Toyota RAV4 EV ready to roll into California

Full story: SlashGear.com

Toyota announced its new all electric 2012 RAV4 SUV several months ago. The EV will go on sale in California to begin with through select dealers who focus on major metropolitan areas.

Facelifted Nissan 370Z

 Fairfax NZ

FACELIFTED 370Z: Simpler, more aggressive grille and new alloy wheels are part of the redesign.

Nissan has revealed its mildly updated 370Z sports car at the Chicago Auto Show.

It goes on sale in the United States in June as a 2013 model.

It has a revamped front bumper with vertical LED daytime running lights and a simpler intake grille, and a red reflector to the rear transom that replaces the previous black panel.

The car rides on newly designed 18-inch wheels, with the Sport models gaining fresh 19-inch items, as well as red brake calipers, and Euro-tuned shock absorbers.

There are new colours, but the engine and gearbox are the same.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Nissan idiot-proofs tyre inflation

Video Link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/7006302/Nissan-idiot-proofs-tyre-inflation


Nissan develops a system that honks the cars horn when the tyres are filled to the correct pressure.

Nissan has developed a new tyre pressure system that beeps the car's horn to help you fill its tyres to the correct pressure.

The "Easy Fill Tyre Alert" system works in conjunction with an on-board tyre pressure monitoring system that keeps constant watch on the amount of air in your tyres via a series of sensors. When one tyre loses pressure, the driver is shown via an image on the instrument cluster.

When the owner pumps up the tyres, the car – in this case the mid-size Altima sedan due in 2013 – will tell them when the tyre is inflating by flashing the blinkers, and then honk the horn when they reach the right level.

"It's one of those simple slap your forehead moments as to why someone has not thought of it before," says Vishnu Jayamohan of Nissan America's product planning and advanced strategy division.

The technology is already available on the off-road focused Patrol four-wheel-drive and Nissan Australia spokesman Jeff Fisher says it would be a welcome addition on any Australian-delivered models.

"We're looking at final pricing on that feature on Patrol," Fisher says. "It's gone down quite well with customers in the Middle East [where the Patrol has been on sale for some time]."

Fisher says the fact it's now available on the upcoming Altima sedan in the US could mean it will be a standard fitment for that car when it goes on sale Down Under.

"It's a natural trickle-down technology," Fisher says. " We're some way off final specifications for the Altima yet – that will be decided in the next couple of months," he says.

Incorrectly inflated tyres can make your car use more fuel, can increase tread wear and can affect handling and safety.

Australia's NRMA Motoring and Services vehicle safety expert Jack Haley told Drive that research conducted by the organisation found 90 per cent of motorists were driving on incorrectly inflated tyres.
In the US tyre pressure monitoring systems are mandatory. Some car makers, including Renault and Volkswagen, already offer cars with standard tyre pressure monitoring systems.

Tyre manufacturer Hankook has been vocal in its desire for tyre pressure monitoring systems to be made standard across all cars. Rival rubber seller Goodyear is working on a tyre that keeps itself inflated to the right pressure.

- Sydney Morning Herald

0-340kmh in Nissan GT-R

Washington Post

RUNWAY RUN: An Alpha 12 Nissan GT-R from AMS Performance, originally a Nissan GT-R, is driven on the runway of the Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport in Oscoda.

There's no reason to drive an automobile at 200 miles per hour (322kmh). No appointment is so important, no traffic cop that lenient. Few cars are even capable of it.

Imagine, though, that you're idling in a 1500 horsepower (1119kW) car at the start of an airport runway roughly 3km long. And you're cleared for takeoff. Wouldn't you want to break the 200 mph barrier?
As an automobile critic, I have an unusual occupation. So this is why I actually find myself piloting a heavily-customised Nissan GT-R, dubbed the Alpha 12.

