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Nissan Australia has confirmed it will bring the 370Z Nismo to market late this year as a follow-up to the GT-R Nismo – and the Juke Nismo hot hatchback is in its sights as well.
Although the first Nissan Motorsport (Nismo) production model available on our shores was the stratospheric $299,000 plus on-road costs GT-R Nismo, local boss Richard Emery reveals to MOTOR that more affordable performance models were now on the way.
“So obviously GT-R has kicked off, GT-R NISMO [and] I think we haven’t firmed it up with the public but the 370Z Nismo will be in the market by the end of the calendar year [2017], and then we’re just looking at what else can be added to that,” Emery says at an event in Melbourne.
There is an example currently being tested in Australia, Emery tells, but no word on the price hike over the already expensive $57K plus on-road costs 370Z.
“Zed will be next, and in 2018 we’ll look at at least one other car and a few over the next couple of years,” he continues.
But Australia is gunning for the most powerful and highest performing version of Nissan’s oddball small hatchback-cum-SUV, Emery then confesses.
“When you decide to go for one, you might as well go for the one that you can bring the most there in terms of performance, so that would be my going-in position,” he explains.
The specs for the fastest Juke Nismo RS read more like a cross between the Clio RS and Megane RS from Nissan’s alliance partner Renault.
Given the current Juke tops out at $34K plus on-road costs, a sub-$45K pricetag would have to be on the cards. But Emery adds, “We haven’t got that far with Juke yet”.
Either way, it’s a matter of when the Juke Nismo, 370Z Nismo and GT-R Nismo all sit beside each other in Nissan showrooms. The local boss is acutely aware that with Pulsar and Altima ditched from its passenger car lineup, the Japanese brand needs to push the sporty barrow.
“That’s one of the reasons we go motor racing and one of the reasons we think Nismo still holds quite a strong branding position in Australia, despite the fact that we’ve never really officially sold Nismo here, so it has this latent appeal.
“We think that Nismo can provide that little bit of an edge that perhaps other brands don’t have.”
