I see the v8 Altima is because they had to use a factory car & engine, which means the best option is an Altima chassis for weight & balance.

Yes but why.. why pump money into a program that is developing a car that will never be sold? Why not use those resources to race real cars that are on sale now?

Because it is development for other cars.
Suspension, engine, drivetrain, etc may never be used in an Altima but could be in a Z, Titan or GT-R. This move becomes a testing phase for new products and will insure reliability of harsh conditions.

I could understand that IF they were already racing their Zs and GTRs.. but they aren't. As it stands Nissan is racing cars you cannot buy and ignoring the cars you can buy.

Nissan needs to take a page out of Honda's type R lineup. The JDM CTR, DC2 and DC5 Type R, and NA1 and NA2 NSXR...that lineup had a good run, light weight with form (subjective opinion) and function, very rewarding machines.

I didn't like the juke nismo idea, but well, if BMW is caving in and put M badge on the x5 then how can we say no....

That's my problem with the Altima too...rear wheel drive V8 Altima doesn't exist in the mass market! No car guy will walk into the show room and relate the stock Altima to the one in the supercar series, just like fusion NASCAR vs a street fusion. Nothing that matters are in common.

I think they are just starting to back to racing and this is the quick & easy route to get their name into the game.
Plus the Z or GT-R cannot compete in the Australia races so they had to go with the Altima. I give them 2 years and we will see the Z on a more global scale along with the GT-R.

Interview with Nissan People and facility:
The Dashboard - NISMO Special, Preview - YouTube

Nismo/Nissan Tribute from Nissan:
Our Hearts are Racing - Nissan and NISMO Motorsports DNA - YouTube

What great news. Le Mans again. No more R390. Hello GTR 3.4 V8.

Oh man, I totally forgot that this was today! LOL

I think this is great news! You can't grow an orchard without some land and some good dirt. This is the ground work for some really cool things in the next 2-3 years. Imagine every Nissan model having a Nismo variant that has 10-15% better performance than its rivals.

The way I see it this is a start. Le Mans in 2014 is a great goal for them to have and I welcome them returning with a true factory presence since their last appearance in 1999with the R391.

Since then Nissan has been cautious about getting into works funded racing ventures because of the cost involved and the risk.

This is a good sign. This means they have money, a plan and low enough risk to do it and possibly win. Either way, this means we as customers will benefit from the R&D that gos into their cars by way of whatever solutions and technology are developed.

Bottom line is racing feeds production, especially when your demographic is shifting to performance cars again. Which from 1999 till the past few years, Nissans demographic hasn't been performance/sports cars oriented, it's been all about the Maxima and Sentras.

Hopefully this announcement will start to get Nissan back to it's roots

thanks for the link As expected with the Japanee, the big hype is not so big. If you know the culture, you know they are not able to make massive change. Everything is subtle and in time. This is no different; unfortunately.

Seriously this is terrible news in my opinion, nothing for the 370z

the hard truth is nissan is on cruise control and just riding the clock out with the Z until the Z35.