Nissan's corporate vice president of product planning Keno Kato told CarAdvice a hot hatchback is in the works and will try to take the 'Ring crown.
Carmakers are getting a bit obsessed lately with Nürburgring lap times and it seems Nissan is no exception.
A Nismo version of the Pulsar is in the works and apparently it aims to steal Renault's 'Ring title for a front-wheel drive car, meaning that Nissan's hot five-door hatch will try to complete a lap in less than the 7m 54.36s time achieved by the limited-run Megane RS 275 Trophy-R.
While there’s little concrete detail on what the European-spec Nissan Pulsar Nismo model will pack under its bonnet, there is a chance it will borrow some bits from the Renault hot-hatch as part of the long-standing Renault-Nissan Alliance.
Nissan corporate vice president of product planning Keno Kato confirmed to CarAdvice that the front-engined, front-drive (FF) hot-hatch is going to aim high.
“An FF quick vehicle would be really serious – like a Civic Type R,” he said of Honda’s upcoming hot-hatch which will produce at least 206kW and 400Nm from its 2.0-litre turbo engine.
“A fast hatchback is under development by Nismo,” Kato said. “Nismo is from racetrack, so it is aiming at a lap time. That’s the meaning of a serious car.
“Nismo is always very serious. Nismo stands for Nissan Motorsports International, and that’s for the competition. So we will not have any plans to offer a kind of fake Nismo,” he said.