VIDEO: 2012 Corvette ZR1 Laps the 'Ring 6-Sec Faster than Previous Model, Beats GT-R by 5-Sec!

And the war on who has the fastest car on Germany’s famed Nurburgring racetrack continues. General Motors wasted no time after the release of its refined for the 2012 model year Corvette ZR1 to take its flagship sports car to the Nurburgring racetrack and try it out.

The 638-horsepower ZR-1 fitted with the optional Michelin Pilot Sport Cup Zero Pressure tires recorded a lap time of 7:19.63, improving the previous Corvette-best recorded time in 2008 by more than six seconds (7:26.40) and beating the 2012MY Nissan GT-R’s most recent run -allegedly in less than ideal conditions though- by close to five-seconds (7:24.22).

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Nissan GT-R-Powered Dacia Duster Racer Filmed Testing at Magny-Cours

The Renault Group is upping the ante for Dacia with its decision to enter the Romanian brand’s Duster crossover in the famous Pikes Peak international hill climb that will take place this year on June 26 in Colorado, USA. The purpose built racecar was spotted over the weekend testing at the Magny-Cours motor racing circuit located in France. Read more »

Nissan Offers Three Years of Free Service for 2011MY GT-R in the UK

Pit stops for new owners of the 2011 GT-R in the United Kingdom will become a far more enjoyable chore as Nissan is offering a three-year servicing plan, along with three years RAC cover. The Japanese automaker said the free service plan is offered to those purchasing a 2011MY GT-R through Nissan’s own personal contract plan (PCP) known as Preferences. Buyers that opt to finance their car in any other way as well as current owners of the 2011MY GT-R, are offered the option to purchase the servicing plan for £499 (equal to US$899 or €567). Read more »

Renault’s Dacia Duster “No Limit” Racer gets 850HP V6 Sourced from the Nissan GT-R!

Following an early reveal on racing driver Jean-Philippe Dayraut's website, Renault today released official photos of its PikesPeak contender, the 850HP Dacia Duster “No Limit”. The name comes from the “Unlimited” class of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, which imposes no restrictions on the size or power output of the engine, maximum power or torque. In addition, there are no restrictions concerning the transmission or the aerodynamic characteristics. Looking at the size of the Duster's rear wing, it is obvious the car competes in the “Unlimited” class.

The one-off prototype was built by Tork Engineering (which handled the design, production, assembly and development) and Sodemo (engine), in association with Renault Sport Technologies, which supplied certain components.

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Real Life Fast Five: What is the Ultimate Heist Vehicle? [Video]

Inspired by a scene from the upcoming Fast Five film or as some fans refer to it, Fast and Furious 5, in which the protagonists try out different cars to find the right one for a risky heist, the folks over from Autotopia set out to test numerous tuned cars on a race track to see which one is best suited for the task.

The cars they chose for the test include the AE Performance Nissan 370Z used in the movie Fast Five; Autotopias’ Ford Cargo Van; DC Motors Mercedes Benz CLK63 AMG Black Series; Gintani BMW X5M; Heintz Ford Mustang GT 5.0; MFEST E60 BMW M5; OE Tuning Mercedes Benz C63 AMG; Airtiger Express Nissan GTR R35; Tesla Motors Roadster Sport and finally, the Team Wu Dodge Charger Police Car.

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Hennessey's HPE1000 Escalade Cracks 60 in 3.3 Sec, bests Nissan's GT-R [with Video]

The concept of turning SUVs into pavement-pounding, drag-racing, supercar-shredding monster rods never ceases to amaze me, and by that I mean my jaw is on the floor and I'm completely boggled. I love me some automobiles (and vehicular transportation in general), but there's something about a nigh-three ton box on wheels and oodles of GO that seems...weird.

However, if monster rods - or high performance in general - are your cup of Starbucks soy latte, then Hennessey has got you covered (as if you didn't know that already, what with their cray-cray 1,000+ horsepower Vipers from way back when). Below, for your viewing pleasure, is video of a 2011 Cadillac Escalade drag racing a 2011 R35 GT-R and beating it.

