Most Interesting Entry at This Year's Baja 1000

 I picked the Quigley 4x4 Van as the 2013 "winner" of this title and many seemed to agree.  They DNF'd and never saw the end of the race but certainly put in a solid effort before returning stateside.

This year I am "awarding" (?) this title to an entry just showing up on the entry list.

Ikuo Hanawa is a long time Baja aficionado having run there a number of times as well as at Pikes Peak on occasion including behind the wheel of an electric vehicle.

For '14 Hanawa is coming to Baja with a completely new vehicle of his own design and build (from what I can decipher from the translated Japanese on his Facebook page).  He also lists it as his Baja/Dakar vehicle so maybe we'll see it in South America in a few months as well?  It certainly looks the Dakar part being VERY small looking with a non-existent rear end, and a wholly enclosed shell with dual spares almost completely covered.

The video Hanawa has posted lists the 2WD vehicle as having about 23 1/2 inches of front end travel and about 21 1/2 inches in the rear.  King bypass and coils dampen the front while the wheels are wrapped in 315/70R17 Yokohama Geolander A/T-S.  I'm not sure what type of transmission is in it but it looks to be a fairly stock version (maybe even a stock Nissan 370Z tranny?) as the video shows Hanawa rowing through the gears, certainly no sequential transmission present.  The engine in the vehicle is a Nissan 3.7L VQ37VHR V6 out of a 370Z putting out around 332 HP, while the "body" is completely tube framed and yet the vehicle will somehow be classified as a Nissan Frontier in SCORE's class 7 for "Open Mini-Trucks".  If there's a Frontier part on it, I'd be shocked.

It certainly looks like a foreign designed and built vehicle with an emphasis on a small size and light weight.  How its rather spindly looking suspension and steering holds up to the roughness of Baja will soon be seen.  I'll be rooting for him but having my doubts as to its ability to stay in one piece.  I would have expected that Hanawa has enough Baja experience to know what he is asking of his vehicle and have designed it accordingly--so what do I know?  My vehicle broke down every day I raced it the 2014 NORRA event, so clearly I don't have the answer.

As always for me, seeing something besides a Geiser Trophy Truck powered by some massive Cheby crate motor is the more captivating portion of this race.  I'm in the minority but I'm more of an underdog, root for the guy who is likely to lose, sort of person.  With someone like Hanawa and his Japanese engined, Dakar style buggie, some eyes might at least be pulled away from the carbon copy lineup one usually sees...if only for a moment.

To follow along with this effort, Ikuo Hanawa is #712.  Tracking should begin tomorrow 11/13.  The "other" Nissan Frontier in the race that I spoke of the other day is #2003.  Best of luck to both of them!

2016 Nissan Titan Cummins Diesel Spy Shots

 Until now all the next generation Nissan Titan photos we have seen have been more or less merely test mules using the existing Nissan Titan body/frame with its new engine shoehorned into the bay.  Little was able to be discerned about the nature of the actual looks of the 2016 version.

With its full introduction only a few months away we are finally seeing what is likely a near production ready version of the coming diesel Titan being taken out on the road.  While still heavily camouflaged at this point there are a number of items worth pointing out in these photos.

First we have the single exhaust pipe and a small one at that.  Look at any heavy duty diesel truck and you will see a giant honking exhaust pipe hanging out the back to expend all those gases.  Evidently one example of how a smaller turbo diesel will change things up is in the exhaust design.  Lighter and in only a single outlet is different than a lot of the diesel trucks out there today.

Secondly we have evidence of the differentiation of the '16 Titan from its Ram counterpart.  The next gen Titan was originally going to be co-developed by Nissan and Chrysler/Dodge/Ram.  When that deal fell apart a few years back one wondered just how much would Nissan pull from the early Ram designs for its next fullsize truck.  Well, in terms of rear suspension??  Not much.  While Ram has moved to a coil sprung rear suspension these photos show that the Titan has retained the leaf spring suspension that is more common (and simpler?)  You might argue that the coilspring setup of the Ram is a more advanced system and maybe you're right...but its nice to see that Nissan went back to the board and came up with their own idea rather than taking what was Ram's preference at the time of their cooperation.

