MDR Desert Accident: An Excellent Article...

Finally an excellent, more in depth article with real first hand accounts. Kudos to the author for actually going out and talking to people and providing a balanced story. Now I just hope that an off-road publication does some real journalism and has an in depth story from all sides and not just a 1/2 page regurgitation of the incident--Are you listening Dirt Sports Magazine?

A Day at the Races Turns Tragic...

Look Familiar?

It certainly does to me.

The above is Iran's new "Karrar" UAV. Don't let the name fool you though. Aren't ALL missiles technically Unmanned Aerial Vehicles? There is no evidence to tell anyone that this is anything more than a dumb bomb attached to a rudimentary launch/flight system. There is nothing that shows that it is capable of any kind of sophisticated remote control which would mark a step up for Iranian capabilities.

In fact its lauded statistics are underwhelming. Top speed--560 mph, Payload--450 pounds, Range--620 miles (and that's if we accept Iran's figures at face value).

Now take a look at the statistics of the German V-1 from WWII. Top speed--400 mph, Payload--1,900 pounds, Range--150 miles.

Then take a look at the following picture:

and compare...

Congratulations Iran!! You've caught up to the 1940's!!!!

Then again...The US and Russia both developed atomic weapons in the 1940's as well now didn't they...

Prepping for the 2011 Rally Season...

With my stated goal as being that I would like my RetroRunner Nissan Frontier to be up and ready for at least one full stage rally at some point in 2011 I have started collecting all the ancillary items that are required by RallyAmerica (now RallyCar) in order to pass scrutineering.

I figure its best to start gathering them now to spread the cost out over a longer period rather than waiting till the last minute and trying to throw everything together at the last minute and absorbing a solid $400 whack right at the end.

To that end I have purchased the following three items so far that are required by RallyAmerica (RallyCar) in order to pass scrutineering:

1) Safe Drives Rally First Aid Kit--$49.99, kind of expensive given most of the stuff in it can be had for a couple bucks for each item BUT it saves you the hassle of going to CVS or WalMart and trying to piece together each of the items in the requirements.

2) Home Depot Tow Strap--$26, no metal hooks as they can hurt if something goes wrong. Too many rally teams/efforts use ones with metal hooks and I'll stick to either a shackle through the tow hook or looping the rope through itself but this was an easy and cheap purchase.

and

3) Northern Tools DOT Standing Warning Triangles (3)--$19.99, there are cheaper warning triangles out there but not by much and these are DOT compliant which is what the RallyAmerica (RallyCar) rulebook states they must be so I didn't want to try and save a couple bucks and then have an issue come scrutineering.

I will continue to post the purchases that I make over the coming 10 months or so before I am fully prepped and ready to go so you can see just what a large pile of stuff it takes just to get off the starting line...

Breaking: Ken Block Not to Contest RallyCar in '11!!

Well, I haven't seen it posted anywhere yet, though certainly I don't read EVERYTHING on the Internet.

Nothing that I know of has been posted "officially" but according to what I know, Mr. Block will not be participating in Rally America (now changing its name to a more amorphous "RallyCar") in 2011. His absence will be due to the fact that Mr. Block intends to run a FULL WRC schedule with Ford and concentrate his efforts there.

With various contacts of mine calling Block's current RallyCar Ford a number of nasty names (garbage, poorly done, awful, etc.) it is not surprising he would turn to what is truly a world class vehicle in the WRC.

What is surprising is that he would do this after having DNF'd out of EVERY WRC event he entered this year including this past weekends WRC Germany (Mr. Block DNFs...again...) If I was Ford, I'd think twice about throwing my money behind any effort in which the driver has DNF'd in all but one of his competitive events in a given year (though he did managed to win the 100 Acre Wood Rally America event earlier this year).

All this leaves Rally America...excuse me...RallyCar in a precarious position. With Travis Pastrana apparently losing interest (unless being dethroned makes him hungry for a RallyCar championship again) and Block leaving, it is left without its two biggest names. Up and comers Dave Mirra has yet to show the skill behind the wheel or flair for marketing that both Block and Pastrana have and the top two finishers this year (L'Estage and Bacon) are both behind the wheel of Mitsubishis and thus without factory backing.

