NEW YORK MOTOR SHOW: Nissan gets sporty

Nissan could have a four-model sports car range in showrooms as early as 2016, opening with a production version of the compact rear-wheel drive IDx coupe concept priced from under $30,000.

According to Andy Palmer, Nissan’s Chief Planning Officer and Executive Vice-President, the Japanese car maker’s four-car sports line-up will also include a production version of the radical triangular-shaped BladeGlider, which Nissan has promised will be the best-handling road car ever produced.

Both ground-breaking new models were revealed in concept form at last year’s Tokyo motor show and could double the size of Nissan’s sports car portfolio, which is set to include replacements for the 370Z and GT-R, in a little more than two years.

As we’ve reported, Nissan’s more compact new Z-car is likely to be up to 50mm shorter and 200kg lighter, and should emerge later this year with a turbocharged 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine delivering at least 230kW, priced below $60,000. Meantime, a new-generation GT-R will again top Nissan’s performance car family, although how it will top the new GT-R Nismo, which set a new “volume production car” Nurburgring lap record of just 7:08, remains to be seen.

When asked at today’s New York show about the production prospects of a much cheaper entry-level Nissan coupe, Palmer confirmed the widely acclaimed IDx concept was in development and would be priced in line with hugely popular Toyota 86 (from $29,990).

“It’s in development,” he said. “To be clear, that’s not the same as confirming that it is definitely going to come, because normally you have a number of milestones that you confirm – a product’s profitability, whether it is a viable concept or not.

“Normally broadly speaking you’ve got two years before styling freeze and then about another two years afterwards – speaking generically. We’re in the former two years going through the evaluation of IDX,” Palmer explained.

“I’d love to do it, and in my mind there is a kind of eco space for four sports cars there.

“You’ve got the GT-R as basically the fast and furious sports car, you’ve got the next-gen Z which is more classical. [And] You’ve got the IDx which is very much aimed at being what sports cars were when I was a lad, for bad boys, that you could afford and have fun,” Palmer stated.

“IDx is more about lightweight, connected, rear-wheel drive, downsized smaller engines, so it becomes something affordable from an insurance point of view and the power-to-weight ratio becomes very good. So I see that as an alternative – a sort of mirror or inverse of the Z for the younger generation,” he said.

Asked if the production IDx would be priced in line with the 86 from under $US25,000 (A$30,000), Palmer said: “That would be the kind of territory that you would need to be looking at.”

Palmer said the ground-breaking staggered-track BladeGlider electric sports car would offer “guilt-free fun” and allow Nissan to cover all segments of the sports car market.

“I sort of see this eco system of four sports cars that essentially define and cover the segments,” he said.

“The Blade Glider is an electric sports car, but when you no longer have to put the engine where God meant it to be, you can put the engine in the wheels. And when your platform is essentially a battery, then everything you do essentially above that level is entirely at the whim of the designer.

“So you can create something like the BladeGlider that transforms your perception of what your car should look like. And that design of BladeGlider, with its narrow front-end, when you have a chance to drive that, it’s phenomenal. It changes your perception of how a sports car should handle.”

Asked if any street-legal car could really be as radical as the BladeGlider concept while still meeting global crash regulations, Palmer was typically unequivocal.

“Yes. Why not? We’ve been making cars for 80 years. We know the crash regulations, we know most of the pitfalls. We’ve already made it. We’ve made prototypes and it works. There is no reason why you can’t have a narrow track.

“We wouldn’t release any car on the market that wouldn’t pass a crash test.”

Palmer said there was room for both the new-generation Z-car and the cheaper IDx-based compact coupe.

“That’s right, I think they’re two different customers. There are those people who would always prefer the classical sports car – they tend to be my age – and I think there is room for the ‘New Bad Boy’ approach to the sports car market, which was [the Zed’s] original genesis.

“You know those people who bought MGB GTs back in the day -- they were the affordable sports cars. And I think we’ve tended to migrate away from it. The Audi TTs and the Boxsters and the Zeds are not cheap sports cars anymore.

“So you can get back to something that is relatively affordable, lightweight, (has a) high power-to-weight ratio, rear-wheel drive, fun-to-drive and connected. Hopefully we can re-engender some excitement with the youth of today who are a little bit disenchanted with the motor car today.”

Palmer confirmed our previous report that the production IDx, which was inspired by the original Datsun 1600, could appear as soon and early 2015, powered by a naturally aspirated 1.6-litre petrol engine offering around 110kW.

A similar timeframe could apply to the next GT-R, which Palmer confirmed was under development, but not due for imminent release.

“We’ve just started the rollout of the [GT-R] Nismo and we’ve increased our volume practically every year,” he said.

“Are we working on a new GT-R? Will there be a new GT-R? Absolutely -- it’s inconceivable that Nissan wouldn’t have a GT-R in its line-up.

“But the current one is pretty darn good, right? 7:08 seconds around the Nurburgring. It’s going to keep us going for a little bit,” Palmer stated.