AZhitman.com

G35GT.com, the home of the Team HLM Fan Club, launched today.

The site will be the home for Team HLM as they campaign the Rolex Cup Grand American GT-class Infiniti G35, built by Crawford and powered by a Menard-prepped VK45DE.  The car will make its competitive debut in January 2007 at Daytona.

Site design specialist Matt Moody (a.k.a. “audtatious”) has put in countless hours implementing an attractive, dynamic and easily navigable website to serve as the focal point for Team HLM’s racing campaign.

Users can view the latest news from the Team HLM camp, read driver biographies, view the race schedule, join the Fan Club, and even chat with the drivers and team staff.

We encourage you to browse the site at http://www.g35gt.com and get in on the action!

Nissan’s new Versa subcompact car recently appeared somewhere many people never thought it would… at a racetrack. Attendees to Primedia’s annual Time Attack event at Buttonwillow Raceway on November 8th were visibly shocked to see a Versa running through the pits and carving up the track alongside cars with two and three times the horsepower.

Leading automotive fashion company turn3 Creative partnered up with Siphon Magazine, a spin-off of Primedia’s popular Import Tuner magazine, to transform Nissan’s b-segment entry into a nimble track machine. The turn3/Siphon Versa made its public debut at SEMA in Las Vegas the last week of October. The team had less than three days to prep the car for its inaugural race.

SEMA ended on Friday. On Sunday the team got the car back and headed up to Willow Springs for a shakedown day. After six hours of putting the Versa through the paces turn3’s driver Dan Gardner advised that the car would need more camber in order to be competitive.

Fine-tuning for Time Attack began in earnest on Monday. The 17″ street tires were set aside for 15×7″ lightweight cast wheels, which were shod with Kumho V710 R-compound race tires. Carbotech was tapped to provide a set of race pads. The stock oil was drained and replaced with Motul high-performance fluid. With this done, the team turned to expert suspension tuner Robert Fuller of RobiSpec work his infamous set-up magic.

Fuller’s goal was to stiffen up the chassis and get more camber out of the vehicle. To this end he fabricated solid aluminum front crossmember mounts, seam welded the front crossmember, and raised it by 13mm. The custom TEIN coilover kit was adjusted to lower the ride height by 1.5″. Fuller shimmed the rear axle beam to get to zero toe, slotted the struts for increased camber range, and was able to set the front camber to -1.1 degrees and the rear camber to -1.2 degrees. At the end of this frenzy of fabrication and tuning, the Versa definitely felt more responsive on track.

Pulling into Buttonwillow the morning of the 8th was like pulling into a Who’s Who of tuner cars. The track was teeming with fully built cars including several Skylines, an NSX, and even a World Challenge Porsche. The b-segment was well represented with no less than 6 Honda Fits present. The turn3/Siphon Versa was the only Nissan in the Time Attack “Micro” class and turned plenty of heads as it pulled through the pits. Throughout the day many competitors and spectators would find the turn3 pitting area to find out what Nissan’s “race” Versa was all about.

The morning sessions went well, so well that Gardner found himself sitting at the top of the “Micro” class by mid-day. His lap time of 2:16 was good enough to put him a few seconds ahead of the supercharged Honda Fit of famed Honda tuner Jackson Racing. Skunk2’s Fit pulled a DNF, leaving turn3 in the #1 position at the mid-day break.

After pitting, Gardner raised concerns about the brake pads. Upon inspection it was determined that the team had been mistakenly supplied with a different compound pad. Team principal and turn3 Creative President Glenn Oyoung was given a crash course in brake pad installation. With the help of Richie Watanabe from Technosquare, the stock pads on the Versa were swapped back in. While not the optimal solution, it would allow the team to continue racing for the rest of the day.

In the afternoon a trio of heavily tuned Fits including the N1 Concepts K20 -powered (RSX-engine) Fit, Spoon Sports/Opak Racing Fit, and J’s Racing Fit joined the “Micro” class battle. Gardner was able to shave off another second off his time but was unable to fend off the newcomers despite an impressive showing.