RallyCar has seen the writing on the wall I believe and will focus an every greater percentage of its efforts on its new "RallyCross" series in New Jersey. With guaranteed major cable TV on board in the form of ESPN and Pastrana, Mirra and Foust on board, it stands a solid chance at succeeding...but...with only 20 entries, 8 of which are older, privateer driven 2WD vehicles, and the majority of AWD vehicles having no shot at competing with big budget efforts of the aforementioned names I could easily see the series ending up with very few drivers come that third event come November.

This isn't NAPCAR...the teams, outside of the top three perhaps, do not have multi-million dollar budgets (and are likely run off credit cards and heart some of the time) and RallyCar or Rally America would do well to remember that, though I think we are beyond the event horizon already...

Arrrgh!!

Why am I posting a picture of a BMW? Because one of the world's best Nissan drivers and the driver of a Nissan Navara in the last two South African Dakar events, Krzysztof Holowczyc, has defected.

Yes, he and his usual co-driver Jean-Marc Fortin will be behind the wheel of a BMW X3 as part of a five car effort. A shame truly as Holowczyc was a legit top ten, perhaps top five driver with the Nissan Navara in his hands. Whether there remains any truly legitimate Nissan effort in the 2011 Dakar has yet to be seen but count this as one more empty chamber in the gun...Just hope Nissan doesn't show up with an empty weapon.

Holowczyc Joins BMW X-Raid Team...

Ian Dawson: ALMS Innovator

Just a brief article about the Libra Racing Nissan powered effort. Fleshes out some of the specifics behind the team and the engine developer Ian Dawson and IES engineering. Qualifying for the event is tomorrow and the race on Sunday.

Ian Dawson and Libra Racing article...

ALMS Road America Spotter's Guide

For the second ALMS race in a row there will be a Nissan in the field.

Well, a Nissan powered vehicle at least. The Libra Racing, Radical chassis #5 black and yellow IES engineering powered racer is back with Andrew Prendeville behind the wheel. The secondary driver, Jose Balbiani, this time hails from Buenos Aires, Argentina and hopefully will get some seat time this weekend.

During the last ALMS race at Mid-Ohio the Libra Racing vehicle retired after 40 laps due to an oil pressure issue they hope to have resolved for this event. The race

The race will be broadcast live on Speed TV from 2-5 on Sunday so feel free to kick back and keep an eye out for the most unique effort currently in ALMS and cheer on the Nissan.

ALMS

Nissan GT-R Crate Motor?

Now THAT'S a crate engine....

Far from your standard LS series crate motor, engine builder Cosworth is about to release for sale their version of the VR38DETT.

Price?? Unknown but its sure to be pretty hefty. Cosworth supplies engines to four F-1 teams as well as the engines to Nissan Motorsports GT-R, four car effort in Europe within the FIA GT1 series (which does NOT use the GT-R's engine, instead using a naturally aspirated V8).

So at least you get a world class engine build for whatever the price might be and performance from the engine is anticipated to be a significant jump from the already substantial (to say the least) 485 HP and 434 ft. lb. of torque.

Now if only someone would drop one of these puppies in a Trophy Truck...

Cosworth to release GT-R Crate Motor...

Stealing...

Just stealing (not really) this picture from Jalopnik as I thought it was great...A rally bred Porsche in a relatively hi-rez pic....in the snow and slop even...Makes my day just a little brighter...

8/14/10: The End of Off-Road Racing as We Know It...

Part 1

Tragic--Yes, Surprised--No...

I just always thought would happen in Mexico at one of the Baja events before it happened in the US.

Given the much larger numbers of spectators, higher alcohol consumption, and more "anything goes" atmosphere there I though for sure that a major accident would occur there before the dice fell the wrong way here. Take a look at some of the videos on the Internet and you'll see that this has been an event easily foreseeable and actually talked about for some time. Everyone knew this day was coming...

I won't play Monday morning quarterback and say that the promoter should have done this or that or that the spectators should have known better than to stand (from what reports I have read) on the outside corner of a downhill turn off a jump. I've been there. I've done that. I've been close enough to these vehicles at high speed that I could reach out and touch them as they went by. You know the risks and put them out of your mind, telling yourself that you can see the danger coming early enough to get out of the way. I've told myself those lies and likely will continue to do so in the future.