We also see evidence in these photos of additional nods to fuel economy found on most modern trucks including the aero skirt at the very front of the truck.  These have been viewed as major targets for curbs, rock and other debris typical of locations where fullsize trucks operate but have become fairly standard across the industry and one of the first things to be removed by many offroad oriented owners.

Lastly, size-wise the new Titan looks to have beefed up quite a bit compared to its prior version.  Asian trucks (the Toyota Tundra and Titan) have always been viewed as being just slightly undersized compared to their American brethren--a 7/8ths size truck or the like.  The crew-cab version here does not appear to lack for bulk or length with the passenger cab looking particularly cavernous.  The windshield also looks more raked than its predecessor and should help the overall aero and diesel sipping nature of the vehicle.

Here's hoping we see more of this in less and less disguised versions in the period leading up to its full introduction in Detroit in January '15.

All Nissan Dealerships to Receive Diesel Training in Preparation for 2016 Titan

There's an item I hadn't thought of.

With the upcoming introduction of the 2016 Nissan Titan at the January 2015 Detroit Auto Show, many Nissan dealerships will find themselves in a position where their techs may never have worked on a diesel engine before, or at the very least, are unfamiliar with the Cummins diesel platform.

In order to assist their franchises in getting their staff up to date, Nissan is going to be taking technicians from each dealership offsite to do training specifically on the Cummins engine specifically and diesel engines in general.  Hopefully the platform is buttoned up enough that their coming skills are not of much use in the near future but it does stand as another example of just how committed Nissan has to be to this new product.  If the diesel Titan fails it will be a sunk cost of billions of dollars, one which would hamper Nissan from doing anything truly innovative in the near term.

Nissan sending its techs to diesel school...

One Nissan and a Couple Datsuns from Stanford's Revs Digital Library

Stanford just released on the Web its collection of photographs taken at various auto events over the past, oh, say 70 years??

Much of the collection is focused on the bigger locations, marques and names in motorsports--Ferrari, Porsche, Sterling Moss, Dan Gurney, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, etc.

Unfortunately the Datsun/Nissan images captured are quite limited though they are shown here.  One is that of the 1976 introduction of the Datsun pickup and another of the Datsun F-10. 

The F-10 is the one that interests me here.  The rear hatch, the louvers on the hood, the sloped rearend...its a pretty sharp looking little car.  The F-10 was Datsun/Nissan's first FWD vehicle sold here in the States and came out in 1974 and weighed a shockingly light 1,664 pounds.

The only Nissan in the collection is from Laguna Seca in the early 1990s.  Love the hornlike air scoops that sit FEET above the chassis on this model...

I also checked through this collection to see if there were any photos of John Fitch and while there are a number photos of Lime Rock and Watkins Glen where Fitch ran numerous races and many of the photos are from time periods when he was active, he did not appear in this collection.

Revs Digitial Library...

NORRA Mexican 1000--Part 2(c)

Ahh...so we are off to our third day of racing.  The good news is that with the prior days success and 175 stage miles under the tires of the race truck we know that a full tank of gas will get us through any stage without pitting.  The lack of any mechanical issues during the events longest stage gave us great confidence as to its ability to operate in this environment.  With a night's sleep in A/C, a clean and modern hotel and some decent breakfast in our stomachs, things were looking up...

Of course an hour or so of an improving mood was too much and we are back between the grindstones in short order.  While our General Tire A/Ts looked almost brand new we noticed a large screw in the tread of a rear tire and knew we needed to make a change.  So off comes the bad tire and a front tire to swap to the rear.  The spare that was being placed on the front was mounted on a different wheel than what was on the rest of the vehicle--no biggie...except that the difference in offset and wheelspacer on the spare wheel/tires require open lugs in order to seat against the wheel...and....I didn't pack any open lugs so we can't put the wheel on truck and we are left with the option of trying to run on a tire with a giant screw in it or try and track down some open lugs.

Elliott I can tell is about at the end of his rope with my and my nonchalant planning/preparedness and wanders off, likely to keep himself from throwing a punch at me.  Tim retreats to the inside of the van to leave the disaster to me to handle and Paul remains his usual upbeat self, not letting anything shake him.  Me?  I am in period of self loathing, asking how I could be so stupid and feeling like I had let everyone down.