“I’m totally excited about our performance today,” said Oyoung. “Dan drove the heck out of the Versa and we gave everyone a great run for their money,” he continued. “With our Versa so early on in its development cycle, we are really excited about the potential of this car as we look at how well we did today,” said Oyoung. He continued, “Just as important as our lap time is the fact that all day I had people coming up and expressing their excitement that someone is out here representing the Nissan brand in a unique way… that means a lot to me and the rest of the team at turn3. That was really the goal of this project from day one.”

The turn3/Siphon Versa will continue to make appearances at local Southern California tracks throughout the year. The team will compete at other races and high-performance driving events at Willow Springs and Buttonwillow in the year ahead.

(Note: This project is fully backed by turn3 Creative, Inc. which received no funds or support from NISMO. It’s a grassroots team paying homage to Nissan’s finest performance traditions.)

Read more about the turn3 Versa at the Nissan Versa Club website!

This morning, Nissan Infiniti Car Owners Club surpassed a significant milestone in its growth and expansion:  The registration of our 50,000th member!

While NICOclub has long been the #1 home of 240sx owners, our recent successes with the Murano forum and especially our Nissan Versa forum has vaulted NICOclub ahead of the competition and established our position as the premiere Nissan resource on the web.

Although 50K members is certainly cause for celebration, we’re not satisfied.  In fact, rather than popping the champagne, we made a thread about it, and got right back to work designing our newest addition to the NICOclub Network…  A hint:  It has to do with Grand American Road Racing…

We hope you’ll join us as we reach out to the next 50,000 Nissan enthusiasts – it’s going to be a hell of a fun ride. 

Every year, around the first weekend of November, the NICOclub Staff makes its annual pilgrimage to SEMA – The Specialty Equipment Manufacturers’ Association show in Las Vegas, NV.

SEMA is the most-anticipated event of the year for folks in the automotive industry, and is one of the largest conventions in the U.S., drawing over 125,000 attendees and nearly 5,000 vendors.

The NICO Staff hits the show to stay abreast of the latest developments in the automotive aftermarket, to keep current on trends and future products, to meet sponsors and network with potential vendors, to plan events for the coming year, and most of all, to hang out and have fun with other car people!

This year’s show was simply phenomenal – The cars, the parts, the displays, the models, the food, the hands-on demonstrations, the giveaways, the celebrities… more stuff than you can possibly see in 4 days, all at a whirlwind pace.

The show ran Tuesday through Friday, and there’s no way to see it all – it’s just too enormous. So we strategized our “attack”: Skip the outdoorsman section (truck accessories, camping gear, etc.), the boating area, the trailer and towing booths, and the wheel / tire areas, which are easily a days’ worth of viewing.

Attending this year were: Torry (EZcheese15), Dan (240sx2nr95), Chris (MinisterOfDOOM), Jason (rotorimp), Chris (nissanparts.org), Joe (Kamin), and yours truly (AZhitman).

We hit the Nissan booth right away, which was (as always) a bit disappointing. Nissan doesn’t provide factory reps for the show, relying on the cars to do the talking. The emphasis for Nissan’s future is clear: The 2007 Versa is their “ace in the hole”, and it was well-represented at SEMA. Six different Versa hatchbacks were present, all very distinctly-modded. The full-race “Turn3” Versa, complete with cage and racing harnesses, will be featured on NICO very soon. The Versas were joined by the Mark Ecko-edition Armada, a radical Frontier, a JGTC-styled Z and an off-road challenge Titan.

Other radical Nissans could be found elsewhere throughout the show, and it’s clear that the arrival of the restyled G35 Coupe (due in 2008) and the new 350Z can come none too soon. While prior SEMA events have contained numerous G35’s and 350Z’s, those were in short supply this year.

Nissan Sport Magazine was present for the first time, and we had an opportunity to spend some quality time with the Editor, Dave Bexfield, and plan some future collaboration.

A sure sign of all the hard work we’ve done over the past three years: The NICO staff was recognized throughout the event, and we were often pulled in several different directions by vendors, event promoters and other enthusiasts. Lots of people stopped us to express appreciation for the forums, which tells me we’re doing things right!