If there is a future for a sport like this.

Did LeMans cease to exist in 1955 when Pierre Levegh's Mercedes left the road, killing himself and 83 spectators?

Was the Indy Racing League shut down after the 1999 accident at Lowe's Motorspeedway where a flying tire from a crash killed three spectators and injured eight more?

Was CART banned from operating after the 1998 accident at Michigan International Speedway in which three spectators were killed (another flying tire)?

How about the Dakar? Three spectators were killed in '88 and five in '98, two in '06 and one in '10--yet the event still goes on.

I haven't even delved into other forms of racing such as drag racing (at least two spectator deaths I can think of this summer at drag events in the US) or boat racing or airshows, etc.

Mind you, I'm not saying that any of these deaths should be trivialized or ignored, I wish that none of them had ever happened...

I just want to raise the issue here to point out what is sure to be a vast difference in ultimate reactions to this accident. Offroad racing here in the US stands on the precipice of extinction.

Long relegated to an overlooked subset of American motorsports, offroad racing (under the auspices of various promoters/organizations such as SCORE, BITD, MDR, SNORE, etc.) has been under tremendous pressure in recent years from environmental, governmental and business interests as the sport is immensely land intensive, requiring scores, if not hundreds of miles of open dirt roads/paths. For this reason, the sport has been the near singular purview of the American West and Mexico, particularly within the boundaries of the Bureau of Land Management regulated areas in the US.

Forced to jump through ever tighter regulatory hoops in order to protect species such as the desert tortoise or change locations to prevent dust from collecting on solar panels the sport nonetheless attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators every year to areas like Primm, NV, Reno, Las Vegas and Plaster City, CA. Despite the numerous attendees, promoters/organizers are not getting rich on the sport as the events take place away from stands and controllable facilities where one could charge a fee for spectating and have only ever increasing entry fees to fall back upon to make up for the cost of all the fees, permits, staffing, examinations, committees, etc. that are only some of the massive cash outflows needed for putting on events like these...

Pic of the day

Just thought id share a pic of what must be New Zealands biggest Nissan

Cross Country Rally Pribram 2010 part 2

Short round up from an eye-witness

The race indeed was very short, just 93 kilometers against time. Starting field with 14 cars was not very numerous, still it was much more than 6 last year. Jiri Pribyl was one of the organizers and last year’s runner-up. It would be great if his Nissan was one of South African Navaras but it’s not. It is home made car with an excellent chassis but engine is the main weakness. The old engine was replaced with new one from Pathfinder few days before the race. Pribyl was in the lead most of the race just to lose the victory in the very last special. No need to describe his disappointment.

The first place went to Zdenek Porizek who drove an old BMW X5 bought from X-Raid. The red Mitsubishi is in a fact a Polish special built on Pajero chassis and powered by 3-litre BMW diesel. The two of them finished on third and fifth place. The red Navara number 14 is an old lady which moved to Poland this year after three idle years. They finished fourth.

Yet another red Navara (popular color for Nissan, eh?) was placed seventh. “My” Slovak crew of Juraj and Danka Ulrich once again dominated T2 class. To be honest: this time it was thanks to penalization of their Polish rivals in Mitsubishi. But who cares unless it is a victory. Juraj and Danka have a daughter named Sandra who races on a quad. Why do I mention her? Because aged 17 she was the youngest competitor in Pribram and it was her first cross country rally. And she did well. Sandra finished fifth out of six classified. Congratulation.

And here is my gallery from the race: http://picasaweb.google.com/Michal.4x4/2010CEZCCRPribram

Lexus LF-A to Enter GT1--Bring on Godzilla!!

So Toyota/Lexus has decided to take a run at the GT-R come 2011 in the FIA GT1 series and also run the LF-A at LeMans and elsewhere.

This also means that Toyota will not be entering the WRC as had been rumored--at least according to Motor Trend. I on the other hand would not be surprised to see Lexus enter GT1 with the LF-A and then Toyota enter the WRC with another vehicle.