Fortunately Elliott and Paul track down a local auto supply store a few blocks away and run off to grab a few sets of open lugs (the front bolt thread pitch is different from the rear so having a couple sets of proper open lugs is best) and I try and prepare the truck to quickly swap the tires upon their return.  Paul and Elliott return with the lugs and we get the proper wheels/tires on and Elliott and Tim take off in the race truck to find the start of the second of the day's stages (again, due to the late arrival and last minute obstacles we have decided to only try and run the later of the day's stages).

Paul and I take the "screwed" tire to a local shop and get it plugged so that we keep our # of spares sufficient.  We head out of town shortly after looking to meet the race truck at a road crossing about 1/2 way through the stage.  We have a loooong day of driving ahead of us just to reach the road crossing...we're talking like 6+ hours just to get to the half way point of the second stage.  The day is again filled with lengthy road construction resulting in near brownout conditions from the dust and seemingly endless straightaways.  We do however reach the aforementioned road crossing in fair shape and sit down to await our drivers with some burritos from the roadside family shack located here.  We watch other vehicles cross and wait...and wait...

Then we begin making inquiries as to if anyone knows what has occurred to our team hoping someone has had radio contact with them.  "Hey" says a course worker, "I think I took some photos of that truck when it crossed the road a while ago!"  Sure enough, looking through his digital files our drivers had actually passed the road crossing BEFORE we even arrived!  Here we are sitting here eating our burritos and relaxing while our guys went through the area an hour or more ago and were out there racing.

Well, Paul and I take this as good news...the race truck must be running well if it made it here that quick and just kept on going.  We hop in the van and begin sprinting down the road hoping that we can catch our guys as they come out on the other end some hour or more down the road.  By the time we reach the other end of the stage the sun is about to set and none of the course workers here have seen our truck.  Then we begin hearing radio transmissions from race controllers that there are up to a dozen or more vehicles stuck in a series of silt beds shortly after the road crossing we had just left.  We wait, and wait and then find out that our truck had stopped in that silt bed area and ceased any movement.  Oh, boy...with a giant van with only 2WD and a trailer we have absolutely zero way to get to them, let alone retrieve them.  Remember...this is Mexico and Baja racing...driving out onto a hot race course is perfectly fine here.  No need to wait till the course is deemed "clear", afterall these are public roads that are never shut.

So we are faced with a dilemma, we are a tad low on gas and the nearest gas station is over an hour away, in the opposite direction from the road crossing we hope to get back to.  Do we spend more than two hours just getting gas before we even begin looking for our guys or do we risk running out of gas in the middle of nowhere (there are NO gas stations for multiple hours in the direction the road crossing requires) but begin looking for our boys right away.  Paul and I decide to take the risk and figure it out as we go and head after Elliott and Tim.  It takes us about an hour to get back to the general area of the road crossing where we hope to pick up the race course and get as close to them as possible and discover what has happened.  We find a couple of roadside stores/houses/shacks that have their lights on and we pop our heads in with Paul using his Spanish to inquire as to the particular road the course is located on.  We grab some additional water and supplies and ask if there is any gas around (as we are running very low now).  We are directed to a local farmer down the road who is known to have some gas in containers for his personal use.  Upon arriving at his house Paul inquires as to the availability of gas and the farmer agrees to supply us with some at a somewhat inflated price.  Gas siphoned into van by blowing into the top of a large container of gas held higher than the gas tank and now tube running to it, we are just about back on the road when a truck with some gringo faces hanging out the windows pulls up.

Come to find out, these NORRA workers had been told to look out for a big Ford van as it might be a couple guys looking for their race truck and drivers.  They had passed us while we were fueling up roadside with the farmer, noticed the van and swung back on the off chance they could talk to us.  Turns out they had left Tim and Elliott just a little while ago a little further up the road where they were located with the race truck!  Paul and I speed off down the highway, our hopes rising now knowing we won't have to search the desert in the dark for our compatriots, nor have to worry about somehow recovering the race truck.

