2007 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab Le 4x4 Long Bed on 2040-cars

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Panoz and DeltaWing suing Nissan over BladeGlider concept

Similarity is bound to occur in an industry where most of the products follow the same basic formula. But once in a while a new design comes along that doesn't quite reinvent the wheel, but comes pretty damn close. The DeltaWing project was one such design - and Nissan, the car's designers allege, stole that design.
After the DeltaWing proposal was rejected by the IndyCar series, its creators took it to Le Mans and brought Nissan on board to supply the power. Nissan subsequently pulled out of the program and came out with the ZEOD RC hybrid racer (right), bearing a suspiciously similar design with an unusually narrow front track at the end of a long nose cone, and a wider track at the back. The Japanese automaker then displayed the BladeGlider concept (below, right) at the Tokyo Motor Show, envisioning a translation of the same formula into road-going form.
The similarity did not escape Don Panoz, who - after making sports and racing cars under his own name and founding the now-defunct American Le Mans Series - was a central figure in bringing the original DeltaWing to life. Now Panoz has filed a lawsuit against Nissan, soliciting the courts to issue a cease-and-desist order on both the ZEOD RC and BladeGlider projects, naming Nissan motorsport chief Darren Cox and Ben Bowlby (who defected to Nissan from the DeltaWing program) as part of the suit.

Nissan expands US EV test market for e-NV200 to Portland

Of course, it's going to be Portland. Oregon's largest city, known for its green-friendly vibe and policies, will be where Nissan will next test of its all-electric e-NV200 cargo van. And we hope those vans have cup holders for the inevitable java. The Japanese automaker is working with local utility company Portland General Electric (PGE) on a six-week trial program. Nissan and PGE will record data to better measure how the concept of battery-powered driving works within the local services network. The location makes sense, as Portland is one of the five best-selling US cities when it comes to sales of the Nissan Leaf, which shares its powertrain with the e-NV200. Nissan kicked off its "No Charge to Charge" free-charging program for new Leaf owners in April. Nissan, which had already been testing the e-NV200 with FedEx in Germany, Japan and Singapore as of late last year, said at the Washington Auto Show in January that it would start testing the electric van in the Washington, DC, area. Nissan said at the time that it helped install about 570 fast-charging CHAdeMO chargers throughout the US since last year, including 200 in December alone. Check out Nissan's press release about the Portland project below. LEADING EV MARKET PORTLAND BECOMES TEST BED FOR NISSAN E-NV200 ELECTRIC COMMERCIAL VEHICLE PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland, already a top breeding ground for electric vehicle (EV) sales, is now the proving ground for Nissan's prototype electric commercial vehicle – the Nissan e-NV200. Nissan is working in collaboration with Portland General Electric (PGE) on a six-week trial to help determine the viability of an electric commercial vehicle in the U.S market. PGE has assigned the e-NV200 into its fleet of vehicles with an underground crew, replacing a larger, diesel-powered van. "Oregon has been a top five market for Nissan LEAF sales in the U.S. due to proactive policies at the state level to encourage EV adoption, as well as robust charging infrastructure championed by the state and others like PGE," said Toby Perry, Nissan's director of EV Marketing in the U.S. "If we determine that e-NV200 fits into the U.S. commercial vehicle market, we expect that Portland would be a leading driver for sales as well." This year, Nissan is deploying two e-NV200 prototypes with companies such as PGE and FedEx in top U.S EV markets including California, Georgia, Oregon and Washington, D.C.

Watch this 800-hp Nissan Juke-R savage the 'Ring

The concept of the 545-horsepower Nissan Juke-R that stuffs the drivetrain of a GT-R into a subcompact crossover is already insane, but Russian company Shpilli Villi Engineering has taken things even further with their own crazy riff on the idea. Its version tunes the engine up to a claimed 800 horsepower, plus a shot of nitrous for an extra 200 hp to put it (way) over the top. Naturally, a number of other upgrades have been exacted in an effort to try and keep the custom Juke's shiny side up and the driveline internals from spontaneously rearranging themselves. Those changes include a beefed-up switchable all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive layout and revised suspension.
Last year, you may recall that we saw an earlier version of Shpilli Villi Engineering's insanity testing with a mere 700 hp in a one-mile, standing drag race against a Bugatti Veyron. In that state of tune, the Juke-R lost, but by less than a hundredth of a second. Now, owner and racer Vladimir Ulanov has brought his madness to the Nürburgring Nordschleife to see how it does around a damp lap of the famous track.
It looks like 800 hp and a moist track might be almost too much for this Juke to handle, because Ulanov gets very loose at several points during the lap. Understandably, his passenger seems suitably impressed and possibly a little freaked out at the end. See what you think of this craziness by watching the video.