2012 Nissan Sentra Sr Sedan 4-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Nissan CEO plans to deliver 'raw details of the misconduct' to Renault

TOKYO/PARIS — Nissan Motor's CEO plans to meet one-on-one with the deputy CEO of automaking partner Renault in Amsterdam this week, sources told Reuters, amid tensions over the future of the alliance after Chairman Carlos Ghosn's arrest last month. The meeting would be the first face-to-face interaction between Nissan's Hiroto Saikawa and Renault's Thierry Bollore since Ghosn was arrested on Nov. 19 in Tokyo. It would take place alongside regular top-level, monthly talks between the partners and Mitsubishi Motor Corp that will be held over two days from Tuesday, according to one of the sources familiar with the matter. Saikawa, who took over from Ghosn as CEO last year, is planning to discuss at the meeting with Bollore possible changes to the partnership's management and operations with an eye to continuing the alliance, another source who is close to Nissan's management said. The talks in Amsterdam could provide Saikawa with an opportunity to try and convince Renault executives of the gravity of Ghosn's alleged misconduct discovered during an in-house investigation by the Japanese automaker. They are being held a day after Saikawa rebuffed a demand from Renault for an extraordinary shareholder meeting that would have offered the French car maker a chance to weigh in on Ghosn's replacement as chairman and on other Nissan board appointments. Mitsubishi Chairman Osamu Masuko said late on Monday he will attend the Amsterdam meetings via video conference. A Nissan spokesman said Saikawa would attend meetings with alliance partners in Amsterdam from Tuesday, but declined to comment on the possibility of the one-on-one meeting with Bollore. Ghosn was charged last week alongside alleged accomplice Greg Kelly and Nissan itself over the company's failure to declare $43 million in deferred income that Ghosn had arranged to be paid while chairman and CEO. Both men remain in custody. The scandal has shaken the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, with Saikawa calling for changes to weaken Renault's control as he moved to oust Ghosn in the week of his arrest. Renault directors were briefed last week on the Nissan investigation that led to Ghosn's arrest but reiterated their earlier decision to keep him in office as chairman and CEO. But the Renault board has yet to be given direct access to Nissan's findings, which are being closely held by Renault lawyers answering to Ghosn's long-standing chief of staff and head of legal affairs at Renault, Mouna Sepehri.

2015 Nissan GT-R Nismo is Japanese for "Zero Competition"

It was only a little more than a year ago that we were wondering if there would be a new Nissan GT-R, now here we are writing about the introduction of two of them. Carlos Ghosn himself unveiled the new 2015 Nissan GT-R Nismo and the standard-in-name-only 2015 GT-R on which it is based. The Nismo is all about ape-chested mojo, coming with the tagline "Zero Competition," GT3-derived tweaks without and within and a 'Ring time of 7:08.679.
Nissan also brought the actual 'Ring-running car to the event and you'll notice that it has a different rear wing than the two show cars. We were told that the wing on the time-setting car would be available on the car that goes on sale, Nissan intending to keep its "production car" promise.
You can check out the Nismo above in the new Dark Matte Grey exterior hue and in Brilliant White Pearl, as well as the new GT-R, its new Ivory interior and LED light signature below. We haven't written this in a while, so allow us to bring the challenge back: Porsche - your move...

Game on as Formula One fields teams for virtual eSports competition

HORLEY, England — Grand prix teams could be racing each other in the virtual world as well as the real one next season, and fighting to sign up the hottest gamer talent, as Formula One wakes to the power of eSports. Darren Cox, the man behind McLaren's "World's Fastest Gamer" competition who also saw one of his drivers win Formula One's first eSports series in Abu Dhabi last month, feels a tipping point has been reached this year. The former Nissan motorsport boss, who runs the eSPORTS+CARS virtual team, can also see the day dawning — in maybe three to five years' time — when top gamers are earning more than the lowest paid drivers on the real F1 starting grid. In a wide-ranging interview at a simulator center where his drivers train near London's Gatwick airport, Cox told Reuters that he expected Formula One teams to become involved in next year's eSports series. "If you look at what the NBA (basketball) has done ... they engaged the teams right at the beginning. So 17 of the NBA teams have got franchises for the virtual side of the sport, and there's a draft like in the real world. "So expect something like that to come out of (Formula One owners) Liberty," added Cox. "It's happening now. Those conversations are being had. "This absolutely will be a big priority for them (Liberty), and I believe they have made it clear to the teams that they will be involved, in some way. "And then I guess it's down to the teams about how involved they want to be." Kitchen porter turns champion Formula One's first eSports series was won by Brendon Leigh, an 18-year-old kitchen porter who had never previously been out of Britain. Leigh, who drives for Cox's team and emerged triumphant from 63,000 initial hopefuls, is likely to go professional. Some gamers in other arenas are already earning more than $1 million a year, and Cox said the rewards in motorsport were growing all the time. "If you go back 18 months, these guys were winning an X-box and a free subscription, not any cash. The cash has suddenly come, and I think that will ramp up," said the man who has been dubbed the "Godfather of virtual racing." Cox dismissed as irrelevant the debate about whether eSport is a sport. "It's here, it's got millions of viewers, it's got a commercial backbone that is strong. It doesn't matter if someone in sport thinks it's a sport or not. eSports don't care." He expected all the big F1 teams to end up partnering with outfits like his.