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Among the larger vehicles offered up at the Nissan 360 event that weren’t the large commercial offerings from yesterday were the Japanese and “General Overseas Market” Elgrand Van and the Euro- and Japanese-market Qashqai.

The Elgrand wasn’t a bad piece of kit for a great big honking van. While massive, the 3.5-liter V6 with 241 hp gets the thing up and going — even uphill — with an alacrity that feels almost driftworthy… for a great big honking van. The instrument panel is good looking and nice feeling, the three rows of seats can be moved every which way but loose, and the platoon-hauling mover weighs only 4,431 pounds. Nissan calls it “a first-class minivan fulfilling the dreams and aspirations of consumers for a relaxing experience.” We call it a pretty good van.

You can check out the Nissan 360 event site for more details on the vehicles and Nissan company stats. In the mean time, be sure to check out the gallery of hi-res photos below.

The Qashqai is a European-designed, Japan- and Euro-market crossover. We didn’t drive the gasoline version, but the diesel is doable, if a little slow off the line, and the steering is pretty crisp for a CUV. The Qashqai +2 adds a third row… but there really isn’t a lot of room back there, only suitable for new additions to the family. In a theme among all of the Nissan vehicles we drove today, the interior is quite pleasant. As ever, the Euros get mid-range vehicles with some really nice fit and finish. The leather in the diesel was especially nice, if a little puffy. The center console pleases the eye at a glance, but when you look closely at it you realize there are enough buttons and glyphs for a Sikorsky helicopter. It really takes scrutiny to decipher, and you don’t want to do it while you’re driving. But the panorama roof? Magnificent.

You can head over to the Nissan 360 event site for more details on the vehicles. But first, be sure to check out the gallery of hi-res photos below.

Let’s just get this out of the way right now: this blogger is going to buy one of these cars when they come to America. And I’m a die-hard 385-plus-horsepower sports car owner for years now. And I live in LA. But the Cube is just that great. So Nissan, don’t pull a bait-and-switch, please…

The Cube is basic, and makes no attempt to dress it up. In fact, not only is the car not gussied up, but the entire interior of the car I drove was beige. And it was still hot. It’s basic done completely right, with tons of cubbies and comfort in an enormous (relatively speaking) cabin and a unified design theme inside and outside that ties it all together.

The 1.5-liter, 107-HP engine has got the giddy-up-and-go, and the car is so much fun to drive that you’ll cackle like an old hen every time you throw it around a corner. I admit I won’t be buying one in sky blue, and it won’t have the third row — that row is more than a bit optimistic — but I will have no problem showing everyone I know that “cool” is now spelled “cube.”

You can check out the Nissan 360 event site for more details on all the vehicles in Nissan’s lineup. In the mean time, be sure to check out the gallery of hi-res photos below.

There were crisp images of a blurry car being swapped and discussed today at Nissan 360. When Shiro Nakamura, the head designer at Nissan, revealed the barest hints of a car outline hidden behind a taut sheet of fabric, speculation began as to whether it represented the new Z. The arced flanges over the wheels, and the way they follow the wheels, have 370Z written all over them. However, it doesn’t look as if it would fit this rendering exactly — which is not a bad thing. All Nakamura would say is that we’ll be seeing that wheel later this year, which, coincidentally, is when the next Z — supposedly lighter and four inches shorter than the current car — is slated to be unveiled.

The other design teaser was a top-view sculpture of future Infiniti design elements. Who knows what or how much of the elements — like the ducktail rear — will make it to the final product, and who knows what those features will look like when in production. But it’s a good looking piece of art in its own right. A brace of edges peeking out from a sea of crimson undulations — if they had thrown wheels on it I would have driven it out of the hotel last night.

The Nissan Note was the smallest of the “big” cars we sampled at Nissan 360. Sold in — yet again — Europe and Japan only, the English-built Note hatchback has been on the market for just a year. The car is aimed at “parents who need a practical five-seater,” and the inside of the car feels like it’s custom made to handle bouncing, throwing, stomping little ones. The front seatbacks even have little tray tables with cupholders in them. It’s like coach class, but actually enjoyable.

The Note is basic, but nothing about it feels cheap. The only real issue we had was the tire noise that drowned out the four-cylinder, 110-HP mill. Due to that alone, the peppy little Note was the loudest car we drove all day. And while the super comfy fabric seats looked great, their coverings are perforated. The first time a McDonald’s shake gets spilled — or, heaven forbid, something that spoils — we wouldn’t want to be the ones who have to get the mess out of each little pore.

You can check out the Nissan 360 event site for more details on all the vehicles in Nissan’s lineup. In the mean time, be sure to check out the gallery of hi-res photos below.