NICOclub has a good relationship with NOPI, one of the premier import-lifestyle events companies. We attended their press conference in which they announced the formation of the NOPI Drift Series, which will begin in 2007. We’ll be bringing you more details very soon, so stay tuned – It promises to be an awesome addition to the current drifting scene, and NICOclub.com will be right in the thick of it.

The NICO staff enjoyed an evening of teppanyaki-style Japanese cuisine with the producers of the Best Motoring video series, and they shared with us some of their plans for the upcoming releases. We’ll be making some special arrangements with them for NICO members, and you won’t want to miss these! Thanks to Masa and Katsu for the enjoyable company and the great dinner, it was a blast!

We also spent some time with the crew from Paramax, the producers of the GT Live Series. Even though the weather put a damper on attendance at NICOfest at VIR, they’re eager to continue collaborating with NICO for some future events. Stay tuned for an announcement soon for GT Live / NICOfest events in Utah and a couple other venues for 2007!

All of the NICO staff are big fans of the show “Overhaulin” on TLC, and one of the highlights of SEMA was getting to meet Chip Foose, Chris, AJ, Mike LaValliere and some of the other stars of the show. Gracious and personable, they’re great fun to chat with. During the show, we had the opportunity to watch an Overhaulin’ build LIVE during its filming, and it’s simply amazing to see the progress the team makes in a matter of a couple hours!

One of our “roommates” during the SEMA show was none other than Mike Maez, of www.FriscoMix.com fame. Mike is one of the primary photographers for Modified Magazine, and he had just finished a recent shoot of the $1.7 million Koenigsegg CCX and the wicked “R14” (RB26DETT-powered, 1000-hp AWD S14) built by Full-Race. Mike was in full “photo ninja” mode all week, and you’ll be seeing a LOT more of his photography soon and can see some of his work via NICO’s Nov ’06 Ride Of The Month.

“Master Fabricator” and engine builder of the 240sxConvertible.com cover car Jason McCoy (rotorimp) attended as a guest of the NICO staff, and he took full advantage of the tool and fabrication components of the SEMA show. From plasma cutters to welders to specialty tools, he participated in several hands-on demonstrations, and even got some tips and pointers from the staff of Lincoln and ESAB.

If you’re in the automotive industry, make plans NOW to be at SEMA next year!

Over 1,000 pictures from the SEMA show can be found here:

http://www.nicoclub.com/nicoevents/SEMA06/SEMA06-article.shtml

In just six short months, NissanCommercials.com has become the largest repository for Nissan Commercials on the Internet!

With nearly 600 (yes, six hundred) Nissan television commercials ranging from the 1964 Prince Motors Gloria Super6, to the famous G.I. Joe / Barbie 300ZX commercials, to the Shift_2.0 campaign for the 2007 Versa and Maxima, NissanCommercials.com covers over 40 years of Nissan history – This site has it all.

Stop on in at www.NissanCommercials.com and browse through our vast selection – You’re sure to find something you’ve never seen before!

 

 

Well, it only took 3 short months for the Nissan Versa forums on NICOclub.com to become the clear destination of choice for Versa owners, and folks shopping for a 2007 Nissan Versa.

At last count, the Versa discussion board is seeing more than 50 new posts a DAY, and we’re adding new Versa owners at the rate of one every 8 hours!

One of our loyal members has designed some embroidered hats with the NissanVersa.org logo, and we have decals available to let the world know about the discussion boards.

We’re seeing some modified Versa cars as well, and the DIY projects are already starting to be written into easy-to-follow articles for your reference.

With this traffic comes great responsibility, and we’ll be making sure to keep the content on www.NissanVersa.org current, the information accurate and the discussions entertaining.

If you’re a Versa owner, stop on by.  We’d love to meet you and hear about your buying / driving experience.  We’re also looking for a Moderator to help out with the Versa forums, so if you’re a loyal owner and somewhat web-savvy, pop on in and volunteer!

I’m continually impressed with the dedication and loyalty of 99% of our advertisers on www.NICOclub.com.  They do a great job taking care of our members, and I hope folks will consider them over an outside source any time you purchase something for your Nissan / Infiniti. 