We arrive on scene to find Elliott and Tim waiting and smiling--thank god.  The hood of the truck is off and obviously not running.  We greet and embrace looking to hear just what had happened.  Yes, they had been running well, crossed the road and kept going as they had plenty of gas.  The roads had been beautiful and fast, stage rally type roads that they had made great time on.  Things went downhill quickly however when they hit the silt beds.  Running down a small incline and into the silt a huge wave of the fine powder crests over the hood and windshield of the truck, blotting out all visibility and rapidly pulling the truck to a halt.  In the process of the rapid deceleration the Nissan's engine somehow throws its serpentine belt which rapidly becomes chewed to pieces in the fan.  Without a spare and deep in the silt things looked fairly hopeless--that is, until "luck" takes over and located at this spot (obviously aware of the likely result of numerous vehicles trying to run through the silt) is an individual with a tractor.  Words are exchanged between Elliott and the tractor owner and the tractor pulls the truck out.  Without a serpentine belt the engine isn't going to be doing much of anything.  Some redneck engineering places a series of shoestrings in place of the shredded belt and gets the truck a short distance before that fails as well.  I am a tad fuzzy on the remaining details on Tim and Elliott's remaining trip back to the main road but I believe another competitor's crew or similar flat towed the race truck back to where we now found it.

I may not have supplied the race truck with a spare serpentine belt itself but we did carry one in the van so we conduct some quick field repairs and in short order the truck is back running just fine.  We joke that they can go back and try the silt again and finish the stage but we know that this day too is over for us from a racing perspective.  Driving on the highway with the race truck behind us we travel a few more hours, getting into La Paz quite late again...11??  Midnight??  Later???  We park our vehicles and again crash into our hotel room.

2016 Nissan Titan Debut Confirmed For 2015 Detroit Auto Show...

One year folks...

That's what you have to wait for to get a complete look at the next generation Nissan Titan with its Cummins diesel engine.

Announced on 1/14/14 by EVP Andy Palmer at this years Detroit Auto Show was the following "On this stage, you’ll see our next-generation fullsize pickup next year,"  adding "You have to come from left field with something unexpected and different."

Good news that this is being finalized.  Bad news that it is a full year away.  With Ford introducing their "aluminum" F150 and Dodge making big strides with their truck, Nissan is really going to have to put something spectacular together in addition to making it EXTREMELY competitive on price in order to get it noticed.  I would expect Nissan to begin releasing teaser shots of it late this year as they have done with most new vehicles of late.  The 2016 Nissan Titan should go on sale in Q2 or Q3 of 2015.

Andy Palmer gives date on introduction of 2016 Nissan Titan...

2014 Tokyo Auto Salon--Nissan Models

 The Tokyo Auto Salon takes place the weekend of 1/10/14 and is Japan's answer to SEMA, showcasing not only concept and tricked out versions of vehicles from the major manufacturers but those from aftermarket companies as well.

Nissan is a regular attendee and '14 will be no exception.  As is typical the models being presented range from the hardcore race ready to the merely whimsical.  Japan has a love for what we probably would deem to be "silly" vehicles (Hello Kitty adorned kei cars for instance) but...it sure keeps things interesting.

Two GT-R models will be present including the GT-R Nismo GT500 racer that competes in Japan's Super GT Series and a GT-R Nismo with a special option package tuned for the Nurburgring.

The Deltawing derived ZEOD RC that is due to enter LeMans will be present as will the X-trail X-tremer concept (the future Xterra here in the States??  Perhaps).

Less hardcore are the Aero Style Leaf, Nissan March NISMO S and a gold and pink accented Dayz Roox Highway Star (a Mitsubishi co-produced product) amongst others.  So, if this isn't anything revolutionary at least it gives us something to look at direct from Nissan.  Hopefully there will be some other non-factory related showings as well.

Nissan Grabs a Podium Spot!

Finally!

It took till the last event of the South African offroad racing season (last weekend) to happen but Nissan finally grabbed a rung on the Donaldson Cross Country Championship ladder.  Even better is that it was a Nissan wearing the livery of the event's primary sponsor Atlas Copco (a Swedish industrial equipment company).

