Nissan's 350Z is a serious, attractive performance machine, but not all of us can afford one or live with accommodations for just two people. Nissan's Sentra SE-R Spec-V packs thrills and four passengers at a keen price, but it's a boring-looking box. Boring boxes don't seem to have much of a future at Nissan.
Shown at March's New York Auto Show, the Nissan Sport Concept is really a slightly veiled look at what the next Sentra (or Sentra replacement) will be. And the look, veiled or not, is good.
"The Nissan Sport Concept, like the Azeal and Actic before it, is first and foremost a showcase of future thinking, yet it's also a car that would be right at home in Nissan showrooms in the not-too-distant future," says Jack Collins, vice president of product planning, Nissan North America, in a press release. "Nissan has a strong global lineup of compact enthusiast vehicles, including the March, Cube, Tiida, Note and Sentra SE-R, and, in the Nissan 350Z, one of the world's most desirable sports cars. The new Nissan Sport Concept fuses the best of both worlds." Isn't it fun when worlds collide?
A three-door hatchback, the Sport Concept uses more carbon fiber in its construction than is likely to see production. But the shape is right on target-muscular, angular and distinctive. There's more than a bit of Renault Mgane in the car, particularly in the shape of the greenhouse and windshield.
In fact, it's pretty much a dead nuts certainty (but let us maintain some wiggle room) that this car is a Nissan-ized version of the Mgane, and that promises to be no bad thing.
Nissan is being coy about the Sport Concept's mechanical package, so let's look at the Mgane Renaultsport 225 for encouragement. That Euro-only hatchback packs a 225-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter four and a six-speed manual transmission. British magazines have measured the Renaultsport 225 whacking to 62 mph (100 kph) in about 6.5 seconds and a top speed just shy of 150 mph. That's steaming for a small car. And there's a "Trophy" edition available that includes Brembo brakes and a revised suspension that should be even better.
Renault fled from America almost 20 years ago in ignominious retreat. But with Carlos Ghosn now CEO of both Nissan and Renault, it's almost inevitable that we'll see more cross-pollination between the companies. If the Sport Concept makes its way here with the performance of the Mgane Renaultsport 225 intact, that's a very good thing.
Expect this to be the next Sentra (if the name survives) here next year.
Nissan's Michigan HomeIt used to be easy: American cars were designed and made in America and Japanese cars were designed and made in Japan. But now there's so much platform crossbreeding, multinational design mixing and intercontinental parts swapping that it's practically impossible to tell what gets done where, no matter which company is making a vehicle. Nissan Design America's (NDA) new studio in Farmington Hills, Mich., will only add to the confusion.
This $14 million Michigan studio is a sister facility to the existing NDA studio in San Diego, Calif., and is built on the grounds of Nissan Technical Center North America. Put it all together and it means that Nissan-which is run by a guy born in Brazil whose parents were from Lebanon who also runs Renault in France-can practically design and engineer a whole car in Michigan just like GM, Ford, or that company that used to be Chrysler. Nissan also has a new design studio in London, England.
Architecturally, the most distinctive feature in the NDA Michigan complex is "The Egg," a 15,000-square-foot outdoor viewing area for considering designs in contemplative context. The first vehicle to come out of the Michigan studio was the Azeal concept shown at this year's Detroit Auto Show, which makes sense because Detroit isn't far away.
Rhys Drifts Old-School Where is drifting going in America? Well, in Rhys Millen's shop in Huntington Beach, Calif., is a throwback to the '60s - a 1966 Pontiac GTO built for tire-frying, sideways glory.
Starting with a genuine '66 GTO, the crew at Rhys Millen Racing (RMR) is mounting all the suspension components used on the current Australian-built version of the GTO to a scratch-built frame. The body will go back on, a top secret/wink-wink/hush-hush/say-no-more small-block V8 from the legendary Keith Black will go in and then the car will be ready for competition.
No, Rhys isn't going to abandon his current GTO for this car in competition. This car is being built for Eric Joiner, who directs TV commercials (Rhys is often the "professional driver on a closed course" in TV commercials). So we don't know when or if this car will ever show up in competition.
If it does show up, does this mean drifting will move from the world of Sport Compact Car and start accepting anything? Even say-gack-old musclecars and trucks?
When The Going Gets Weird,Sciongets WeirderToyota's Scion is determined to carve a place for itself in the automotive firmament that's unique-and that's not Toyota. So it's taken the squarely absurd xB and spliced the DNA of a sportscar into it, resulting in the wholly bizarre t2B concept.
Scion says the t2B name indicates a "tall two box" design, but it also fuses elements of the xB and sportier tC coupe's names to indicate the direction it's headed. Developed by Toyota's Calty studio in Southern California, the design does, in fact, resemble the xB in profile and the tC in detail. The grille area and face are pure tC, while that flat roof is nothing if not xB.
The most unusual feature is the asymmetric design. The right side of the machine has a single sliding minivan-style door and the left side has a conventional door and a rear-hinged second door. The interior is a riot of neon nonsense that will only see production after civilization has collapsed and we're battling giant lizards for survival.
However, Scion claims the t2B rides on a new platform unrelated to any existing product. Power comes from a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine that churns a four-speed automatic front-drive transaxle. Naturally, it wears 20-inch wheels (what show car doesn't?) and features 14-inch brakes.
At the New York Auto Show, Scion showed two scale model variations of the t2B alongside the full-size concept car: one a fast-back and the other a cargo-oriented version. So there's some room within the t2B for creativity.