Fifteen hundred horsepower is a ludicrous amount of power, but I'm on a decommissioned US Air Force runway in northern Michigan that once hosted B-52 bombers. It's wide and long enough for the task.
The Nissan GT-R already qualifies as a supercar. A 2012 model in New Zealand will set you back $189,000 and it delivers 404kW, hitting 100kmh in a claimed 2.9 seconds. That's enough power, right? Not for customers of AMS Performance, a West Chicago, Illinois-based tuning company.

The 30-employee outfit has been around for more than a decade, catering to a ''mine is bigger than yours,'' demographic, where more power is always better.

AMS specialises in ''Alpha'' performance packages for the GT-R, rebuilding the V6 engine with sturdier parts, bigger turbo chargers, special exhausts and reinforced transmissions. Light modifications in the US start at about US$6000 (NZ$7600). The Alpha 12 package costs about $100,000 (NZ$126,600). For that, you get a claimed 820kW with regular unleaded and 1119kW with 116-octane race fuel.

The company says you can hit 100kmh in 2.4 seconds and the machine will cover a quarter mile in 8.97 seconds.

My goals today are twofold. I want to see how ''real'' the Alpha is, and I hope to top my personal speed record of 200 mph, achieved on a runway in a Lamborghini Gallardo nearly four years ago. I'd prefer not to kill myself.

This is just a practice run, however, to get a feel for the Alpha's power. AMS sales manager Eric Gaudi is riding shotgun. When I ask if he'd like to accompany me later on my top-speed run, he fires back, ''Not a chance.''

I roll onto the gas carefully, clicking through the gears well before the red line. The huge twin turbos quickly spool to capacity, sucking in massive gulps of air, and then expelling them harshly through the waste gates. It sounds like a jet engine.

We streak down the runway, faster and faster. I've got eyes only for the shift points on the tachometer and the tarmac in front of me. Gaudi is watching a special GPS device called a VBOX, more accurate than the speedometer, which tends to be significantly off at high speeds.

I slow down well before the runway's halfway mark. Gaudi points to the VBOX and says, simply, ''199''.Oh, man. I wasn't even trying.

Rolling back to our staging area on the side of the runway, I find the car drives easily: It's very controllable and not at all scary.

Gaudi's team adds race fuel to the tank. I pull back onto the runway, all alone now.
Accelerating toward and beyond 200 mph is akin to being at Mount Everest's so-called ''death zone.'' If any little thing goes awry the situation can quickly turn critical. A strong cross wind, a poorly timed sneeze or, my worst fear, a blown tyre, and the car's straight-line trajectory could turn into an extended barrel roll.
The faster you go, the more air the car has to displace. Past 290kmh it becomes a dense wall. The car becomes unstable, with air channelling underneath, trying to lift it skyward.

The AMS engineers estimate that the Alpha 12 is mechanically capable of hitting 383kmh. It has no roll cage or specialty safety equipment and I'm not wearing a helmet. It's basically a street-legal car capable of almost four times the typical highway speed limit.

I stamp on the accelerator. There's a moment's pause as the turbos spool up to power. Then, like a match igniting gunpowder, a flash and a boom. The entire front of the car lifts.
I slam the gears into second, then third. There's a tingling at the nape of my neck. A sense of displacing air, space and reality.

The runway is crisscrossed by black skid marks left by jumbo jet landings that seem to streak toward me as I land-speed over the wide runway. Then they, too, disappear. Number markers from one to ten are on the side of the tarmac.

At the halfway mark, not even looking at the speedometer, I let off the accelerator, step on the brake lightly and then much harder. I'm almost disappointed when I stop and find the runway still continues on for quite a distance.

The Alpha has a lot more to give. I look at my top speed on the VBOX then turn around and cruise slowly back the way I've come. My heartbeat is fairly steady. In some 24 seconds, I've travelled from zero to 344kmh.
 
Nissan GT-R/AMS Alpha 12
Engine: 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-6
Power: 1119kW
Torque: 1363Nm
Transmission: Six-speed dual-clutch automated transmission.
0-100kmh: 2.4 seconds.
 
-Washington Post

Lighter Nissan Pathfinder

NEW PATHFINDER: Nissan's crossover has gone to a unibody.