Toyota is certainly capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time and has the resources to run both motorsport operations. Given their recent PR problems, running both a GT1 and WRC program targeting both Lexus and Toyota products seems like a move in the right direction to me. Leaving Lexus as Toyota's big international motorsport effort (NAPCAR remains in the U.S.) doesn't get as much done for them as the "people's supercar" effort of Nissan's GT-R teams.

One point I don't see raised by MotorTrend is in terms of what engine the LF-A will actually run in the GT1 series, nor what its true powertrain will be. A true Nissan GT-R is a twin turbo V-6 with AWD. The GT-R that runs in the GT1 series is a engine swapped V8 with only RWD in order to meet the FIA regs. for the series. It will be interesting to see just how "true" the LF-A will be to the 1/2 a million $ street car...

Lexus LF-A to GT1 events...

Cross Country Rally Pribram 2010

On what looks to be an extremely tight and short race course this past weekend, a Nissan Navara/Frontier took 2nd place overall, only 3.3 seconds adrift of the winner in a BMW X5. The Nissan driver taking the silver here was one J. Pribyl. I don't know anything about him but it looks like his vehicle may be one of the South African built Navaras that have been shipped to Europe over the past few years though I don't know for sure. Nissan Navaras also finished 4th and 7th in this event. Below are a number of pictures of the Navaras from this event plus one Mitsubishi for good measure. Enjoy!

Pribram Rally 2010...

Libra Racing: ALMS Mid Ohio Report...

As usual in racing things did not go as planned for a race team entering its first event in anger...

The VK45 V8 powered, Radical chassis looks bad-ass on the track and hopefully one day it will perform up to its image. This weekend? Not so much.

The vehicle had an OK couple of practice sessions, running slower than they thought the setup might but with no major issues to speak of. Come Saturday, raceday, it was a different story. The official press release on the team results is below but as added info I have talked briefly with IES Racing's Dale-Jones Graham who had a major hand in the engine build and found out a bit more regarding the powerplant and the weekend itself--Graham states that the engine itself is derived from the standard block and heads of the VK45 along with some other castings but the rest are all inhouse racing parts from IES. His comments on the weekend results (a DNF after 44 laps) are as follows:

In the race, we had an oil cooler leak, this lead to some oil surge and at the first stop we could see the oil pressure starting to drop, rather than just putting oil in, we decided discression was better.

We were slower than we expected, our only real yardstick is the GT2 class, The LMP cars had all been given more power for the weekend and the LMP1 class have much larger restrictors than Europe.

If I compare the time that Radical achieve in Europe, we should have been at about 1.15/1.16 in qualifying.

I think we have a bit to do on both chassis and engine.

The full specs and details on the engine are thus:

IES have developed the new LMP2 engine from an engine from the Nissan VK family. The VK family have an excellent pedigree and have been and are widely used in motorsport, initially in the Indy Lights class in the USA and now in the Japanese GT championship and FIA GT1.

Naturally Aspirated Engine

We have decided on a Naturally Aspirated engine it will be much simpler to run than a turbo engine should not need continual track support.

Performance

With the ACO 40mm restrictor, the power is as predicted by the ACO, 450HP at a relatively low engine speed, 7500 rpm. With this as maximum rpm, the desired 30hr rebuild interval will be achievable.

Specification

4.0 lt V8

Bore 93.0 mm

Stroke 73.5 mm

Length 575 mm

Width (across heads) 600 mm

Height (under side of sump – top of plenum) 560 mm

C/l crank shaft – underside of sump 102 mm

Dry sump 5 stage pump – pressure + 4 scavenge

Clutch 5 1/2 inch carbon

LMP2 class – 40 mm restrictor

Power--torque 500 Nm @ 6000 rpm, 450 HP @ 7500 rpm

Weight 145 Kg. (dry, ex clutch & exhaust)

Included

Engine control Pectel SQ6M

Wiring harness Fully sheathed – Military spec.

Costs.

New Engines

A complete engine ready to install in the vehicle, complete with the engine wiring harness and Electronic Control Unit is £49,500.

Rebuilds

Rebuild interval +/– 30hr. Approximately £18k/rebuild.

