2013 Nissan Altima Sv Sedan 4-door 2.5l on 2040-cars

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Nissan's Nismo celebrates 30th year with video retrospective

Nismo, the motorsports and high-performance arm of Nissan, has a lot of racing success to celebrate in its history and possibly even bigger accomplishments to look forward to. The company is commemorating its 30th anniversary with a video looking back at its most important milestones from each year of its past.
Nismo's job first and foremost at its genesis was to excel at motorsports. It wasn't too long after the division was founded in 1984 that the company made its first of many attempts to take an overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It never quite succeeded in that goal, but still managed to do well in long-distance competition elsewhere. At the same time, Nismo was racking up wins in touring car races in Japan.
Eventually, the division's engineers started dipping their toes into tuning road cars, in addition to going racing. What began as something sporadic has become a growing part of the Nissan lineup with Nismo-branded models of the 370Z, Juke, Note in Europe and the GT-R.

2014 Nissan GT-R squeaks in under $100k*, Murano CrossCabriolet priced, too

Another year, another price hike for the ridiculously awesome Nissan GT-R. When the GT-R was introduced for the 2008 model year, it had a starting price of $69,850, increasing steadily each year up to $96,820 for 2013, and now Nissan has announced that the 2014 GT-R will have a base sticker price of $99,590 (*not including the destination charge, which has not been announced yet).
More than just a simple price hike, the 2014 GT-R gets some upgrades, continuing the model's other longstanding tradition - continuous improvement. While there has been no increase in power, Nissan says the 545-horsepower, twin-turbo V6 now has better response in its mid- and upper-rpm ranges. Nissan has also improved the car's handling, giving it different shock absorbers, springs and a reworked front anti-roll bar, along with "increased body rigidity," though it doesn't specify how the latter is accomplished. The changes are said to lower the coupe's center of gravity and further improve its (already spectacular) handling. A few styling tweaks include the addition of a Premium Interior Package offering hand-stitched red leather seats, a color pattern for the steering wheel on the $109,300 GT-R Black Edition and an engraved aluminum plate showing the owner who built their car's engine.
Along with the announcement of the 2014 GT-R, Nissan also released details for the 2014 Murano CrossCabriolet. The big - but not surprising - news is that Nissan has lowered the price of its slow-selling crossover convertible to $41,995, representing a price drop of just over $2,500. Aside from price, model year changes include two new exterior colors and redesigned 20-inch wheels.

Four Wheeler crowns Ultimate Factory 4x4... who wins?

Nearly every automaker doing business in the SUV or pickup truck segments offers a package designed to improve the off-road capabilities of its wares. But, of course, not all such factory kits are created equal. How, then, to separate the wheat from the chaff? Gather each of them up and put them through their paces, naturally.
The folks from Four Wheeler and PickupTrucks.com joined forces to run just such a comparison test, with the winner named the Ultimate Factory 4x4. A total of seven vehicles showed up to the fight: the 2012 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor, 2013 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, 2012 Nissan Frontier PRO-4X and Xterra PRO-4X, 2012 Ram Power Wagon, and 2012 Toyota 4Runner Trail and Tacoma TRD T|X Baja Series.
With the contestants in place, the whole crew put each vehicle through a battery of tests that included skidpad and acceleration measurements, a hillclimb, a rocky stairstep course and a rock garden. Considering the nature of the beasts, on-road ride and comfort were not part of the routine.