Nissan 360: immersing yourself in Nissan’s history, culture and future
Text and photos by Botchi Santos
WHAT is Nissan 360? What is Nissan for that matter? And what is Nismo and Autech? And why, despite now being part of the French Renault Group, does Nissan’s identity continue to thrive?
The brief says that the Nissan 360 event is an intense immersion into all things Nissan, with the 360 denoting that we will be heavily surrounded by Nissan-ness, so to speak. The highlight for many of us is the Nismo Festival, a celebration of Nissan’s glorious involvement in motorsports through the years. This is the first time the event was opened up to media from Asia and Oceana (Australia and New Zealand), which makes it exciting and truly memorable.
These are the thoughts I was pondering as I packed my things for an immersion of all things Nissan. Yokohama City, Japan’s first port of call and entry, is Nissan’s new Global Headquarters. Yokohama is much like Tokyo, but more laid-back and is colder, as the city center is closer to Tokyo Bay.
Day One saw us visiting Nissan’s beautiful, semi-campus-style headquarters, a huge departure from its staid, low-rise red-brick building in Ginza. We were met by Nissan executives, who ushered us into an auditorium to explain some details on Nissan’s future (electric cars and plug-in hybrids). Demand for these cars will grow in the future as government regulations on emissions get tighter. Today, the Nissan Leaf is the world’s most successful electric vehicle with over 190,000 cars sold since its introduction.
Afterwards, we headed out to Shizuoka Prefecture to Fuji Speedway, where we were introduced to Nissan’s Nismo factory racecar drivers. The Nissan R35 GT-R has been very successful, winning the Australian Bathurst 1,000-kilometer race on Mount Panorama Circuit, the 2015 Blancpain World Endurance Championship Series and double Championships in the Japanese Super GT Championship, winning the GT500 Class and the GT300 Class.
Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli are the Super GT GT500 champions, Andre Couto and R. Tomita the GT300 champions, and Katsumasa Chiyo and Wolfgang Reip are the Blancpain Endurance Series champions, all driving factory-prepared Nissan R35 GTR’s.
After meeting with the factory drivers, we headed out to the majestic Fuji Speedway onboard a tour coach. Called the Circuit Safari, this is Nissan and Nismo’s way of bringing journalists closer to the action, as our tour buses became moving obstacles for the various Nissan race cars out for practice.
The third day was the Nismo Festival itself. The Nismo Festival started in 1997 as a means to celebrate all things Nissan and Nismo, seeing the glorious championship winning race cars both old and new on track, together mixing it up and duking it out in mock races. Various celebrity drivers from Nissan’s past also came to the festivities, with various Q&A sessions. The highlight of the day was the grid walk, where everyone was free to see the various Nissan race cars prior to the start of a mock race, and of course, to see all the Japanese race queens in their sexy outfits.
Outside the track, the action was equally intense. The parking area behind the main paddock and behind the main grandstand on the opposite side of Fuji’s 1.6-km straight played host to a festival. Retailers were selling Nissan/Nismo apparel, accessories and car parts. Aside from Nissan/Nismo, popular tuners and parts manufacturers such as HKS, Top Secret, GReddy, Recaro, Prodrive and Bride had their own retail booths, alongside hobby shops selling die-cast models of Ebbro and Tomy model cars.
After the grid walk, the mock races started, and the glorious sound of twin-turbo V6’s, inline turbo six’s, 2-liter turbo fours and a few normally-aspirated V6s and V8s filled the grandstand and the expansive Fuji Speedway complex. It was very much heaven for any car enthusiast: fast cars flat-out on a full-on proper Grand Prix racetrack, gorgeous race queens in racy outfits enough to make your blood boil despite 4-degree-Celsius weather and cheap car parts, accessories and apparel on sale.
After the excitement of the Nismo Festival, we headed over to Nissan’s Zama Heritage Museum to see the 450 cars being kept in storage by Nissan. These 450 cars represent the majority of what Nissan considers their most important, influential, historic and memorable models, for both road and racecars.
After our visit to the Zama Heritage Museum, we went over to Nissan’s Advanced Technical Center to see the latest plug-in hybrids and Nissan’s take on autonomous driving cars. While the plug-in hybrids are interesting, from a personal point of view, autonomous driving cars are not very appealing to car guys like me who see driving as a form of relaxation and enjoyment. Nonetheless, autonomous driving cars can help save lives and also conserve resources by driving in the most efficient manner possible. Self-driving cars are nearer than we think.
The plug-in hybrids on the other hand, help conserve electricity for Nissan’s Advanced Technical Center. By plugging hybrid cars into the facility’s grid system, these cars give power to the grid, reducing the facility’s dependence on external power sources (i.e. the main power plant) during peak hours (where consumption is at its highest, between 9 a.m. to
4 p.m.), thereby reducing its electricity bill by a few thousand dollars a month.
Finally, our last day saw us at Chiba Prefecture, driving on the Sodegaura Forest Raceway. Sodegaura is a small track, measuring 2.4 km in its longest variation. There are two loops, a small one surrounded by a big one. The smaller loop would play host to our test drive of the Nissan R35 GT-R and the Juke, whereas the bigger outer loop would be our course for the Leaf EV, March and Note Nismo versions. As a special treat, we were given joyrides in a Nismo R35 GT-R piloted by a professional driver.
We also noticed that the Note would be a perfect candidate for our roads. It’s a small C-segment hatchback, and kitted out in full Nismo kit (bodykit, tuned suspension, mild-tuned engine) felt fun on the track.
Once again, as I was packing my things for the return flight home, I was pondering Nissan: Nissan continues to grow because its identity and brand values remain strong. They have an exciting lineup of cars, and by being part of the Renault Group, means they can continue to develop more exciting cars in the future by sharing R&D costs with Renault. Their Nismo arm in particular has a very strong presence and brand equity in motorsports, which Nissan is now trying to spread throughout the rest of their model range by releasing Nismo versions of the R35 GT-R, 370Z sports car, the Juke (which we will hopefully get soon), the Note, March and even the El Grand MPV.
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