Nissan Expands Role of Nismo Performance Unit

Nissan Motor Co. says it will step up its racing activities this year and begin rolling out new high-performance variants of its road cars, all under the banner of its Nismo motorsport unit.

Nissan will enter an experimental electrified car in the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race and hopes to return to LMP1 competition in the future. The company also will return to Super GT racing in Japan this year and will field four Altima race cars in Australia's V8 Supercars Championship.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn says the company is developing a Nismo version of its 545-hp GT-R supercar and intends to add similarly branded variants for virtually all its road cars at a rate of at least one per year through the fiscal year ending in March 2017.

To support the initiatives, the 180-member Nismo team officially opened its new headquarters in Yokohama today. The facility co-locates the unit's racing operations with its expanding road car development activities and a showroom that doubles the size of the brand's retail operations.

All Nismo models will be distinguished with performance tweaks, special body panels and custom interior trim. The first of the performance-tuned road cars the Juke Nismo crossover was unveiled in January. The 197-hp model will launch in the U.S. this spring. Earlier this month Nissan introduced the Nismo version of its 370Z sports car in Europe.