Looks like Nissan isn't devoid of car enthusiasts

[krash]

Car and Driver interviews Nissan's chief product specialist for the GTR and Nismo programs. His answers to the questions are a nice surprise and maybe a small glimmer of hope that the Nissan we know and love isn't dead at all.

http://blog.caranddriver.com/takes-one- ... yline-r32/

[themadscientist]

C/D: In photos, your engine looks very stock.
HT: That’s important to me! The washer-fluid bottle looks stock, but it’s a cold-air intake box. The turbochargers’ pipes look like rubber, but I put aluminum inside them. I have an active limited-slip differential from the R34.

Wait, what? Oh hell, this guy is all up in my playbook playing mind games with folks. That's what I'm trying to do with my GT-R and FC. I want the R looking externally stock. I want the FC so low down I can pop the hood and play innocent.

[krash]

yea that was awesome, same reason I'm throwing an SR manifold and heatsheild on my KA. "whaaat no man I'm not turbo, see look its all stock."

[MinisterofDOOM]

Great to read about. Just another demonstration of what's wrong with modern Nissan, though.

If you look at Ford's SVT, Chrylser's SRT, GM's Corvette/Cadillac team, you see a brand-wide application of performance tech and knowledge.

If you look at Nissan, you see the GTR. And that's it. The GTR, in the grand scheme of things, is completely meaningless. Meaningless as a car, meaningless as a Nissan, meaningless as a product. Because it's an isolated, wholely separate product that might as well be its own brand. There's no trickle-down. There's no sharing of design research. Nissan builds the GTR, and Nissan builds everything else. They are parallel product lines that never cross. The GTR sees continuous, DRAMATIC evolution and improvement every model year. None of that goes ANYWHERE. None of that serves any useful purpose. The GTR is a waste.

You can get a Fiesta ST, or a Focus ST, or a Shelby Mustang, or a Raptor F150.
You can get a ZR1 Corvette, or a ZL1 Camaro, or a V-series Cadillac.
You can get an SRT 300C, or SRT Cherokee, or an SRT Ram and for a while even an SRT version of the single worst compact car since the Tempo (Caliber, in case you were wondering).
You can get a GTR, or...a Juke? A Juke with Nismo stickers? A Murano? A...CVT? A GTR or nothing, basically.

Nissan keeps this talented engineer locked up in a tower building meaningless halo cars instead of infusing the rest of their brand with his genius.

[krash]

Yea, pretty unfortunate. The Z and the GTR are in their own little world.... and then you have the other idiots that want to put a CVT on the IDx.

[Bubba1]

Great to read about. Just another demonstration of what's wrong with modern Nissan, though.

If you look at Ford's SVT, Chrylser's SRT, GM's Corvette/Cadillac team, you see a brand-wide application of performance tech and knowledge.

If you look at Nissan, you see the GTR. And that's it. The GTR, in the grand scheme of things, is completely meaningless. Meaningless as a car, meaningless as a Nissan, meaningless as a product. Because it's an isolated, wholely separate product that might as well be its own brand. There's no trickle-down. There's no sharing of design research. Nissan builds the GTR, and Nissan builds everything else. They are parallel product lines that never cross. The GTR sees continuous, DRAMATIC evolution and improvement every model year. None of that goes ANYWHERE. None of that serves any useful purpose. The GTR is a waste.

You can get a Fiesta ST, or a Focus ST, or a Shelby Mustang, or a Raptor F150.
You can get a ZR1 Corvette, or a ZL1 Camaro, or a V-series Cadillac.
You can get an SRT 300C, or SRT Cherokee, or an SRT Ram and for a while even an SRT version of the single worst compact car since the Tempo (Caliber, in case you were wondering).
You can get a GTR, or...a Juke? A Juke with Nismo stickers? A Murano? A...CVT? A GTR or nothing, basically.

Nissan keeps this talented engineer locked up in a tower building meaningless halo cars instead of infusing the rest of their brand with his genius.

^ Clearly having a car enthusiast in that position is desireable. Unfortunately that means very little when his bosses instruct him to build a boring car with FWD and CVT and then instruct their marketing team to try to convince the market that it's sporty.