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Ghosn: Nissan-Renault strife and his arrest can be traced back to Macron

PARIS — Ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn said on Wednesday that a surprise corporate move, orchestrated five years ago by French President Emmanuel Macron, who was then economy minister, soured relations between Renault and Nissan and contributed to his ouster. Ghosn, the former head of the car alliance, said Nissan executives and Japanese officials were shocked by a 2015 decision by the French government to increase its voting rights at Renault. "This left a big bitterness. Not only with the management of Nissan, but also the government of Japan," Ghosn told reporters, although he did not name Macron. "And this is where the problem started." Macron's office did not respond to a request for comment. In April 2015, as a 37-year-old minister with then-unknown presidential ambitions, Macron ordered a surprise increase in the state's stake in Renault designed to secure double voting rights. The overnight move gave the French state a blocking minority in Renault, which in turn controlled Nissan via its 43.4 percent stake in the Japanese firm. According to French and Japanese sources, that rattled the Japanese side of the Renault-Nissan alliance, which feared a national champion was falling under the control of the French government. In the ensuing eight-month boardroom fight between Macron's ministry and Hiroto Saikawa — Nissan's second-in-command at the time — Ghosn sees the seeds of what he says grew into a conspiracy to have him arrested and oust him from control of Nissan. The 65-year-old fled Japan last month as he awaited trial on charges of under-reporting earnings, breach of trust and misappropriation of company funds, all of which he denies. He is now in Lebanon, where he spoke to international media on Wednesday. "There started to be some kind of defiance from our Japanese colleagues, not only about the alliance but also about me," Ghosn told reporters. "And some of our Japanese friends thought: The only way to get rid of the influence of Renault on Nissan is to get rid of him," he added. "Unfortunately, they were right." Following Ghosn's arrest in November 2018, Nissan executives said that said governance had been eroded by RenaultÂ’s control.

Nissan releases GT-R Nismo N-Attack Package workout video at Fuji

Nissan grabbed headlines last year when it debuted the GT-R Nismo and did a blistering 7:08.679 lap around the Nürburgring's Nordschleife. As it turns out, the GT-R that did that round made use of parts that lowered its weight and improved handling. Nissan calls the extras the N-Attack Package, which stands for Nürburgring Attack, and here is a video showing what its upcoming model can do.
The pack makes a variety of changes to make the Nismo GT-R a better handling car. The suspension and brakes are overhauled with Öhlins adjustable dampers, new stabilizer bar and new front brake pads. As you can see the outside is quite different with carbon fiber components replacing the front fenders and hood gurney, plus an adjustable carbon fiber rear wing with angle adjustments and two height settings. The interior gets a carbon fiber rear bulkhead to cut weight as well.
The release date or price for the N-Attack pack hasn't been revealed, but chief vehicle engineer Noboru Kaneko says that the test in the video at Fuji Speedway was to complete "final checks." So the package might not lag too far behind the standard GT-R Nismo. Scroll down to see the Nissan's pinnacle performance car testing on a cloudy day in Japan and read a brief press release about it.

Nissan Patrol modified for backseat drivers

The McLaren F1 is most famous for holding the production-car top-speed record for over a decade, but it also made a name for itself by being one of the only production cars with a central driving position, a feature that's extremely rare. But in the world of custom cars, anything can happen. We're not sure if Dubai-based shop King of Customs was inspired by McLaren or is poking fun at backseat drivers (perhaps the builder or the commissioner just has quite the imagination), but its custom fifth-generation Nissan Patrol (the foundation of the Infiniti QX80 in the US) sports utility vehicle takes the term "central-driving position" to the next level. In the Patrol's case, "central" means that the driver's seat and controls are located in the second-row seating area.
It's a pretty clean conversion - if pointless - and we have to wonder how safe it is to drive such a vehicle. The front seats are now passenger seats, and the front airbags have been taken out and replaced with screens, according to King of Customs' Facebook page. So if the driver's view outside is impaired and the SUV is involved in a crash, you'd better hope nobody is up front. The screens on the backs of the front-seat headrests at least provide views from the side-view mirrors via cameras, the shop claims.
Watch the video below, marvel at the extreme impracticality of it all and see the thing drive.