 Nissan has revealed the production version of its 2013 Pathfinder.

The new SUV moves from body-on-frame to monocoque construction, shaving several hundred kilos off its weight.

It will be powered by a V6 mated with a CVT, which is expected to boost fuel economy by 2 per cent compared with the outgoing model with a V6.

Nissan says the Pathfinder will feature four-wheel-drive. As the platform is linked to an Infiniti model we think it will offer a diesel too.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Hybrid possibility for next Nissan GT-R

ELECTRICITY BOOST?: Nissan is believed to be considering a hybrid option for its GT-R supercar.

Nissan looks set to tweak the look and performance of its GT-R supercar next year, and could eventually switch to a petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain.

The company is said to be planning a significant 2013 makeover for the car in a bid to keep it fresh ahead of an all-new model that was originally scheduled for 2015, but is now more likely to be pushed back to 2018.
US website insideline.com reports that GT-R chief engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno and his team are closely watching the development of the next Honda NSX, which will use a mid-mounted V6 supplemented by three electric motors – one for the dual-clutch transmission and two more to send torque to the front wheels, improving handling.

A test version of the NSX, which is expected to be released in 2015, is said by Honda insiders to have lapped the famed Nurburgring race track faster than a GT-R.

Porsche will also use hybrid technology on its forthcoming 918 Spyder, which is expected to sprint to 100kmh in less than three seconds, but also deliver Toyota Prius-rivalling fuel efficiency.

While Honda hasn't released power figures for the NSX, Porsche says the 918's combination of a 4.6-litre V8 with two electric motors fitted front and rear will develop a total power output of 575kW and torque of 750Nm.

They're likely to be enticing figures for Nissan, with the GT-R currently outputting a meagre-by-comparison 404kW and 628Nm in return for average official fuel use of 11.7L/100km.

Nissan says the current GT-R will already hit 100kmh in three seconds, although Fairfax Media's performance testing indicates this is closer to 3.5 seconds in real-world conditions.

It's unknown at this stage whether Nissan would attempt to develop a petrol-electric drivetrain using the existing twin-turbo V6 engine, which could be finalised within the next few years, or whether it would build such an engine from scratch for inclusion in the all-new 2018 model.

The 2013 update is expected to include a significant performance tweaks and a cosmetic upgrade that is rumoured to include the front bumper and headlights but not the main body panels.

Nissan Pulsar SSS

COMEBACK: The Nissan Pulsar SSS.

After months of speculation Nissan has officially confirmed the return of the once-popular Pulsar SSS hot hatch.

"There'll be a hot hatch [Pulsar],'' says Andy Palmer, executive vice president of Nissan globally."
He also confirmed the SSS would be powered by a turbocharged version of the 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine. But it won't be a power focused machine; instead Nissan's performance division Nismo will put the emphasis on driving dynamics.

"Generally speaking where we're trying to take Nismo is one of more outright ride and handling rather than hot, hot performance," he said.

"The basis of that is most people don't get anywhere near the limits of their motor car's performance as is. You can make the sports car more accessible, better ride and handling, that's where Nismo has gone."
But in bad news for performance car fans Palmer scotched recent reports that the company was working on a new small rear-wheel drive sports car to compete with the Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ.
Although he admitted the company looked at a successor to the 200SX, the program was stopped 18 months ago and the decision was made to promote the Juke compact SUV as a sporty model to younger buyers.

"Interested is one thing, having it on the planning books is another," he said. "We departed from the 86 model and went down the road of Juke as a conscious decision. Gen Y and definitely Gen Z is definitely less interested in that kind of execution of sports cars."

While obviously the Juke is obviously a very different proposition from the 86/BRZ Palmer is confident it is appealing to the younger buyers Nissan is targeting.

"Ideally you want a customer in their early 20s, so we're talking about Gen Z," he said. "What I'm saying is, that customer has a different attitude to sporty performance and a different attitude to life than I do or you do."
 
-Fairfax Australia