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VIDEO: Nissan Skylines Drifting with the Ladies on Top

There are two things many adolescent boys and men love: cars and women. So it makes sense, both to us and event organizers, that cars and women together are a winning combination. Don’t believe me? Try Megan Fox in Transformers, Jordana Brewster in Fast & Furious or Angelina Jolie in that famous scene from Wanted. Like peanut butter and jelly or beer with kebabs, women and cars work.

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Find of the Day: Infiniti G35 Dressed Up as a Nissan GT-R

Usually, it’s Nissan owners that want to upgrade to a model from sister company Infiniti, but in this case, it’s the other way around. Found for sale in Quebec by Carscoop reader Caroline is this Nissan GT-R wannabe based on the Infiniti G35 Coupe. From what we can tell, the owner’s budget dried out after he or she finished the front end that now resembled the R35 with a bespoke grille and front bumper assembly. Read more »

VIDEO: 2012MY Nissan GT-R Trims Nurburgring Lap Time to 7:24.22, Plus Split-Screen with ZR1

At last November’s LA Auto Show, Nissan lifted the sheets off the revised GT-R that recently went on sale as a 2012MY in North America and as a 2011MY in the rest of the world. Key changes over the previous model include a 45HP bump in output to 530HP, plus a series of aero and chassis tweaks.

For those of you wondering how these modifications affected the GT-R’s performance on the notorious Nordschleife, Nissan’s team managed to shave more than two seconds off the 2011MYs time of 7:26.4, dropping it to 7:24.22, allegedly in less than ideal conditions. You’ll have to skip to about 3:20 into the clip for the driving to begin.

We also found a edited film on Youtube that compares the 2012 GT-R and Corvette ZR-1 on the 'Ring in a split format, which was created by synchronizing the two videos at the pit exit. Watch both videos after the jump.

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VIDEO: Hennessey’s Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon vs Nissan GT-R and Porsche 911 Turbo

American tuning firm Hennessey has crafted some pretty insane vehicles over the years. One of its most recent tunes is based on the Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon, which leaves GM’s factory with a 556-horsepower 6.2-liter V8 lump, but once Hennessey’s engineers perform their magic under the hood, output is lifted to 650 horsepower.

To show off the tuned CTS-V Sport Wagon’s potential, the Texas-based company brought the Cadillac to the track and drag raced it first against a stock 480HP Porsche 911 Turbo [997] and then a standard 485HP 2011 Nissan GT-R. Watch what happened in the video after the jump.

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The Weirdly Awesome 1970 Nissan Skyline GT-R Microcar Replica

We know what you’re thinking but stop right there. What you are looking at here isn’t the result of some crafty photoshop business - it’s the real deal; an actual factual microcar replica of a 1970 Nissan Skyline GT-R coupe that was created by Japanese tuning firm Liberty Walk Performance. The scaled down, single-seater clone of Nissan’s first-generation Skyline GT-R is based on a quad-bike and it’s perfectly drivable.

This is not the first time we’ve shown you a microcar replica from Liberty Walk Performance as some of you may remember the…Lambormini Murcielago snapped by our own Phil Alex at last year’s Tokyo Auto Salon.

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Multicultural BMW 728i with Shelby Mustang Front and Nissan Skyline GT-R Rear End

You'll be hard-pressed to come across a more bizarre replica than this BMW 7-Series-based model, which was found for sale in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by Carscoop reader Ahmad. If you do, please don’t hesitate to contact us…

Now, what we have here is a BMW E23 model, or to put it more simply, a first-generation 7-Series sedan. To be precise, it’s a 1985 728i that left the Bavarian firm’s factory with a 2.8-liter inline-six gasoline unit delivering 184 horsepower.

For aesthetic reasons us ordinary mortals would find hard to comprehend, the owner of the BMW went and transformed the front-end of the 728i in the likes of a Shelby Mustang, and the rear to imitate the look of a Nissan Skyline GT-R R34. Feel free to check out the rest of the pictures after the jump and have your say in the comments section below.