Installation

We can supply full 3D CAD models for installation purposes in Solidworks format.

I'll let the official team presser take it from here:

Libra Racing’s debut entry in the American Le Mans Series met with mixed results at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge on Saturday. A strong opening stint by former Indy Lights ace Andrew Prendeville set the stage for a solid fourth-in-class finish until a sudden loss in oil pressure on the 44th lap forced the Libra Racing Radical SR9 into the garage.

“The car felt good and handled well. It came [up to speed] quickly and was definitely faster than the LMPC cars for the first 2-3 laps.”

Cars in the LMPC category, short for Le Mans Prototype Challenge, were allowed a horsepower advantage to keep ahead of the Ferraris, BMWs, and Corvettes of the GT class. Libra Racing’s entry, built to the specification of the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans Prototype 2 category, was given no such advantage, and it was up to Columbus, Ohio native Prendeville to keep ahead of the leading GT cars.

“I knew we were running fairly well, but it was all about Risi, running ahead and staying out of the way, driving as hard as I can,” said Prendeville.

The GT Ferraris of Team Risi passed Prendeville at the start, when he was blocked by a string of slow-starting LMPC cars, but he powered past by lap 10, and was able to stay ahead. Although Libra’s Nissan-powered Radical was marginally quicker than the GT cars, it was over three seconds per lap off the pace of the torquey LMPC cars.

“We were a little surprised that the Formula Le Mans cars had been given a power break,” lamented Ian Dawson, Libra Racing’s Team Principle, “But I think we were comfortable where we were. Andrew drove great. He gave space to the Ferraris and in traffic he got himself clear. He drove to bring the car home at a pace where we were not straining anything. We just retired with a loss of oil
pressure.”

Since there was no driver change during the first pit stop, Prendeville’s teammate and Le Mans winner Chris Buncombe missed a chance to pilot the Radical SR9 around Mid-Ohio. “I feel sorry we couldn’t get Chris in the car,” said Dawson after the race. “We have to see if we can get Chris back involved.”

Despite the unexpected mechanical failure, the Libra Racing team remains upbeat, focused, and realistic about its goals. “We need to finish a race,” said a composed Prendeville after the retirement. “The fact that we got to run today was a first step. Finishing races is our goal.” The possibility of a top-five finish in class is well within reach, says Dawson. “We had a trouble-free practice at a difficult track with a first-time engine. We had the pace to stay ahead of the GT cars, we had a good stop, and were running fourth in class and eighth overall. Our target was the top ten.”

As the only new prototype entry in the American Le Mans Series for 2011, Libra has started with a combination of personnel and equipment that they can progress with. “This is a project,” explained Dawson, “Finishing is the important thing. At Elkhart we hope to have a little more pace.”

The black and yellow-liveried Libra Racing Radical SR9 with its production Nissan V8 powerplant will rejoin the American Le Mans Series at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on August 22nd.

Conspiracy Time!!

As always I am a big fan of convoluted, ridiculous conspiracy theories...

This isn't to say that I believe the Moon landing was a hoax or that Elvis shot JFK, it just means that so many things in this world operate on a number of different levels with so many inputs of influence that it is easy to connect unconnected dots and draw conclusions...

Today's example?

How bout the fact that the reported turn around at GM and Chrysler is VASTLY over reported due to that fact that most, if not all, of their improvement in '10 has been driven exclusively by FLEET sales. As you can see in the Auto News article here, without Fleet sales GM would report a marginal decline in sales on a Year over Year basis through July '10 while Chrysler would report a decline in sales of 19%! That's quite different than their results as reported by the government and the government owned proxy GM/Chrysler PR departments who tout a 13% and 11% (respectively) increase in overall sales.

So, you have the two government owned/influenced auto companies grossly over inflating their sales figures with non-profitable Fleet sales, thus keeping union members employed and also resulting in overinflated employment and wage figures. Well, how would the government go about driving fleet sales? After all, the government could tell GM and Chrysler to produce as many cars as they want but if there is no one to buy them then they still won't be reflected in the overall sales numbers.

