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Nissan Leaf Aero Style wears new body kit in Japan

Here we have the Nissan Leaf Aero Style, which the automaker says "offers 100% electric vehicle performance in a new stylish and sporty shape." We call it a Nissan Leaf with a not-terribly-attractive body kit and two-tone wheels. Suffice it to say, it's not much like the conceptual version Nissan showed off at the Tokyo Motor Show back in 2011...
Our blunt assessment of the Leaf Aero Style doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, of course. It's still, best we can tell, a Nissan Leaf through and through, which means it has the same 107 horsepower, 187 pound-feet of torque and 24-kWh battery pack as every other new Leaf. That, in turn, means it has an official range of 75 miles (though you're probably better off assuming you can get 50 or so miles per charge in the real world) and a top speed of 90 miles per hour.
The Nissan Leaf Aero Style will go on sale in Japan in December of 2013, and there's no word on whether or not it will make its way to the States. There's also no official word on whether the Aero Style is actually any more aerodynamic than the standard Leaf, one of the slipperier cars on the market. If you want to read all about Nissan's presence in Tokyo, scroll down below. If you just want to see the new body kit and wheels, check out our high-res image gallery above.

Nissan IDx Nismo and IDx Freeflow concepts are a bridge to the Datsun 510

We're not sure if someone from The Adjustment Bureau stopped by Nissan's PR department to explain the IDx Nismo and IDx Freeflow concepts, but the company's odd press release can't diminish our love for these two show favorites. We had been told to look out for an unnamed Datsun 510 BRE homage, and once we saw the brothers IDx, we knew we'd found them. But the press release doesn't mention anything about the Datsun 510 Brock Racing Enterprises, nor does it mention one Mr. Peter Brock, the man who won two Trans-Am championships in the Seventies for the nascent Japanese budget brand.
Instead, it declares that the cars were the result of a co-creation product development process with "digital natives," said natives being the whippersnappers born after 1990. Nissan says it worked with the young'uns to create two different expressions of "their desire for a basic, authentic configuration for a car." If that's true, it appears that what the kiddies really want are... two different homages to the Datsun 510 BRE that Peter Brock used to win two championships in the seventies for the nascent Japanese brand.
The IDx Freeflow - the "ID" is for "identification," the "x" is "the variable representing the new values and dreams born through communication" - takes the casual approach, with a light khaki exterior hue, a minimalist interior decked out in denim and a console shifter that works a continuously variable transmission. The IDx Nismo is out for blood, from its crimson interior to its five-point harness to its bolt-on flares and sidepipes. We aren't told what the digital natives requested for powerplants, but that's alright; if this is what "co-creation" looks like, we're not entirely against it except where that "CVT" is involved.

Nissan GT-R takes a bloody whack at supercar rivals in fake ads

A big part of what makes a supercar super is how it makes you feel, but the performance stats and bragging rights are undeniably a big part of the equation as well. Which means you can't ignore the fact that, even with its price ever escalating, the Nissan GT-R makes minced meat out of European exotics costing twice or three times as much.
That's the inspiration for this trio of fake ads from photographer Tim Kent. In this mock campaign, Kent has depicted the GT-R as a butcher's knife and the European exotics as pieces of slaughtered meat. Ferrari is symbolized by a package of horse meat, Porsche by a pack of sausages and Lamborghini as a pair of, um... "prairie oysters".
Of course the ads are never going to run anywhere, and if you're squeamish (or vegetarian) we wouldn't suggest looking at them in close proximity to your lunch. But we have to admit they're creative, and effective.