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What does a world-class downhill skateboarder drive? Something very cool

Kevin Reimer has an interesting career and a fascinating car. The resident of Vancouver, BC is a professional downhill skateboarder - which we now know is a thing you can be - who sees a lot of commonality between his extreme occupation and his cherry 1991 Nissan Skyline GT-R.
The subjects of the latest Petrolicious joint, Racing Champions, Reimer waxes philosophical about skateboarding and driving down some of the same routes. You'll not be surprised to hear that riding the curves of a mountain slope, be it on a deck or in a bucket seat, both rely on grip and nerve in various measure. Scroll down to see for yourself, and don't miss the rest of our Petrolicious library when you're done.

Next Nissan Rogue flaunts its new look

Remember last April, when Nissan told us it would be launching five new models over the course of 15 months? Well, we've seen the Altima, Pathfinder, Sentra and Versa Note, so that magical fifth model has to be the new Rogue, which our spy photographers recently caught testing. Despite looking like a hodge-podge of black duct tape and garbage bags, we can clearly see that the new Rogue takes a lot of its styling cues from the Hi-Cross concept that Nissan showed at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. And that's fine - we found that CUV concept to be a decidedly handsome thing, and certainly more attractive than the weird little Rogue that currently roams the streets.
Details surrounding the next Rogue are still very unclear, though our spies suggest that it could be powered by a new 1.2-liter supercharged four-cylinder engine, good for something like 113 horsepower and 140 pound-feet of torque. We'll see about that, since those numbers represent a drastic drop in power versus the current Rogue - to the tune of 57 hp and 35 lb-ft. A diesel engine for other markets is expected to be on offer, and a plug-in hybrid version is also rumored to be in the works, though that won't show up at the vehicle's initial launch.
If Nissan sticks to its plan of showing these five new models in the course of 15 months, that means we should see the Rogue in July. Of course, since things don't always go as planned, it could be many more months before all that camouflage is taken away.

Nissan 370Z Nismo freshening coming tomorrow

Nissan is set to bring a special to the Fairlady faithful at the annual ZDAYZ fest. Based on the sole teaser and the event it's being unveiled at, it's pretty clear that Nissan is going to be issuing some kind of update to the Nismo version of its 370Z.
What that update is, though, is unclear. We can see a few small visual tweaks, like the horizontal LED running lights and their associated vertical vent. The grille looks reformed as well. Beyond that, though, it looks like we're stuck waiting for the full details until tomorrow afternoon. Until then, take a look below for the world's shortest press release.