Gary Bertholdt and Siegfried Rousseau took their Nissan Navara to a third place finish in a time of five hours and twenty minutes--some 3 minutes adrift of the winner Willem Vos and his BMW X3.  In reaching out to Gary and asking him how the Navara performed this was his response "The Navara was fantastic. It is an amazing vehicle. It's very competitive with the works Fords and Toyotas and that was why we were able to get fourth in the championship ahead of one of the works Fords".  And this is in fact true.  The team of Bertholdt and Rousseau finished fourth on the year in the South African--Donaldson Cross Country Championship.  Not bad given that most of these top teams are headed to Dakar in about a month.

There were six Nissan's entered in the event and six of them finished with three in the top ten out of 30 entries.


South Africa Off-Road Racing...

If You Can't Wait For The Nissan IDx There's Always This...

 The Nissan Sentra NISMO edition.  Though "technically" a concept vehicle, that appears to be in name only.  This vehicle appears to be production ready right now and I'm betting it being a 2015 model released in mid-late '14.

Housing a turbocharged version of the Sentra's 1.8L engine it has been boosted to 240 hp AND 240 ft. lbs. of torque.  That's a whopping 110 increase in hp over the standard version.  Almost as importantly is the addition of a limited slip for the front end, working to get that power to the ground.  Interior upgrades include Recaro seats and an Alcantara steering wheel as well as other accessories.  Handling is improved with a NISMO tuned suspension and of course there is the requisite additional aero package and aggressive exterior accents.

The changes incorporated into the NISMO Sentra truly take it from one of the most boring of economobiles to a reasonable pocket rocket.  Given how great the IDx NISMO concept looked, if they're not coming out with that for another 3-4+ years, this is an attempting alternative and might be a decent successor to the early 90's Sentra SE-Rs.  Keep the pricing reasonable and I'd be a buyer for sure (though really I could do without the fuzzy steering wheel and such as I'd be sorely tempted to turn it into a tarmac rally car).  Look for a production announcement in Q1 of '14.

2015 Nissan Titan To Get Cheap (?) Commercial Version

One of the (many?) things missing from the current and first generation of the Nissan Titan was a stripped "commercial" version.  Engine options were limited to only a single V8 and decontented models were non-existent.  For this reason the Titan was almost never shopped as a vehicle for your local plumber/carpenter/tradesman of any kind.

Nissan recently began trying to target that market with its series of NV model vans that cater to these customers and that are based upon the Titan's underpinnings.  Still a stripped down, basic, full size truck was lacking.

Not so for the '15 Titan which will apparently get both a "premium" version with the new V8 diesel but a stripper version (with a V6?  Or perhaps the current V8 with a mid grade version with an improved petrol V8?).  Given the quality construction and overall durability of the Titan, a very basis version of the 2nd Generation Titan could be shopped right alongside your basic F150s and Silverados and Rams--and hopefully drive some conquest sales of the fully packaged versions.

Fleet Trim Titan to be offered...

Great Photo Recap of Rallye Saguenay 2013

Bootleg Media Group has released their slideshow that was put together during our trip up to the wilds of Quebec for Rallye Saguenay 2013. Unfortunately we, as NISMO Stuff Racing, were unable to put on a good show coming by the designated spectator spots from where the photos were taken due to an ongoing wreck of another vehicle that we had to slow for and a late day horizon level sun--both of which drastically slowed our pace. Regardless, the photos are fantastic and I purchased three myself!

Bootleg Media Photo's From Rallye Saguenay...

Rallye de Saguenay 2013 Results...

So its been a couple weeks since we came back from Quebec--Northeast of Quebec City by about three hours to be specific.  I had been hoping that more photos from the event would come out on the interwebs but it appears that is not to be.

Its not like there wasn't anyone there.  Some 29 entries and lots of locals at both the Parc Expose and on the stages as well---I should know, there were enough of them running out on the road in front of me taking pictures!  I guess either French Canadians don't bother to post their pictures on the web or the NSA is preventing me from viewing photos of the event for fear that I'll leave the US and never come back.

