It was announced at the Tokyo Motor Show this week that NISMO is becoming far more central to Nissan and the company will take charge of building high performance Nissan road cars.
The overall philosophy is to create an altogether more exciting and stylish range of cars and it has its parallels with both the M division of BMW and the RS team of Ford. NISMO is the abbreviation of “Nissan Motorsports International Company”, the organisation that builds racing cars. Examples of these are the championship winning Nissan GT-R racing cars.
The first car to get the NISMO treatment is the Juke NISMO Concept which was exhibited at the show, though it is planned to extend it to cars such as the 370Z and the GT-R. The NISMO Juke boasts a different colour scheme and body kit that includes side skirts and spoilers. There will be a powerful 1.6 litre direct injection turbocharged engine with a power output of around 200 bhp.
As part of the restructuring NISMO is being relocated to specially designed headquarters in Yokohama and all of the major NISMO activities will take place there. Nissan has plans to develop this into a “global centre of excellence for race and performance road car development”. The site will even include a racetrack and various facilities for NISMO fans and potential buyers.
According to Nissan the Juke NISMO will be a real performance car. As well as a considerably improved aerodynamics there are wide 19 inch alloy wheels for increased grip and a strengthened chassis. Anticipate seeing them appear in a showroom near you during the first half of 2012.
Nissan Juke Nismo Concept