Here’s a link to our Advertiser Directory.Every bushel has its bad apples, and I’m sad to say we’ve had a few deadbeat advertisers, who have taken advantage of NICO’s willingness to work with small businesses – We forego late charges, penalties and interest on outstanding invoices (because it’s simply the right thing to do, in business, and in life).Feel free to notify other forums, as a company that can’t keep its commitment to the forums that support them is ALSO unlikely to take good care of its customers.

So, without further ado, here’s the list of companies that have failed to keep up their end of the bargain with the NICO forums… All have more than a month’s worth of outstanding invoices, and we’ve exhausted all available methods of contacting those responsible.

HID Vision (www.hidvision.com) – Owes $350.

West Coat Turbo (www.westcoast-turbo.com) – Owes $350.

Boost Designs (now defunct) – Owes well over $1K.

KA24DE (www.ka24de.com) – Owes $625.

TechImportz (www.techimportz.com) – Owes $525.

Hybrid Performance (www.hybrid-performance.com) – Owes $350.

Stylin’ Motors, a.k.a. StylinMotors (www.stylinmotors.com) – Owes $875.

Feel free to avoid these companies, or let them know what you think of companies that use and benefit from a service, then ignore their responsibilities.

NICOclub WILL BE introducing the Rolex Cup G35 GT car to you, the fans, before it hits the track at Daytona in January!

NO ONE else has access to this car, so be among the FIRST people in the US to see it, meet the drivers and race team, and get autographs and up-close and personal pictures!!!

Take one lifted Nissan Titan, two Nissan Skylines, four hot NICO models and the NICOclub Staff. Put them on the starting line of the world-famous Atlanta Motor Speedway. Add security and police perimeter control with Skid Row playing LIVE in the background, and you have NICOclub’s exclusive photoshoot for the 2007 NICO poster.
http://www.nicoclub.com/nopi06-article.shtml

“Go Big or Go Home!”

If there was one phrase to describe NICOclub’s presence at the 2006 NOPI Nationals, that was it.

The sheer numbers put up by NICO were astounding:

Over 120 cars registered with NICO. Another 100 Nissans joined us. Over 400 burgers, 300 hotdogs, 600 cans of soda, and 300 bottles of water provided free for NICO members and friends of NICO. 1,000 NICO posters were signed for admirers (and future NICOnauts) and given away for free.

Staff started rolling in Thursday to set up and prepare for the festivities.

The pre-meet dinner at the Roadhouse Grill was spectacular, and well-attended, with 80 people on hand. Being able to finally put faces to all the people you’ve become fast friends with was amazing. Even though it was the first time meeting each other for many of us, there wasn’t a dull moment. As NICO’s own Repoman would explain, “When we roll, we roll deep”.

Saturday morning started before dawn for the Admins and Mods. With a total of 1600 square feet of tent space, NICOclub dominated the AMS infield and required large amounts of setup for each day. With NICO’s multimedia guru Chopp providing a bigscreen TV showing a DVD of NICO rides and past events along with a PA system used for constant music and announcements, it wasn’t hard getting attention to the NICO booth. By mid-day, NICO members had already taken over the TV in order to play GTA on a PS2! We would like to believe all of the crowds were around to see the shocased vehicles, but alas, the NICO models may have had a slight hand in it as well.

The NICO models were, as expected, a constant attraction wherever they went. Mix in the addition of 1000 NICO posters, a dozen Sharpies, a covered table, and joint effort of Chopp and James co-hosting a microphone and bullhorn, the autographed poster sessions drew a monster crowd all day long. At times, the crowd was so thick you would have assumed we were giving away free lottery tickets or money! The girls were up to the task and worked the whole weekend signing and smiling away even with the constant photo requests by admirers kept pulling them away from the task at hand.

And of course, no mention of the Nissan Invasion would be complete without our own male model: Torry, aka EZcheese15. He was phenomenally popular, particularly with the dudes. Weird.

In addition to the posters, countless numbers of NICO stickers, tattoos, and tagging cards were given away. NICO t-shirts were flying off the shelves, with NICOMom heading up the sales. It was pretty impressive to see over 300 people sporting NICOclub shirts while watching the drift event.

