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Syrena Sport returns as rebodied Nissan 370Z

We wouldn't hold it against you if you'd never heard of the FSO Syrena Sport. FSO built the long-enduring Syrena for some 17 years nonstop, and while the machines were mostly plodding family sedans, engineers at FSO did create one version with a bit more zest. The Syrena Sport was a two-door coupe that borrowed design cues from Ferrari and was powered by a two-cylinder, air-cooled boxer engine. While originally intended for production, economic woes kept the machine from ever seeing the light of day.
Now, the Syrena Sport is back, though in a slightly different configuration. Entrepreneur Rafal Czubaj has resurrected the name for a special one-off creation designed by Pavlo Burkatskyy. This time around, there is no oddball boxer under the hood, however. Czubaj chose to use the underpinnings from the Nissan 370Z, complete with its 3.7-liter V6 engine. Buyers can choose between a 330-horsepower tune or a 450-hp iteration, and with a curb weight of 2,865 pounds, the car should be plenty quick. Expect acceleration to 60 miles per hour in around 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 180 mph.

Nissan applies for 'R-Hybrid' trademark, but what is it for?

Patent and trademark filings are sort of like tasseography for those of us in the auto industry. If you know where and how to look at something, there's a lot to be figured out. Take this trademark filing from Nissan - it's similar to the Pure Drive badge found on a Versa or Sentra, but the bottom half sports the phrase "R-Hybrid." This wouldn't be remarkable if the "R" in R-Hybrid weren't the same style as the "R" in the Nissan GT-R's badge, right down to the serifs.
While it's easy to see this as grasping at straws, it makes a fair degree of sense. The R35 GT-R may be a dominant performance machine, but it's been around since 2008, which is donkey years in the automotive industry. And based on the recent crop of hybridized hypercars and racecars, a hybrid GT-R doesn't seem like such a stretch.
As Car And Driver points out, figuring out that the GT-R will go hybrid isn't hard - figuring out when it will arrive, is. The buff book rightly points out that a new GT-R isn't expected until 2017, but that designing and trademarking a badge four years ahead of time is a bit odd. Car and Driver speculates that we could see a mildly hybridized R35, although the chances do seem remarkably low. Head over to C/D for a more thorough rundown on why this just might be a GT-R badge, including comparisons with other R-badged Nissans.

Nissan bringing 'New Sedan Concept' to Beijing Motor Show

During the 2014 Detroit Auto Show, Nissan showed off its Sport Sedan Concept (pictured above), an orange creation meant to foreshadow the next generation of the brand's "Four-Door Sports Car," the Maxima. For the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, though, Nissan is going to deliver a Chinese take on a future four-door, with the New Sedan Concept (imaginative name, we know).
Like the Nissan Friend-Me Concept from the 2013 Shanghai Motor Show, the NSC has been designed by Nissan Design China in Beijing. Outside of that, information is in short supply. Nissan claims this latest concept is targeted at the Chinese digital lifestyle. Whether it serves as an evolution of the Friend-Me's swoopy design or a regional take on Nissan's Detroit concept, though, remains to be seen.
We'll have the full slate of info on the Nissan New Sedan Concept, along with everything else that happens at the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, when the floor opens on April 23. Take a look below for the official press release from Nissan, which also includes a recap of previously debuted models that will be shown at Beijing.