Well, well, well … the plot thickens.

For those who have not been following, there’s been an ongoing, ahem, king-of-the-hill war being waged at the Nurburgring over the past few.

The two primary players have been the latest uber-Vette ZR1 and the Nissan GT-R.

Although the Nissan GT-R holds the current record, the full factory Vette has yet to make an appearance runs Chevy’s argument that this ain’t over.

Added to this is a couple of other interesting observations: Guys that hang out at the ring say the Nissan GT-R looks & sounds like it’s putting out more than the stated HP, and there have been rumors of rumors that said GT-R might not be the same one you can buy from Nissan (i.e. it’s been lightened).

Now entering into this fray comes the British car site Pistonheads (via CarScoop) with more rumor, innuendo and juicy, unsubstantiated gossip and the like.

Pistonheads says that the GT-R is not a current production car as Nissan says, but a European spec version featuring a number of tweaks.

My take?

I agree with CarScoop, in short. Who cares if it’s a Euro version or an NA version … things still plenty quick.

Well, that’s pretty bold statement relayed to me by the fine folks at Axis of Oversteer . They pointed to this story at a (new to me, but still very good) site called Speed Sport Life , that basically takes Nissan and the GT-R to task.

To wit:

“…What’s the Nissan GT-R’s market base? Well, it’s primarily made up of people who play Gran Turismo and its descendants, plus a smattering of kids who thought the car with the Impala-esque taillights in 2Fast 2Furious was pretty cool. Most of these people live in the basements of their parents’ homes. Do you see the problem with the idea of marketing a $70,000 car to people who still live with their parents and who spend all night on XBOX Live? If you don’t, allow me to point it out for you: These kids don’t have any money. They may be tremendously knowledgeable car enthusiasts and very nice people, but when I was seventeen years old, I was a knowledgeable car enthusiast too, and I don’t remember buying any $70,000 cars with my minimum-wage earnings from working the parts counter at David Hobbs BMW…”

Hmm … what to make of that?

I know this will not set well with a lot of folks out there (as well as loyal readers of this site). Thoughts?

Coming out of the Fresh Alloy forums and courtesy of Autoblog, are these images and rumors about a redesign.refreshing of Nissan’s iconic Z car.

The most notable, um, improvement, is a headlight redesign.

Boy, let’s hope they’re wrong about this, cause that just looks terrible.

Squinty, no sense of flow or direction, the mass/form vs. void proportions are all wrong, not much, if any, harmony with the rest of the car not to mention really clashing with the front fenders.

On the upside, having a headlight treatment that egregious detracts from the ham-fisted radiator opening and those ineptly handled vents just aft of the front wheels.

I know the mechanical underpinnings are impressive in these cars, but the styling has always left me shaking my head; it’s always seemed half-finished and if this is their idea on how to rectify things, then they really need to look at who they’re hiring to do their design work.

I hear that Pininfarina is looking for work, why not give them a call.

The Nissan Silvia has been a drifters dream since 1989. Being rear-wheel-drive, light, and easy & cheap to upgrade makes it one of the best cars around for sliding around the track, even today.

Sadly, in Nissan’s quest to become more practical and family-oriented, they discontinued the 240SX in 1998 after only two generations. Fortunately, Nissan has recently been focusing a little bit less on their SUVs and trucks, and starting to make room for some coupes (maybe Larry Dominique - VP of Product Planning at Nissan - took my advice to heart when I wouldn’t leave him alone about coupes at the Chicago Auto Show ) The GT-R was recently unveiled, they started selling the beautiful Altima Coupe, made a few modifications to the 350Z, and now…they’re bringing back the Nissan Silvia! Continue Reading…

Nissan finally announced the official price for the long-awaited GT-R - it starts at $69,850 in the United States and will go on sale in June 2008.

The GT-R is surprisingly fast, keeping up with the big dogs in the supercar game. It lapped the Nurburgring’s Nordschleife only one second behind the Koenigsegg CCR, and two seconds behind the Pagani Zonda F. The official lap time was 7 minutes 39 seconds, which is ahead of the Porsche 911 Turbo, Corvette Z06, and the Mercedes SLR McLaren - amazing for a $70,000 car sporting a 3.8L twin-turbo V6.

Today, Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn debuted their long-awaited GT-R Supercar. The GT-R features a hand-built, twin-turbo V6 engine that produces 480 horsepower.

This all-wheel-drive beauty can run from 0-62mph in 3.6 seconds. Take a look below for a few low-quality screenshots I was able to grab from the live debut… Continue Reading…