Automotive World

We're going to get a taste of what this means for Nissan with the presentation of the Juke Nismo concept at this week's 2011 Tokyo Motor Show.

Yet its activities have been restricted mainly in motorsports, where it has been involved with great success in events like the FIA GT1 World Championship, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and of course, numerous racing series in Japan .

Unlike the extremely radical Juke-R project, which features the inner works of the GT-R sports car including its twin-turbo V6 engine and advanced all-wheel drive system, the Juke Nismo concept is a very realistic study for a down-to-earth sporty variant of the regular model.

And sure enough, after last week's revelation, the Japanese carmaker published the eighth installment of the Juke-R's ongoing video series.

According to this video which may or may not be official, the updated GT-R with 550-horses under its hood recorded a mind-boggling 0-100km/h time of 2.84 seconds and a 0-60mph (96km/h) time of just 2.72 seconds.

For the record, last year's GT-R (2012MY in the States) with 530-ponies completed the standard sprint to 100km/h in 3.0 seconds while the 2010 GT-R (2011MY in N.A.) with 485HP, in 3.5 seconds.

Never mind the “greens”, Jeremy’s current favorite car is the Mercedes-Benz SLS. He is a petrolhead and apparently, not too fond of electric vehicles. Especially since the Tesla Roadster incident which led to the two parties becoming engaged in a legal battle.

Apart from being a car show, though, Top Gear is also about entertainment. This prompted two fans of the show to record a spoof video demonstrating an “eco race” between two zero emission vehicles: a “Nissan Leaf” and a “Peugeot iOn”.

The result is a vehicle that defies logic and proves once again that Nissan has the guts and the will to experiment with crazy ideas. And judging by the Murano Convertible, we wouldn't be one bit surprised if someone at Nissan gave the green light for a limited production version down the road.

However, for the time being, Nissan Europe and its technical partner RML, are saying that the Juke-R is a special, road legal concept car, of which only two examples will be built, one in left-hand-drive and the other in right-hand-drive.

The new images and videos give us our first detailed look at the Juke R. On the outside, Nissan's designers applied a matte black finish to the small crossover before adding a host of aero components, the styling of which was inspired of course by the GT-R.

But is that enough to beat a wildly modified Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 Altechno that pushes out a monstrous output of 900-horsepower on a quarter-mile duel? Unfortunately for the owner of the Bugatti, the answer to that question is no.

You can watch the drag race in the video after the break.

We already know that Nissan has made some serious changes to the 2013MY (2012 for the rest of the world) GT-R. Despite the fact that it looks identical to the previous model both inside and out, under the skin, the 2013MY is even better as Nissan’s engineers have apparently been burning the midnight oil for quite some time.

Not surprisingly, Nissan Europe and its technical partner RML made plenty of use of carbon fiber panels on the build to keep the weight of the small crossover down.

Nissan has decided to widen the European EV recharging network by donating 400 quick chargers to charging operators. The new charger, which is smaller and up to 50% cheaper than the previous version, can top up the battery to 80% of its total capacity in 30 minutes, giving EV car owners much greater freedom in their choice of destination.

The brand-new NV350 will receive its world premiere at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show at the end of the month and go on sale in Japan next summer.

Available for both personal and fleet use, the new NV3500 HD Passenger Van boasts four rows of seats that can accommodate up to 12 passengers.

Nissan says its new large van offers up to 324 possible seat configurations, with passengers having the option to completely remove and/or reposition the 2nd and 3rd row seats, and partially or completely remove the 50/50-split 4th row bench.

Nevertheless, if you're interested in seeing how Nissan's engineers adapted the cabin and repositioned the driver controls to be more like the GT-R, you can check out the pictures and the official clip right after the jump.

After a short break in 2009, the Japanese carmaker is returning to the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show with the third iteration of the PIVO concept, which follows the PIVO 1 from 2005 and the PIVO 2 from 2007.

While the PIVO 3 keeps the three-seat layout with a central driving position as well as the all-wheel steering system of its predecessors, it's styling has evolved and moved closer to production.

Francois Bancon, Nissan deputy divisional GM for product strategy, says that while the company has not yet made any final decision to produce the PIVO, it is considering it:

We’ll remind you that the revised 2012MY GT-R shaved more than two seconds off the time of the 2011MY version dropping it from 7:26.4" to 7:24.22".

The refinements for the updated N.A. GT-R are more or less the same with its Euro counterpart and are highlighted by the changes to the 3.8-liter bi-turbo V6 that include improved intake efficiency, reduced airflow resistance through an enlarged air intake duct for the intercooler, and improved exhaust emissions efficiency.

This year's version carries the 2012MY designation in Japan and Europe, and the 2013MY moniker for the North American market.

If you're looking to find any styling differences from last year's model, don't waste your time as the only visible change concerns the addition of blue lighting inside the tachometer ring to match the shift position indicator light.

Underneath the skin, however, it's a different story as Nissan's engineers have honed the new GT-R in every possible way. Starting with the 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine, a raft of upgrades that include but are not limited to, revised heads, intercooler and exhaust system, push output from 530PS at 6,400rpm and 612Nm (451 lb-ft) from 3,200 to 6,400 rpm, to 550PS at 6,400rpm and 632Nm (466 lb-ft) from 3,200 to 5,800 rpm.

But going slideways in these type of conditions can be hazardous not only for your health but for the…natural surroundings as well as the driver of this blacked out 300ZX quickly found out. You can check out the video after the jump.