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These 'blind' automotive world record stunts have to stop

Drivers setting world records "blind" – wearing a blindfold or with something obscuring the windshield – is the new thing for some reason. First it was an Alfa Romeo Giulia setting a blind lap at Silverstone with help from a spotter trailing behind, and now this: a stunt man doing a J-turn within a narrow path with nothing but a Nissan Juke's cameras guiding him. He matched the "sighted" J-turn record, flipping the car around in a space about 7 inches longer than the car. I have two issues with these stunts. First, there are just too many world records. Yeah, I said it. Are these meaningful? Is someone else likely to ever attempt this feat? No, because it's just marketing, both for the manufacturer and whoever's still trying to sell those annual books. Stuff like the fastest production car is fine with me. Heck, I'll even take unofficial Nurburgring times – the kind where the drivers can actually see. Second, I'm all for stunts, but do something cool! And preferably something that could only be performed with that particular car, if you're going to make an ad out of it. Yes, the Juke has an Around View Monitor system, which stitches together feeds from four cameras to make it look like the car is being filmed by a drone hovering overhead. I happen to love 360-degree cameras – they let you see things that are just not visible from the driver's seat and make parking and low-speed maneuvering really easy. But the Juke isn't the first car to offer one, and the feature isn't even new to the car. Nissan was at least forthright enough to admit that this professional driver (on a closed course!) had a bunch of practice. But this really says more about his precision driving skills than about the car, or the camera. And just so we're clear, you really shouldn't try to park a car without looking out the windows, even if you have fancy cameras. So what's next? Pretty soon there will be a record for blindest blind stunt. Let me know when someone actually does something interesting. Related Video:

2016 Nissan Altima gets SR model, 39 mpg, 3 press releases [w/video]

UPDATE: After taking exception with Seyth's reaction to press-release overdose, a Nissan spokesperson commented,"It gets 39 mpg. That's ******* epic." The Mazda 6, rated 40 mpg highway, is the only car among the Altima's peers to do equal or better. (See a full list of gas-powered non-hybrid cars that do 39 mpg highway or better here.) It seems that Nissan just can't stop selling its hot Altima midsizer. At least, that's what the bullet points of the press release for the new, 2016 version of the car tell me. The model has seen five consecutive years of sales growth, occasionally hitting the 30,000-per-month figures that heavies like Camry, Accord, and Fusion regularly nab. And, as we all know, a key to keeping midsize sedans fresh is the mid-cycle refresh. Here we have it. Nissan has reshaped the front and rear of the Altima to better match the look of its handsome new Maxima. That means a deep-v wrought in chrome on the front fascia, new (optional) LED headlights that look like reverse check marks, and a lower bumper that mirrors the shape above it. There are new taillights, bumper, and trunk lid for the rear of the car, too. You'll likely have to stare at the pictures pictures of the posteriors on the old and new cars for a few minutes (as we did) to pick them out, but they're there. The press release says so. Changes to the interior are subtle. We spotted a new center stack, and new cup holders next to the gearlever. Your weird friend Brian who hosts the Altima Altimatics fan forum could probably lend more detail here, but the non-enthusiast eye sees a mild rethinking of a nice interior. The excellent Zero Gravity front seats are still standard on all trims, which is probably half the reason Nissan is selling so many of these things. (How did that not make the bullet points, guys?) Change is more evident in the new-for-'16 Altima SR trim. The lighting profile is different for the model's most athletic variant, with smoked lenses, daytime running lights and revised fog lamps. More importantly, the SR gets its own suspension setup, revised dampers, stiffer front and rear stabilizers, and a more aggressive wheel/tire package. Nissan also offers drivers the ability to paddle-shift the SR's CVT transmission. The SR grade can be had with either Altima engine option. As for the motivating forces behind Altima's new nose, well, they're mostly the same.

Asking price for Paul Walker's GT-R from Fast & Furious nearly triples [w/video]

The German owner of the only Nissan Skyline GT-R to survive filming Fast & Furious (a.k.a., The Fast and the Furious 4) has put his car up for sale following the death of Paul Walker, Yahoo Autos reports. The original sale price was reportedly an already hefty 300,000 euros ($412,110), but it has since been raised to 1,000,000 euros ($1.37 million).
Despite many well-intentioned efforts, the Skyline GT-R was (and still is) illegal to import for street use in the US, so this R34-generation GT-R and seven others were shipped here without engines and classified as kit cars to sidestep federal law. Once here, the engines were installed, and seven street-legal GT-Rs proceeded to be destroyed during the filming of F&F. But one car, the "hero" car for sale here, was driven by Walker in non-violent scenes and thus is the only GT-R that survived filming.
Then, in July 2009, the federal government cracked down on importers of these cars, seizing almost 50 GT-Rs, including this one, telling owners to export them or risk having them destroyed. The hero GT-R was therefore exported, and its whereabouts have been unknown until recently, when the current German owner allowed it to be featured in a review (watch the German-language video below). You can see the online ad (also German) of the heavily modified GT-R here, where it sits proudly with its sky-high price tag.