Nissan showed off a drive-by-wire concept that wasn’t about touting the technology itself, but the space and features you could get back because of it. By fitting a steer-by-wire, brake-by-wire, and shift-by-wire systems, 11 centimeters of extra space was added to the cabin which allowed for a third row of seats in the rear of this Murano-based concept. The room came from pushing the wheels out to the far corners, which could be safely done without sacrificing vehicle dynamics due to the lack of mechanical linkages.

The small, race-style steering wheel needs less turning input, and the column can be tilted up completely out of the way. The center tunnel has become a beautifully finished control panel that gently arcs up to greet the driver. When you don’t need it, it can also be folded back over itself creating even more space in the front area. When I did, the swath of empty space between the front seats was so inviting I almost wanted to take a nap.

The Nissan R&D engineer with the vehicle said that there were no plans to put the technology into any products right now. But it is being studied, especially one of the main issues — as with all drive-by-wire systems — the implementation of redundant systems.

You can check out the Nissan 360 event site for more details on the EA2 concept and all the vehicles in Nissan’s lineup. In the mean time, be sure to check out the gallery of hi-res photos below.

Kei cars. To know them is to love them, or to tower over them in Gulliver-like wonder. Both the iridescent colored Moco and Otti feature the 0.66-liter engines common to the Kei class, meaning each also boasts 54 thundering mares beneath their ridiculously tiny hoods. Once up to speed, they run nicely, and they’re pretty quiet. But these are not cars to take when you’re late for anything.

They have lots of room inside and enough controls to operate them on public roads. They are both fine cars. The Otti adds to that with a chic little IP featuring good looking materials and colors, a power rear sliding door on the passenger side that you can open from the driver’s seat, a seriously neat set of cupholders, and the world’s smallest tailpipe.

Regarding the Moco, a rebadged Suzuki MR Wagon, Nissan says “the current generation model features a stylish exterior and interior.” The Otti is Nissan’s version of the Mitsubishi eK Wagon. It’s described as a minicar “for daily living,” and “has experienced extremely strong sales in the Japanese market.” Yes. What they said.

You can check out the Nissan 360 event site for more details on all the vehicles in Nissan’s lineup. In the mean time, be sure to check out the gallery of hi-res photos below.

When the 193-MPH Nissan GT-R set a lap time of 7:38 last year at the ‘Ring, besting cars like the Porsche GT3, Lamborghini Murcielago, and Mercedes SLR, the Nissan team was disappointed. There were two damp corners on the track, and everyone was quite sure that the car, piloted by official test driver Tochio Suzuki, could go faster.

Now it has. With a completely dry track, the base model Godzilla-san wearing stock Japanese-market tires shaved 9 seconds off its previous best time, posting a lap time of 7:29. On that same lap, it leapfrogged the Porsche GT2, Koenigsegg, and SLR 722 GT. Now it’s flashing its headlights at the Carrera GT and Pagani Zonda F Clubsport, both about one second up the road. So if the standard model on stock tires does 7:29, and the more powerful, lighter GT-R V-Spec has already been casually clocked at 7:25 — betting on what the GT-R’s ultimate best lap time will be begins now… And did we say it can all be yours for $70,000? Damn. Check out Nissan’s official presser after the jump and our First Drive of the 2009 Nissan GT-R by clicking here.
[Source: Nissan]

 one of the engineers on hand mentioned that Godzilla’s suspension would be tweaked for the U.S. market. When asked why, the response wasn’t entirely clear, so we assumed that the changes would be made to adapt the GT-R to our less-than-perfect road surface. Apparently, that’s not the case.

The suspension revisions, which involved modifying the spring rate by 0.1kg/mm to make the GT-R’s coils a bit stiffer, will be accompanied by three harder engine mounts and a firmer transaxle mount that limits movement of the engine and gearbox under cornering forces. However, these changes aren’t just for vehicles bound for Stateside consumption. The tweaks have also been implemented on the latest batch of JDM vehicles and are going to be ported over to the UK models when they arrive next year. While the changes are minimal, it’s proof that Nissan’s engineers are dedicated to improving every facet of the GT-R to ensure that it remains on top. Or, to quote the GT-R’s chief vehicle engineer, Kazutoshi Mizuno, who spoke with Car, “The GT-R is my son… a son grows up and it’s my duty as father to keep improving it.”

[Source: Car]

The Nissan GT-R’s 7:29 lap record won’t stand for long if Chevrolet has anything to say about it. Speaking with InsideLine, Corvette Chief Engineer, Tadge Jeuchter, says that the ZR1, “will be able to take the production-car track record at any racetrack,” and that although Chevy doesn’t have a production version of the uber-Vette at the Nurburgring yet, they’re expecting a lap time of “seven minutes, twenty-something seconds.” That sounds like smack-talk to us. But while the ZR1 might have the potential to best the GT-R’s ‘Ring time, the 550-600 hp elephant in the room is the forthcoming GT-R V-Spec, which is already putting down (roughly-timed) laps around the North Loop in the 7:25 realm. Let the battle begin. We’re making popcorn now.

[Source: InsideLine]