Whether a vehicle like the t2B would ever attract the youth Scion was created to lure in is open to speculation. But it sure doesn't look like a Toyota.
We Win! We Win! And Everyone Else SucksSCC's sponsorship of P.D. Cunningham's efforts in Speed World Challenge Touring Car paid off big during the opening round of the 2005 season as, that's right, we won! Of course, we'll pay lip service here to the hard work of the RealTime Racing team, the inherent goodness of the Acura TSX itself and Cunningham's driving ability. But, come on, the big difference was really those Sport Compact Car stickers on each end of the front bumper cap.
"The TSX is the best-handling front-wheel-drive racecar I've ever driven," Cunningham gushes. "It's a combination of the suspension layout on the TSX as well as what the RealTime crew does with it. It's better than the Integra; it's longer and wider, which helps it handle better."
On the flat, long track at Sebring it also helped that the TSX had the long torque curve of the 2.4-liter version of Honda's K-series i-VTEC four.
With qualifying washed away by rain, the starting order for the 18-lap race was set based on practice times. That put Cunningham's TSX fourth on the grid behind the Trip-Point Mazda6s and Bill Auberlen's BMW 325i. And that was just ahead of Cunningham's teammate Pierre Kleinubing in another TSX.
Pole sitter Jeff Altenburg's Mazda6 and Kleinubing's Acura tangled on the first corner of the first lap with Altenburg being the one who was punted off track. That opened the door for constant lead changes between Kleinubing, Auberlen and Randy Pobst in the other Mazda6. So meanwhile, Cunningham, who has more wins and championships than anyone else in World Challenge history, cagily hung back waiting for an opening to appear. That opening came on lap 14, and from there, he simply ran away from the field, propelled by the SCC mojo.
With his 29th World Challenge victory booked, how does Cunningham see the season developing? "The Mazdas, then the BMWs are the competition," he says. "The Mazdas won the last race of the year, and since then they developed more power and enjoy the benefits of a sequential gearbox. The turbo cars didn't pose a threat just yet. The potential is still there; it's just that there's no program equal to the likes of any of the top three or four teams running right now. "I think we'll be strong everywhere we go. Sure, there's some places we like as drivers, like Road Atlanta and Mosport, but I know how much effort we put into winter testing this year. More than ever before. And all the hard work the RealTime crew had invested was going to pay off. With five Acuras we'll be in a strong position to earn Acura's fifth Manufacturer's title," says Cunningham.
This was Cunningham's first win since Road America last year (in a Nissan Sentra) and his first win in an Acura since 2002.
The State Of Rallying In AmericaIf there's one thing every racing series in America can't survive without, that one thing is insurance. In our litigious nation, you don't let cars hurtle around without indemnifying yourself at some level. And last year when the insurance covering its ProRally and ClubRally series got expensive, the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) decided to kill them. So after killing its rally series, how did the SCCA dispose of the bodies?
It turns out re-animation of the dead isn't beyond the abilities of America's hard-core rally enthusiasts. Rallying is alive and, if it's not well, it's at least recovering nicely in America.
"It's definitely marching in a new direction," says Paula Gibeault, the sporting manager for California's venerable Rim of the World Rally. "It's just a different direction. If there's turmoil in the minds of the competitors, that's one thing. But it's still here and going strong."
The best indication of rallying's persistence is found on Google. Head to www.rallyamerica.com and you'll pound into Rally America, a new sanctioning body formed by Doug Havir and initially financed by him out of his own pocket. Rally America has set up an eight-event schedule with a "national championship" at stake, while also sanctioning eastern, central and western regional rallies. And yes, it has its own insurance policy.
There's also the United States Rally Championship (USRC), organized by the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) running under the NASA Rally Sport banner (www.nasarallysport.com). The USRC is NASA's national series featuring four established rallies, with the long-established Eastern States Rally Championship (ESRC) and California Rally Series (CRS) acting as regional series.
In fact, if you pound through Google enough you come to the conclusion that rallying hasn't dropped off in any significant way, despite the SCCA's abandonment. And the insurance that was too expensive for the SCCA seems to be attainable by others-even if it is forcing competitors to cough up higher entry fees. "Competitors have to pay another $150 or so more," says Ms. Gibeault, whose own site is up at www.rimoftheworldrally.com. "But it's not the end of rallying, not by a long shot. Basically nothing has stopped, but the SCCA has pulled out."
Rumors & Lies* Media conglomerate Vivendi has enlisted the help of Baldwin Park, Calif.'s Street Image to complete one bad-ass, widebody RB26DETT-powered S14 Silvia to promote its new fighting game, Red Ninja. Look for it competing in time attack events around the country and in NASA's Super Unlimited Class in the 2005 season. More information on the game can be found at www.redninjagame.com and on the Street Image Web site at www.streetimage.com.
* According to "Variety," Paul W.S. Anderson, who has written and directed such cinematic crap as last year's "Alien vs. Predator" and "Mortal Kombat," has signed with Paramount to write and direct "Death Race 3000," a remake of the 1975 cult classic "Death Race 2000." The original was a comedy where drivers in a then-futuristic cross-country race scored points by running down pedestrians. Anderson's version, the auteur told "Variety," is "set in 2020 and is an ultraviolent, no-holds-barred race with heavily armed Escalades, Ferraris and Aston Martins." We can hardly wait.
* The United States Touring Car Championship (USTCC) will run its first street race when it supports the Champ Car World Series' new San Jose Grand Prix on the July 29 weekend in San Jose, Calif.