The enthusiasm throughout the event was phenomenal. Everyone walking through the Nissan area wandered by the NICO tent and commented on how well everything was organized and what a great event we were putting on. We even had potential new members ask if they could register online within the tent itself. The enthusiasm of our members was highlighted by NICO’s own Alisha (Nismochick240) who was a huge hit with everyone who attended the event and visited the NICO area as her friendliness and charm won over even the most shy of attendees. Her popularity was so great she couldn’t walk around without being swamped with photo requests.

NICOclub even converted some of the domestic crowd – The Chevrolet models stopped by for some free food! Turns out the Chevy promotors will not let their models eat while they are “on the job”. 12 hour days being what they are, NICO came to the rescue! During the lunch-time cookout, we hid them behind our NICO Support Vehicles and NICO Featured Rides while they were eating. No good turn goes unanswered as they proceeded to do a round of photos with our very own NICO models. This made for some great photo ops and made many a NOPI fan very happy to be surrounded by six gorgeous models!

You know you’re putting on a great show when the NOPI crew yells out “NICO rocks!” as they drive by on a golf cart.

One of the most interesting parts of NICOclub’s Nissan Invasion was the sheer diversity of cars and trucks in attendance. Everything from a supercharged Xterra laying frame in the booth, to a monster lifted Titan, to a pristine classic Skyline, a supercharged KA24DE-powered 240sx, several boosted 350Z’s and G35’s, an RB25DET- powered 280ZX, a Sentra SE-R with a VQ35 swap, and everything in between.

Sunday’s festivities began a little later, with people rolling in after a long night partying. NICOclub held a HUGE raffle for its members. Yokohama graciously provided TWO sets of FREE tires, pit crew jackets, t-shirts, and even some MP3 players! Sparkplugs.com donated a bunch of in-car fire extinguishers in NICO colors, and Motorsports Authentics contributed several die-cast cars. The winners never thought they’d be leaving the show with such cool loot.

NICOclub also awarded its most prestigious award at this meet: The Paul Souder Spirit Award is named in honor of one of NICO’s moderators who passed away in 2005. Last year’s recipient, Dan Vogelsberg (240sx2nr95) was on hand to pass the torch. Our very own Matt Moody (audtatious) was selected to recieve this honor, based on his tireless efforts behind the scenes at NICO and helping members whenever the need arises.

Following the raffle was the award ceremony for Nissans and Infinitis, and the NICO staff had a ridiculously difficult task this year. There were tons of solid competitors in each category, and narrowing it down to just two was tough. Unfortunately, one of the nicest 240s there had to be disqualified. Sean (MagikDragon) was promoted to Moderator, half an hour before the awards. Sorry Sean, but welcome to the team!

For the second year in a row, NICOclub took home the Club Participation trophy, an occurrence that is sure to repeat itself for countless years to come.

All in all, attempting to describe the 2006 NICOclub.com Nissan Invasion is pretty much impossible. It’s something you truly have to experience to believe. If you didn’t make it this year, start planning NOW for next year. You do NOT want to miss this party!

How do you improve upon the only engine in the world to appear on Ward’s
10-Best Engines list for 12 consecutive years?

According to www.NICOclub.com, Nissan has the formula:

Start with a completely redesigned cylinder block with significantly
improved rigidity, increase the redline to 7500 rpm, increase fuel
efficiency by 10%, throw in continuously variable valve timing control
(CVTC) on the intake side and electromagnetic valve timing control (e-VTC)
on the exhaust side, decrease friction through application of the world’s
first hydrogen-free, diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating of internals, add
super-ignition iridium spark plugs, and fast light-off O2 sensor
control… Whew!  That ought to do it!

The new VQ35HR engine will be used in the 2007 G35 Sedan and the 2007
350Z. The G35 Coupe will keep the VQ35DE for the time being, likely being
the first recipient of the new 3.7 liter derivation in 2008.

The letters “HR” in VQ35HR and VQ25HR stand for “high revolution” and
“high response.”  Early reports claim and even BETTER exhaust note than
the current VQ, and significantly more power…

Stay tuned for VQ35HR.com, brought to you by NICO!