NISMO Hits The Big 2-0
Toyota's TRD, Mazda's Mazdaspeed and Nissan's NISMO are all plays by the manufacturers for your sport compact performance parts wallet. How long have they been trying to pry your money away from you? For NISMO, it's been two full decades, and to celebrate, NISMO pulled together a group of its products at California's Willow Springs Raceway. But the big news was the expansion of the product line to include more parts for the-wait for it-Altima. Yes, the Altima. That baffled us, too.
NISMO has only been here in America since 2003 and divides its product line into two general trims: R-Tune and S-Tune. "R" as in race and "S" as in street. NISMO showed both R- and S-Tune versions of the Altima at Willow.
The S-Tune Altima started life as a 3.5 SE model with Nissan's VQ35 V6 under the hood. To tighten it up, NISMO bolted on a suspension kit, which includes new front struts, springs and shocks. The system lowers the car about 22mm (about 3/4 inch) in front and 10mm in back (about 3/8 inch). The suspension is also about 30 percent stiffer in front and 20 percent stiffer in back. NISMO finished the car with 18x8.5-inch wheels inside 245/45R-18 Michelin Pilot Sport tires.
"This suspension package reduces body lean, pitch and dive and provides improved steering response," said Kenneth Zapp, senior manager, Specialty Vehicle Group, Nissan Marketing in a release. "At the same time, the ride is still compliant for regular street use. It's all part of engineering components specifically for our vehicles by the engineers who know the most about the vehicle and how to tune it."
The R-Tune Altima is actually a 2.5S powered by the 2.5-liter four that comes in base Altimas. For this harder-core application, the engine gets new camshafts with 262-degree duration (versus 240 stock) and 0.426 inches of lift (up from 0.376 inches stock). There's also a cold-air intake system, an exhaust header and a cat-back exhaust system. That's enough to bounce output from 175 bhp stock to, we guess, 190 or 195 bhp.
The R-Tune suspension consists of "stiffer shocks and springs" and though NISMO isn't saying how much stiffer, it's pretty stiff. The stock 22.2mm front anti-roll bar is swapped for a 24mm one and the rear is now 27mm instead of the stock 19.1.
Of course, these two Altimas drive just as you'd expect them; the S-Tune is relatively easygoing and the R-Tune is a bit edgy. It'll take some instrumented testing to determine if the changes are worthwhile.
Back On The Podium Again
With Peter Cunningham's and Pierre Kleinubing's Acura TSXs carrying rewards weight that left them as heavy as freight trains, it looked like RealTime Racing's Speed World Challenge Touring Car wins were going to come to a screeching halt. In Denver that meant Eric Curran took the victory for RealTime/SCC in his RSX.
"With the pressure now set to 11," says team owner Cunningham, "Curran really delivered the merchandise." The tight Denver temporary street course was well suited to the RSX, which runs the same drivetrain (including the 2.4-liter engine) as the team's TSXs, but is both shorter and narrower.
"On a street track like Denver, the shorter wheelbase cars tended to shine," explains Cunningham. "The ongoing development of the RSX is what got Eric into the position to win. On the faster high-speed tracks it might not have quite the advantage it had on the tight street track ... but we'd sure like to see him up there."