2002 Nissan Gle on 2040-cars

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Formula Drift kicks off 11th season on Streets of Long Beach

The 2014 Formula Drift series kicked off last weekend in Long Beach, and saw Chris Forsberg, who you'll recall went mad and drifted around a warehouse in an Infiniti M, take the title behind the wheel of his Hankook Tire Nissan 370Z (shown above).
Forsberg really ran away with the first round of competition, outscoring his closest opponent, second-place finisher Kenneth Moen and his Bridges Racing Nissan 240SX, by 20 points. Third place was 2013 championship winner Michael Essa and his Yokohama BMW M3, 30.5 points behind Forsberg.
In the manufacturers' title, Nissan took an early lead with 122 points, which isn't a huge surprise considering five of the top ten drifters were piloting either a Z or a product of the brand's S platform. Ford, which had two drivers (Justin Pawlak and Vaughn Gittin, Jr.) in the top ten, took home second place, while BMW is currently third in the manufacturers' standings.

Race Recap: 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans defines 'endurance'

Commenting on the rush of events that rocked beginning and end of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Paul Truswell of Radio Le Mans said "the race is about the ability to endure, not just the ability of drivers to do what they do for a long time." The entire race machine, all the way down to the pit boards and radios, has to survive the stress and abuse of the entire day. This was the race to prove those words.
There were two Toyotas, two Porsches and three Audis, five of the seven led the race at some point, six of the seven ran in the top three. Toyota will be hugely disappointed that it didn't win when its car and drivers were so, so strong, but they gave Audi the kind of scare we haven't seen since the best of Peugeot's days, and Toyota did a better job of it even in the loss. Porsche blew away everyone's expectations, falling 3.5 hours short of a fairy tale ending that would have made Disney cry.
But Le Mans doesn't really do fairy tales. Well, not that fairy tale. Audi's Twitter handle during the event was #welcomechallenges. As usual, Le Mans answered for the entire field.

Nissan giving away Leaf-shaped air fresheners that smell like the future

We had to check our calendar to make sure it didn't read April 1, but since it's not April Fool's Day, we have to assume that Nissan of Europe really has created a special air freshener scent to give away this Christmas. To create this original fragrance, Nissan looked to Dr. George Dodd, a master perfumer and aroma academy scientist who looks a tiny bit like Santa Claus (we seriously aren't making this stuff up).
Like a mad scientist, Dr. Dodd went to work blending chemicals and fragrances to design a smell that matches the Leaf's Earth-friendly, zero-emission attitude. Once the "scent of the future" is transformed into the lovely Santa-driving, Leaf-shaped air freshener you see above, Nissan of Europe will be giving one to its employees, Leaf customers and "select electric car fans." Sadly, EV - and scent - enthusiasts here in the US will be stuck with the tried-and-true pine tree air freshener.
We don't want to ruin exactly what Dodd finally came up with for the "scent of the future," but you can find out for yourselves in the video and press release posted below.