Well...take a look at Hertz...one of, if not the, leading rental car company. Despite mountains of debt and poor financials the are growing their fleet levels by leaps and bounds (check out the fleet debt on their mid-'10 balance sheet on their publicly available financials). Not only that, but despite their continued losses they have made an offer to go out and buy Dollar (with what money one has to ask), another leading rental company.

But Hertz is an independently owned, publicly traded company is it not? Well, yes and no...Yes it is publicly traded but who owns large controlling portions? Well, that would be what was Merril Lynch but is now Bank of America, who were recipients of oodles and oodles of taxpayer funds and who is under the heavy thumb of the government at all times. In combination with the Carlyle Group and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, Inc. (two of the largest private equity firms in the world) BOA/Merril have a 51% controlling interest in Hertz.

So it all comes full circle...The government controls the rental car industry (I haven't even gotten into governmental connections to other rental car companies) forcing them to demand more domestic vehicles (funny how Ford, Toyota, Nissan etc. have not seen anywhere NEAR the increase in demand for Fleet vehicles that GM and Chrysler have, hmmm....) which drives sales figures at GM and Chrysler making them look far better off in the short run to the public than they really are and also placates the Unions, their employees, and key political allies in the rust belt while also making the current government appear as if it knows what it is doing economically.

Now all of the connections I state above are fact and not disputable. What is disputable is the scenario that I lay out which has them all working in concert together towards a single agenda. But really, is it that far fetched??

Mid-Ohio ALMS Spotters Guide...

Created by Andy Blackmore Design this is one of the nicest features that I have seen in any modern motorsports series. Before every race the series releases a "spotters guide" so that you can see the liveries of all the entrants. Please notice the Libra Racing entry as the #5 car on the top line, 2nd from the left. The full .pdf file can be found here: Spotters Guide

As an FYI, there have been two practice sessions at Mid-Ohio so far with the #5 Nissan powered Radical chassis running at the very tail end of the LMP class. This is not surprising as the #5 car is not truly an LMP vehicle. It is built to LMP2 specs which is a new class to begin in '11 using smaller engines and a host of other restrictions that try and make it more affordable to privateer racers. My hope for this effort this weekend? That the Libra Racing #5 finishes the race and perhaps moves up in the LMP class due to DNFs.

American LeMans Series...

LeMans Prototype Classes Explanation...

1972 Datsun 1200--Electric Conversion...

Now I am not the biggest fan of electric vehicles--I love the smell, sound and feel of an ICE and still have many issues with electric vehicles (such as them actually being WORSE for the environment than equivalent ICE driven units) and the fact that they have been co-opted by many members of the pseudo-intellectual left and Hollywood mainstream makes them unpalatable to me...

That being said...this car is awesome. It smokes the GT-R in this video and supposedly has a range under certain circumstances of about 100 miles. Now I have no idea how much it cost to build but a street legal car that does 0-60 in under 2 seconds has to be respected in a number of ways, regardless of how it is powered...

http://www.plugincars.com/worlds-quickest-street-legal-electric-car%E2%80%94-1972-datsun%E2%80%94does-0-60-about-18-seconds-49876.html

Yes...This is a Nissan...

What you are seeing here is the entry for Andrew Prendeville and Chris Buncombe who are both relatively young, yet quite experienced drivers that have entered this weekends American LeMans race at Mid-Ohio.

Driving for Libra Racing (a new venture owned/operated by Ian Dawson and NOT the Rally Car team associated with John Buffum) out of the U.K., using an engine developed by IES Racing (also out of the U.K.) who have been Nissan specialists for some time working with Nissan factory teams at times.

Powering the Radical Sportscars chassis is an IES configured VK45 V8 found most commonly in the 1st generation FX45 and Q45. Supposedly this engine and chassis has seen some good testing and the IES engineers are on hand at Mid-Ohio to oversee the powertrain so hopefully all things are in order for a solid effort this weekend.

I for one am SUPER excited about this as it is something vastly different from all the other Porsche/Chevy/BMW/etc. powered machines in the LeMans series. I wish the team well and will be closely following along...

The New 2011 Nissan Quest--Revealed!!

In Japan at least...

The 2011 Nissan Quest is not officially supposed to be revealed to the American public until November at the LA Auto Show but the vehicle that it will be rebadged from made its debut in Japan today.