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MotorTrend Pits the Corvette Z06, Shelby GT500 and Nissan GT-R Against Each Other

What weights ten tonnes and costs more than US$240,000? If you said, “a gold plated bulldozer”, you’d be close but no cigar. The answer is three sub-100k supercars: the Chevy Corvette Z06, Ford Shelby GT500 and Nissan GT-R. These three industry titans, with nameplates stretching as far back as the 1960s, were the recent subjects of an epic comparison test by MotorTrend. Here are three would-be-supercars – over 500hp and 3 second 0 to 60 mph times – that don’t command the supercar price tag. Read more »

Nissan Announces Nine Models for Tokyo Auto Salon Including Juke Sporty and Leaf Aero Concept

At the upcoming Tokyo Auto Salon 2011 with NAPAC (Japan Car Parts and Aftermarket Promotion Association), to be held from January 14 to 16, Nissan, together with Autech Japan and its in-house NISMO performance division, will premiere a total of nine vehicles.

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Nissan Announces 2012 GT-R's 0-100km/h Sprint Time, Half a Second Faster than 2011MY

When we reported on the 2012MY Nissan GT-R, we were wondering how the added power would affect the Japanese sports car's acceleration times. Well, the wait is over as Nissan announced today that the facelifted GT-R with the tweaked 530HP twin-turbocharged V6 completes the 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) sprint in just 3.0 seconds, or a whopping 0.5 seconds faster than the 485 hp version.

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LA Show Debut for 2012 U.S.-Spec Nissan GT-R, New “Black Edition” Added to Range

Boasting more power, subtle interior and exterior styling tweaks as well as chassis updates and a new "Black Edition" model, the U.S.-spec 2012 Nissan GT-R made its North American debut today at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

As far as street-cred goes, few cars can equal the Nissan GT-R. So, it's only normal that every new version finds the fans holding their breath, wondering what are those crazy Japanese going to do next. Add more power, that's what.

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Ex-cop Busted for helping to Illegally Import JDM Cars, Including one that Starred in Fast & Furious

Recently there was a situation in California involving an ex-Orange County Sheriff's deputy, some illegally imported Japanese cars, and what seems to be a plot from one of the rejected Fast & Furious scripts. One Daryl Alison, a 45-year old former law enforcement officer and entrepreneur of sorts, was charged with removing the markings from an imported Japanese domestic market (JDM) vehicle.

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Umbrella Auto takes the Nissan GT-R’s Interior Upmarket

Let's be honest: unless you're a poseur or regularly enter Concours events, you'll spend more time looking at the inside of your car than the outside. So why not gussy up that tired and dated interior with some high quality, hand crafted materials?

U.S. aftermarket-eers Umbrella Auto Designs have done just that, overhauling the Tokyo Drift interior of the 2010 Nissan GT-R with a touch of European class. Everything has been redressed in Black Ultrasuede with silver stitching, from the Status Racing seats to the dashboard / centre console, steering wheel, doors, rear side panels...even the parcel tray and subwoofer cover. Umbrella went so far as to repaint the interior plastics from light grey to satin black to match.

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2011 Nissan GT-R EGOIST: Special Edition Caters to Luxury Seekers, Costs Twice as Much as Base Model

Together with the presentation of the standard, SpecV and Club Track variants of the once again facelifted GT-R in Japan today, Nissan also released a new bespoke edition of its supercar named "EGOIST".

Crafted to cater the needs of those seeking more exclusivity and luxury, the Egoist combines bits and pieces from the SpecV such as the carbon fiber wing, Rays alloy wheels and titanium exhaust, with premium materials and special equipment inside.

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2011 Nissan GT-R Facelift Shows Up in Japan, gets 530 Horsepower

Visitors to Japanese showrooms will be the first consumers to get a chance to sit in the firmer, faster, more luxurious 2011 Nissan GT-R when it hits the pavement on November 18 (it'll appear as a 2012 model for the US market and debut in L.A.). The exterior will get a light refresh to better improve its ability to slice through the air and competition with more efficiency, while the interior will also get some new appointments.

Other than the little tweaks everyone was expecting, the big news for the updated GT-R is the addition of a highly-modifiable "EGOIST" model that sits in the price realm of the Spec V and will offer a very Euro-lux feel, as well as a boost to 530 horsepower and 612 Nm / 451 lb ft (630 Nm / 465 lb ft for the Spec V) across the board thanks to revised engine tuning, larger piping, and a red engine cover. It now returns 20 mpg / 8.5-8.6 km/L and is considered a SU-LEV too, you hippies.

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