SoCal Cube with Cues from VW Bus

It’s green and creme and low. Oh, and it has a sliding rag top, crank-out style windshield (power-operated on my concept) to mimic the old VW busses… rear door has additional swing-out glass panel, all to complement the open-air approach. The sliding rag could even be replaced by a full glass roof (with water drop-look pattern etched in!) for more exposure to the paparazzi. As it sits, the sliding rag would be power-operated, and close when the key is moved over 20 feet away.

The remaining custom touches are pretty minimal, but include a grill filler panel to smooth the lines out, louvers in the front fender (right-side only to play-up the asymmetrical design of the Cube in general), and small “nerf-ettes” (small nerf bar-inspired trim pieces) at the fascia corners to give a slight “retro” touch and visually extend the new chrome grille bar in the lower opening. This also assists in making the car look a bit lower and wider yet!

Slammed stance over classic 5-spoke wheels sets the laid-back cruiser tone. The theme here is California sun and fun, and opens up a world of aftermarket accessory possibilities, like bamboo roof racks, the sliding rag top, window kits, lowering kits, interior seating options (waterproof and beach-ready seat covers, etc), grille inserts, trim add-ons and more. My hope is to inspire hot rod-minded folks to grasp just how big of a blank slate these are for customizing, and that you can think well outside of the “tuner” look on the Cube.

Get this cube and the crazy “Surfite” concept at Problem Child Kustoms

10 Nissan Cube(s) Stack into Scottsdale Car Show

Someone asked me, “How’d you get 10 Nissan Cubes?” I said, “Well I broke the first Cube 9 times.” Figuring I didn’t answer his question, I continued… “I asked and they said yes!”

They is Nissan and they’ve got 10 Nissan Cubes being prepped for release to the media for evaluation, write-ups and sometimes criticism. That’s what the consumers read in print and online magazines like MyRideisMe.com.

For those of you lucky enough to live in Arizona, you’ll get a sneak peak of the new Nissan Cube. And.. if you haven’t seen one in person, check out the Nissan GT-R.

Except for inside national super-shows like the Los Angeles Auto Show where the Cube first occupied equal space on all side 6 sides last year in November, this is the first time the geometric, love-hate styled Econo-box (couldn’t resist) has been seen in the wild with other shapes.

Where: Scottsdale Pavilion at Indian Bend and 101
When: 4:30 to 9 PM on May 2nd, 2009 (This is a one-time only deal!)
What: 10 Pre-release, totally new Nissan Cubes, plus 1 rockin, bad-to-the-bone Nissan GT-R!

Since I haven’t driven it yet, I’ll have to let you know what I think, but I can tell you there’s a handful of creative features in the Cube not found in other Nissan. I especially dig the kooky, ripple-waved head liner. The mood lighting and accents are covered at length by everyone already, so I won’t go there.

Let me have my drive of the Moss Green 1.8L SL with all the “Sport” goodies and tell you what I think, what others, customers and non-customers think about and then you can love it or hate it for yourself. For my review, I’ll give you nothing but the oppisite over the adjacent side for this Cube and not go on a tangent.

Fine, criticize my writing… do you know Thesaurus.com has no words with similar meaning to geometric?

Customize your own Cube

2 GTR’s at Stillen Day

Even if you are only slightly interested in Nissan and Infiniti cars and trucks the Stillen Nissan/Infiniti Customer appreciation open house is a great show to see. Set right behind John Wayne Airport in Costa Mesa, California is Stillen. The performance shop owned and run by the most successful driver in IMSA history, Steve Millen. Steve was a factory driver for Nissan in the 90s and has special place in his shop for Nissan/Infiniti vehicles (Ford too but that’s another blog!). Steve had heavily discounted Nissan/Infiniti parts on hand for customers as well as discounted dyno runs and free installation on anything purchased that day.
All of the streets directly in front of Stillen were closed down by Costa Mesa PD and opened up for customer cars. Now I am not too good at counting and easily get side tracked when the bright and shiny are in front of me, so I lost track at the number of cars around 150 or so and that was easily only a quarter of the number of vehicles on display. There were vehicles from the last 30 years on display, a first generation Prince motors Skyline, 240Z’s, 240sx’s, Titans, a whole mess of 350Z’s and G coupes as well as a heavily pimped out 2000 Q45 to name just a few of the models on display. Steve also had his engineering cars on hand to show customers some ideas and offerings for everything from the Sentra and Versa to the new Altima coupe, Nissan/Infiniti FR cars (front engine, rear drive) and all of the Nissan/Infiniti truck and SUV line up.
Nissan even had a few employees head out to answer questions about the newest offerings from Nissan/Infiniti: First there’s the GTR! Two GTR’s were on hand; a white engineering prototype and a Red press car. Then there’s the new FX50 and the newly unveiled Maxima which holds to its roots as a sport inspired sedan with new flowing lines and bulging fenders. The white GTR showed up a little late, still 20 minutes before the show officially kicked off, as the street were shut down and people were already lined up around the block. It had a little trouble pulling in to the open space right in the Stillen parking lot set aside for it as people immediately surrounded the car for photos and glimpses of Godzilla as it pulled in. Reaction to the GTR was absolutely amazing! There were 2 guys walking around with the sales sheets to show they had a GTR coming to them and had Steve and the Nissan Staff sign the order form. In my 29 years of existence I have rarely seen anything have such an effect on such a large mass of people as the GTR did pulling in. This is true auto enthusiasm at its best.

This story is the first from my friend and huge MyRideisMe.com supporter Joe Nagy. Joe’s been working on the GTR for about 4 years now. Yea, I know, that kicks ass. Big thanks to the guys at Stillen for the great event and for letting us use a few of their pictures. There are alot more pictures HERE. There’s also a great story about Steve Millen driving the GTR for a press event. Video’s too!

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Nissan GT-R is Almost Here

It’s been a long time coming and I’ve been waiting like so many. The GT-R is a race car built for the street. For those of you who don’t know why the GTR’s so cool, compare it to the Corvette. Except the GT-R’s a racing Corvette (think Z06 + Callaway upgrade) that’s NEVER been offered for sale in the US. Here are the pictures Nissan is releasing of the car:

The GTR’s all business and always has been. Consider that in 1989 the R32 version of the GT-R was undefeated, winning 29 of 29 races in the 1990 Japanese Touring Car Championship. Then, the next generation R33 became a legend by lapping the famous Nürburgring race course under 8 minutes. At the time, that was unheard of for a “street” car.

In the released photos of the GT-R, it retains its signature round tail lights. Other than that, the details are all rumor since Nissan is keeping extremely tight lips on engine and suspension details. If you want to know the truth, you’ll have to wait until the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show in October. When it’s release, look for Nissan to confirm that it STOMPS the Z06 Corvette for about the same money and beats the Porsche 911 Turbo’s 7 minute 40 second lap time at Nürburgring. Ever priced a 911?