R vs. Porsche 911 GT2 RS – Car and Driver Abroad

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Nissan Europe teamed up with the RML Group last year to build a custom Juke-R. It was basically a Nissan Juke body put on top of a shortened GT-R chassis and drivetrain. It’s kind of funny because Nissan Japan only found out about the car after it had been built and were a bit unhappy about having somebody crossbreed their flagship car with an economy crossover. The Juke-R was a big enough success that several people, whom I assume are Abu-Dhabi oil barons, have asked to buy Juke-R’s. Nissan Europe has decided to do a limited run of them at $590,000 a piece. Now that the cars are being sold, that means they have to go through a legitimate review with the press. This is the first one that I’ve found outside some random hooning videos. Jethro Bovingdon of Car and Drive Abroad puts the Juke-R up against a pretty high performance benchmark with the Porsche 911 GT2 RS.


If you’ve got some time to kill, here’s some bonus videos that Nissan Europe released last year as the Juke-R was being built. There were 10 short videos that this YouTube user has thankfully condensed into two. Continue reading →

Motor Trend’s 2012 Best Driver Car

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You’re going to want to set aside a solid 45 minutes to watch these videos. We continue to reap the benefits of YouTube paying good money to car magazines for original content to rival traditional TV shows. Motor Trend’s latest installment is their 2012 Best Driver’s Car compilation. I like the way they do this annual comparison because a lot of people tend to misuse the term “driver’s car,” but Motor Trend has got it right and they stick to their guns. What makes a good driver’s car goes way beyond the numbers of the performance statistics. The 0-60 time doesn’t say anything about the car’s balance, feedback, fun or driver engagement. Those things are much harder to describe, but thankfully we have Johnny Lieberman, Carlos Lagos and Randy Pobst here working together to convey the driving experiences of this dream car lineup. This year they rounded up the Jaguar XKR-S, Subaru BRZ, Lamborghini Aventador, Porsche 911 Carrera S, Ford Shelby GT500, Nissan GT-R Black Edition, Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series and McLaren MP4-12C. The boys start out by doing winding road introductions of each car and then they turn them over to Randy for hot laps around Laguna Seca. They finish up by choosing a top 3 and then driving them some more to pick an overall winner.


Keeping with Motor Trend tradition, tall of the cars get lined up for a massive drag race once all of the testing is done:
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The Nature of Performance – Chris Harris

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This video is for the people who have yet to test drive the Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ / Toyota GT-86 and don’t see the appeal of them because they don’t look like much of a performance car on paper. It’s my opinion that we as a generation of automotive enthusiasts are too concerned with on paper performance numbers. My theory for the reason is pretty simple. Another name for “on paper performance” is “impressive on an internet forum performance.” The problem is that on paper performance is all about power, acceleration and top speed numbers. What the paper doesn’t convey are things like chassis balance, feedback and the character of a car. Chris Harris does a truly exceptional job explaining the difference in this comparison video of the Toyota GT-86, Nissan 370Z and a used Porsche Cayman S. He says, “It’s time we got back to enjoying performance for its nature and not because of its quantity” and I couldn’t agree more.


Source: DRIVE on YouTube

The Hakosuka Skyline

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Hakosuka Skyline in the Sunset via 7Tune’s Facebook Page

What is it that makes a car legendary? The first person who could boil it down to a scientific formula would be revolutionize the automotive industry. Unfortunately, it’s never that simple. Legendary cars have an almost mythical attraction to them. The first time you see one, you’re instantly smitten. It’s love at first sight. You can just glimpse this car and without knowing anything else about it, you know it’s something special that speaks to your soul. As far as Japanese cars go, few are as legendary as the Hakosuka Skyline GT-R. It was made starting in 1969 and was the first car from Nissan to wear the GT-R badge and establish its reputation for racing dominance.

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