Under the name Elgrand the pictures are near identical to those of the "teaser" shots seen on Nissan USA's official home page of the Quest. I don't think there is any question that this is what the Quest will be when it arrives here next year. The info on the Elgrand/Quest is interesting. It will be available with either a 3.5 VQ35DE or a 2.5 QR25DE engine, will have an optional AWD system and be available in a 7 and 8 passenger configuration.

The Elgrand/Quest will also be available with the "Around View Monitor" system recently seen on the new QX56/Patrol and a host of other gee-whiz systems designed to increase safety and decrease fuel usage.

The Elgrand itself has been available in other markets around the world in various forms for years and this simple rebadging of a vehicle that was being updated anyways is an easy and cost effective way for Nissan to re-enter the Minivan market. Given that Nissan likely doesn't know how this vehicle will be received in the U.S. and is already planning on producing it elsewhere for non-U.S. markets in which the model is already accepted/popular, I would anticipate that it will be built in Japan and shipped here and not produced domestically.

Exact details of the Elgrand can be found here: Elgrand reveal...

The last three pictures below are of the "Quest" from the Nissan USA home page while the first six below are from Nissan Japan in connection with today's reveal of the Elgrand...

Is This a Nissan?

Why, yes...yes it is...

Nissan V-8 powered that is...and having its race debut in the U.S. this weekend...more info coming soon...

XGames Rally & Super Rally...

I am plagerizing myself here....the following was a response I made on another website to whether this years Rally events at the XGames were any good and if the best available Rally drivers were actually taking part...if you can't tell by the response below--I thought it sucked...big time...

The best American Rallycar drivers WERE there...Pastrana, Block, ACP, L'Estage, Foust, Bacon and Duplessis are THE top drivers in Rally America...

Isachsen is THE Rallycross champion in Europe...

So you have the BEST American rally racers and THE best Rallycross racer--so the competition was at an elite (or as near to it as possible) level.

The DESIGN and EXECUTION was horrendously botched though the Rallycross (SuperRally) was better, though mostly just by comparison to what came before it. The Rally event has gotten worse EVERY year its been a part of the XGames...its first year in the XGames it was a multiday event run in some of the hills around LA and only finished along a street/dirt course that was still a proper "Super Special Stage" length on the final day. True "Rally" is NOT a made for TV sport...its more like desert racing, Dakar, etc. which is very tough to translate to TV audiences...

SuperRally (RallyCross in the European sense) is a VERY TV friendly event---just not at the LA Colleseum...it should be run on something darn close to a short-course offroad venue (though without near as many large jumps). RallyCross Euro-style blows NapCar out of the water and would truly be great if done here the right way.

---And SuperRally/RallyCross is not coming to the U.S. NEXT year, it is coming to the U.S. THIS year...Though you West Coast guys probly won't pay attention ;) as all three events put on by Rally America will take place in NJ at the motorsports complex there. The big names will be there--Block, Pastrana, etc. and THAT will be the true test of whether Rally America knows what its doing. RA has done really well with the design and operation of their Rally events over the past decade or so but have faired poorly when turning things over to the XGames where it is managed by a different company (by chance a company that is/was VERY close to Ricky Johnson and TORC). If RA can run the NJ events as a TRUE Rallycross event then they will be fine and I would expect to see ESPN/ABC pick up broadcasts of the events in '11. If RA sets it up like the XGames course it will be a massive fail.

All that being said, the most recent XGames Rally debacle also shares blame with the original poster of this thread and Mr. Block. The Gymkhana-ization (just made that up) of the sport, while drawing "eyes" to Mr. Block and his efforts and generates a lot of media "impressions" does nothing for the sport. Highly edited, unrepeatable, spins and tire smoke make for great video, but poor drama. Look at the course laid out for the Rally drivers at the Xgames and you can see the influence clearly. I for one hope that Mr. Block and his media co-horts drop the Gymkhana BS (exactly ZERO chance of this given the amount of exposure it generates) and focus on actually finishing a race. For now, Mr. Block remains the Danica Patrick of Rally. He might look good, and sell a lot of shoes but wins little and is merely using the sport as a stepping stone to other ambitions...