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Old 20 Apr 2007, 21:26 (Ref:1896681)   #22
dj4monie
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Join Date: Oct 2003
United States
Reseda, California
Posts: 1,790
dj4monie is heading for a stewards' enquiry!
Nissan NA moved Down South to save money...

This allows them more freedom to do things.

Nissan was always able to hang its performance reputation on the Z car. Now that the Z has somewhat returned to its "roots" as an affordable sportscar, its not the "halo" or "flagship" car that Nissan needs to be a player on all markets.

That's where the GT-R comes in. They thought about selling it as a Infiniti, but that's before Mitsubishi and Subaru could sell $30K plus compact cars for a profit.

As the "Gran Tursimo" generation gets more disposable income, trades in their Honda Civics for larger more powerful cars, the Skyline GT-R is in a good position for Nissan if its marketed correctly. Part of that marketing; Motorsport HAS to be included! You can't expect to sell a car close to $50,000 and take some market from BMW, GM, Audi and Ford (GT500) without racing it, especially in Europe as Satorian has stated.

My gut tells me you'll see this car racing and you'll see it in ALMS and only the GT1 class makes any sense for such a car.

Nismo has the capacity to keep it in-house and seek outside support to fund it. I don't know why Fog is negative on that, Nissan N/A has relationships with Kuhmo tires for example in the CORR series, long relationships with Bridgestone, Penzoil/Shell and a few others.

They can get this done...
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