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Nissan withdraws from two races to focus on Le Mans

Nissan is making a huge bet and putting all of its chips on the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the race debut of the GT-R LM Nismo. The team will now skip the World Endurance Championship test at Paul Ricard in France later this month and also won't compete at the first two races of the season at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps. The team made the announcement through two tweets (embedded below). "Our main aim for this year was always Le Mans and we have decided to re-focus on that race," Darren Cox, Nissan Motorsport boss, said to Autosport. In the meantime, the company will keep testing the car in the US right up until the big race. The driver lineup and a GT-R Nismo for display will make an appearance at the season-opening round at Silverstone on April 12, though, according to Autosport. This isn't the first setback for the team. The GT-R LM suffered a failure of a "very minor" part during testing in early March at Sebring, and the team didn't have a spare with it. The car had run 68 laps over the preceding two days. The GT-R LM uses a powertrain unlike any other vehicle in its class. A twin-turbocharged V6 has front-mid-engine placement, and it's combined with electric motors making over 700 horsepower. In total, the system generates a claimed output of over 1,250 horsepower. With no competitive racing under its belt before Le Mans, the Nissan is definitely going to be a car to watch in the big event this year. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Related Video:

Nissan's crowdsourced Project Titan is ready to tackle Alaska [w/videos]

Alaska still offers Americans the chance to really experience the wilderness, and Nissan is challenging its Titan pickup to its offroad extremes with a little help from its fans. After crowdsourcing a heap of mods, the company is handing it over to two Wounded Warrior Project Alumni to do their worst in the backcountry to see what the truck can do.
Nissan last experimented with the crowdsourcing idea on its Project 370Z in 2012 but might have taken things even further this time. For Project Titan, the automaker let fans vote on 10 different areas to customize on a 2014 Titan Crew Cab PRO-4X. To fit the rugged look, the company covered it up with a custom digital-camouflage wrap with a Wounded Warrior Project emblem and even outfitted its all-terrain camping trailer in a similar scheme. An LED lighting rig was also added to the new bull bar and roof rack to brighten the night. For a just little more grunt, the 5.6-liter V8 was outfitted with a Nismo cold-air intake and Borla cat-back exhaust, and to keep from getting stuck, the pickup got an upgraded suspension with more travel and 18-inch wheels with 35-inch Nitto offroad tires. The interior was also slightly revised with big GPS system and custom embroidered seats.
Now, it's time to see if the truck's mods can handle what the Alaskan wilderness can throw at it. The two Wounded Warrior Project Alumni are just starting their expedition and are expecting snow on the way. Scroll down to watch three build videos for the Titan and read Nissan's official announcement. You can also follow their journey on Nissan Trucks' Facebook page.

Foreign automakers pay from $38 to $65 per hour to non-union workers

As leaders for the United Auto Workers gather in Detroit for their Special Convention on Collective Bargaining to work out the negotiating stance for this year's new labor agreements with the Detroit 3 automakers, what they most want to do is figure out how to eliminate the two-tier wage scale. However, the lower Tier 2 wage has allowed the domestic automakers to reduce their labor costs, hire more workers, and compete better with their import competition. As it stands, per-hour labor rates including benefits are $58 at General Motors, $57 at Ford, and $48 at Fiat-Chrysler – a reflection of FCA's much greater number of Tier 2 workers. The Center for Automotive Research released a study of labor rates (including benefits) that put numbers to what the imports pay: Mercedes-Benz pays the most, at an average of $65 per hour, Volkswagen pays the least, at $38 per hour, and BMW is just a hair above that at $39 per hour. Among the Detroit competitors, Honda workers earn an average of $49 per hour, at Toyota it's $48 per hour, Nissan is $42 per hour, and Hyundai-Kia pays $41 per hour. The lower import wages are aided by their greater use of temporary workers compared to the domestics. Automotive News says the ten-dollar gap between those foreign camakers and the domestics turns out to about an extra $250 per car in labor, which adds up quickly when you're pumping out many millions of cars. That $250-per-car number is one that, come negotiating time, the Detroit 3 will want to reduce, as the UAW is trying to raise both Tier 1 and Tier 2 wages. Another wrinkle is that the domestic carmakers are considering the wide adoption of a third wage level lower than Tier 2. Some workers who do minor tasks like assembling parts trays kits and battery packs already make less than Tier 2, but the UAW will be quite wary about cementing yet another wage scale at the bottom of the system while it's trying to fight a bigger battle at the top. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req., BloombergImage Credit: AP Photo/Erik Schelzig Earnings/Financials UAW/Unions BMW Chevrolet Fiat Ford GM Honda Hyundai Kia Mercedes-Benz Nissan Toyota Volkswagen labor wages collective bargaining labor costs