Nismo Planning Major Growth, Expect more Nissan Performance and Race Cars

Nismo, which stands for Nissan Motorsports International Co Ltd., is planning a major expansion program over the next two years that it says will lead to more Nissan performance vehicles and race cars. 

Nismo's new-found success has come from the GT-R race cars that took the Drivers' and Team titles in the Japanese Super GT series and took the Drivers' title in FIA GT-1 competition. Nismo also developed the class-winning engine in the 24 Le Mans LMP2 class. 

Nismo's expansion plans start with the Juke Nismo Concept that will be shown at the Tokyo Auto Show that starts on November 30. The concept is not as extreme as the Juke-R that Nissan has also been working on. It tunes the suspension and pumps up the power from the 1.6 liter turbo engine. 

"The time is now right to let ordinary drivers experience what our race drivers enjoy every time they had out onto the track. We aim to bring Nismo's passion and focus on driving excitement to mainstream models, and the Juke Nismo Concept shows what we can do," said Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosen. 

Nismo will build a new headquarters in Japan that will include a race shop, service area and restoration area for classic Nissan models. It will also have a store where customers can buy Nismo performance parts. The new headquarters will be built in 2013.