The team also put out a press release regarding the event that got picked up by a couple outlets (RaceDezer.com and MarathonRally.com for instance) and I didn't want anything here to interfere with those releases.  All that being said it was a great event that included what I would call my favorite stage from any race that I have driven to date.  As always the people of Quebec were welcoming and helpful.  We didn't have any mechanical issues which was great for the first time back on gravel in nine months and we finished the race.  No problems were encountered at the border in either direction and I got my first taste of real French-Canadian Poutine (french fries with gravy and curdled cheese).  The scenery was awesome with the cliffs and mountains that are traversed heading up along the Saguenay Fjord were incredible.  I wish we could have performed better but it was no fault of my codriver as once again we suffered no penalties of any kind.  My driving skills and my head just simply will not allow me to keep the accelerator down long enough to really make up time as I quickly run out of talent when taking low traction corners at speed.  Regardless it was great fun as usual and we had a great adventure.  Can't wait to go back in only about a month's time!!

Official Press Release Below:

Nine months can be an eternity in motorsports but that’s how long it took NISMO Stuff Racing to
return to the dirt. Competing in the Quebec Rally Championship for 2013 meant waiting until the
weekend of June 15th to get back to loose road conditions as the QRC’s first rally of the year was
on the tarmac, road circuit of Rallye Sanair.   Under beautiful blue skies and bothersome black fly clouds the NISMO Stuff Racing team consisting of driver Dan Spalinger, codriver David Dennis and crewmembers Matt Weaver and
Amanda McCabe arrived a few hours northeast of Quebec City after a beautiful drive through
GrandsJardins National Park. Situated within a truly wild area of North America (both a lynx and
a black bear were spotted on stages during the event) the roads used for the event were a true
pleasure consisting of a combination of rough, tight and rock strewn twisties and open, flowing,
“crest, crest, crest” rollercoasters. Driver Dan Spalinger was afterwards to claim that stages

four and six of the event were his favorite of any he has encountered during his first nine rallies.

  As has become standard for the team, the two “service” periods of the day became “rest” periods (to the chuckles of surrounding teams) with the only maintenance required on the
durable Nissan Frontier were a tightening of the transmission fill plug and the sourcing of bolts
for the then wobbly LED lightbar. No flats, damage or mechanical issues of any kind were
experienced and a single tank of gas was more than sufficient to complete the 80+ stage miles.   With such a long time away from the heat of stage racing, the initial stages were more of a feeling out process than running at the ragged edge of performance. As the day went on,
however, a rhythm settled in between driver and codriver and stage times dropped with a four
second improvement between SS1 and SS2 (a repeat of SS1) and a 32 second improvement
between SS3 and SS5 (a repeat of SS3). The motto for the day was “small improvements” and
that was certainly accomplished. Speeds for the event topped out around 90 mph in the fastest
sections though even the biggest of crests and jumps did not seem to suck up enough of the
BTF Fabrication suspension travel to get the 4000 lb. truck airborne.

In the end, the NISMO Stuff Frontier outlasted nine other competitors and finished every stage
mile with no penalties. The fifth place in class finish also puts NISMO Stuff Racing in fifth place
in the 2013 standings within the Quebec Rally Championship’s Jon Nichols Cup (Open 2WD)
class only one point out of fourth on the year.   The next event, Lac Aux Sables, comes up on the weekend of August 10th and will be another gravel rally on which the NISMO Stuff Racing Frontier should prove once again to be a crowd
favorite and a growing presence on the Quebec rally scene.   NISMO Stuff Racing would like to thank its sponsors and supporters for their continued backing to include BodyArmorOutlet.com, BTF Fabrication, Radflo Shocks and Braid Wheels.

Australian Rally Championship: Scouts Rally SA 2013

Another Australian Rally event and another event showing the fragile nature of using 20+ year old Nissans as your racing vehicle of choice.

Unfortunately Will Orders and Jack Monkhouse, both in Nissan Silvias, DNFd (though Orders finished a solid 4th on the first day of competition.  Not that having a newer Nissan saved the day as the 370Z of Nicholas Box also DNF'd on the first day.

Maybe the key here is to use a REALLY old Nissan/Datsun as in the Classic class there were four old Datsuns that finished both days.

Beyond the Nissan and Datsuns of interest my eyes focused on the Porsche Cayenne (rare to see an SUV rallying, let alone such a high end one) and the very old Mercedes 280.  Both finished both days of the race.