Good Oil: Nissan goes for diesel record

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Record run speeds up

When Nissan dropped the startling looking Titan XD at the SEMA show, it looked suspiciously ready for some kind of speed run. Nissan plans to do exactly that. With engine partner Cummins, it aims to take out the land speed record for the D/DT class, which stands at 191mph (307km/h), and the FIA class A-III-9 record of 115mph (185km/h).

Nissan and Cummins have their eyes set on cracking the 200mph (321km/h) mark as well.

The Cummins 5-litre turbo diesel V8 engine punches out 752Nm of torque.

Modifications include lowered suspension, salt flats-style disc wheel covers, Mickey Thompson tyres, an Ultra Shield seat, a Stroud Safety parachute, custom-fabricated front air dam and bed covers and a custom wrap. A roll cage and safety equipment will be added within the next few months.

Autoblog says the truck will be tested in Wilmington, Ohio, before heading to the Bonneville Salt Flats for the record run.

Birthday card

The origami Juke.

The traditional 5th birthday party involves junk food, much running around and cool toys. Nissan decided to do something a bit different for the Juke’s big day.

It commissioned British artist Owen Gildersleeve to create a life-size origami replica of the SUV.

Gildersleeve used more than 2000 pieces of paper and took more than 200 hours to complete the artwork celebrating Nissan’s second best-selling car in Europe — about 700,000 sales.

“Using so many individual pieces of paper to create the overall structure represents the thousands of people who helped bring the Nissan Juke into reality,” said Gildersleeve. The sculpture is a dual celebration for Nissan in the UK, as it recently received the news that the Sunderland plant would produce the next-generation Juke and would also benefit from a NZ$231 million investment.

The Tundrasine is an 8m-long eight-door limo that weighs about 3.5 tonnes.

Luxurious length

While Toyota NZ is gearing up for release of the new Hilux ute, its American counterpart has revealed a more upmarket version– of the much-more-massive Tundra.

While most “luxury” versions of utes might get leather seats, a fancy stereo and a bit of exterior bling, Toyota has gone a bit further with the Tundra. About 2m and four doors further.

The Tundrasine (Tundra and Limousine) is an 8m-long eight-door limo that weighs about 3.5 tonnes and has a plush wood-and-leather interior based on the “passenger compartments of luxury private jets”.

Why there isn’t a spa pool in the tray is something The Good Oil finds unforgivable unless Toyota NZ sees fit to have a crack at a version with the new Hilux.

We are the world

■A well-meaning bystander in the US called police to report a child being placed in the boot of his parents’ car before they drove off. Police were waiting for the “offenders” when they got home. It seems the well-meaning bystander didn’t realise the Tesla Model S has a third row of rear-facing seats inside the rear hatch, so the police found a happy child safely strapped in his seat.

■A woman in the US phoned police to tell them her car had been stolen with her 2-year-old son inside. After a two-hour manhunt involving many officers and a helicopter, the woman admitted her son was at daycare and she had said he was in the car so police would find it faster. She has been charged with making a false statement. While the search for her car continues, we wouldn’t bet on the police making too much of an effort to find it.

The Panoz GTR-1 is going into production.

Blast from the past

Once upon a time, in the 1990s, the cars that raced in the top classes at Le Mans and the FIA GT Championship were going through an odd phase. They weren’t quite the full-on prototypes we have today, but they weren’t quite GT cars either.

That was when Don Panoz and his weird-looking creations had their biggest successes.

Don launched the Panoz GTR-1 racing car at this time, loosely based on his Esperante road car, in much the same way as a zeppelin is “loosely based” on a balloon on a string.

The two shared no panels and didn’t look terribly similar. Don insisted the engine be mounted in front of the driver, leading to a super-aggressive look that was totally impractical for road use.

Panoz had to make at least two road-going examples to homologate it, so they did. Don kept one as his own car, as you do when you own the company.

More than 15 years later, Don has decided to put the GTR-1 into limited road-going production.

The GTR-1 will start at US$890,000 ($1.63 million). So what do you get for your vast sum of money? The original GTR-1 put out around 447kW and 680Nm from its 6-litre V8, so something extremely quick. And also, something with the merest afterthought of an interior if the photos are anything to go by.

Number Crunching

2 MODELS

The number of road cars Panoz has created — the Roadster and Esperante

7 MODELS

The number of racing cars Panoz has created

2 RACE TRACKS

The number of tracks the Panoz group owns or operates

2 WINERIES

The number of wineries/resorts Panoz owns, plus a hotel in Scotland