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Nissan GT-R convertible offered in three flavors from NCE

Newport Convertible Engineering, the Southern California company that can't keep its top on, has revealed on its website that it is now producing three different droptop versions of the Nissan GT-R Convertible. It's just another page in its work with high-end offerings like the new Range Rover and the Jaguar XJ. NCE owner Al Zadeh tells Autoblog that the superfast speedster came about during a trip to Abu Dhabi, when clients of his that collectively owned ten GT-Rs said they wanted him to engineer a convertible. They didn't want to see pictures, though, "They wanted to touch it and see it," he said.
So he built a convertible with a traditional, unadorned soft tonneau cover (the white one in our gallery) and another with hard tonneau cover fitted with roll hoops and a low-rise dual cowl (the blue one). When the clients saw it, "They said they wanted something more glamorous," Zadeh said. So he came up with the black version above with a hard tonneau cover and can't-miss-it cowling that, frankly, looks pretty good to us in that color and with those wheels.
Clients satisfied, the order books have opened for other GT-R owners around the world. The most restrained version runs $29,500 to build, the other two retail for $49,000, and all of them require a donor GT-R and eight weeks to finish. With facilities in SoCal, Europe and the Middle East, you won't even have to send your Godzilla too far away if this is the look you've decided it just has to have.

Driving an EV cross-country, planting trees in all 48 states

National Drive Electric Week kicks off on September 12, but Brian Kent is starting his celebration early in an incredibly green way. On August 24, he sets off in his Nissan Leaf from Albion, NY, on an odyssey to visit the 48 contiguous US states and plant a tree in each one. Along the way, he's stopping off for the EV festival's party in Jeffersontown, KY. Kent calls the 26,000-mile drive the Negative Carbon US Road Trip because in 40 years those 48 trees should trap about 10 times more CO2 than his Leaf produces on the journey. He's sponsored by Kampgrounds of America, and this modern Johnny Appleseed is sowing the plants at some of its 485 sites around North America. National Drive Electric Week currently has 146 events scheduled for this year, including several in Canada and one in Hong Kong. The annual celebration aims to get people interested in plug-in vehicles. One of the gatherings last year even had the world's largest ever parade of EVs, but the record was unofficially broken in Berlin this spring. Will we get a new record next month? Just in Time for National Drive Electric Week: A Cross-Country Trip to Raise Awareness of Plug-In Vehicles Brian Kent will log 26,000 miles in his electric car, planting one tree in 48 states along the way San Francisco, Calif., Aug. 18, 2015—Brian Kent, set to embark upon a cross-country trek in his electric car on Aug. 24, will participate in National Drive Electric Week by routing his 48-state, gasoline-free tour through the EV celebration's event in Jeffersontown, KY. Kent plans to launch his 26,000-mile journey from his home in Albion, NY, charging his Nissan LEAF in city centers and campgrounds alike and planting a tree in each state for his first annual Negative Carbon U.S. Road Trip. He will blog along the way. Volunteers and other plug-in vehicle supporters in more than 130 cities from Hilo, HI to South Portland, ME will stage ride-and-drives and related activities during National Drive Electric Week, Sept. 12-20, for the same reason that Kent is hitting the road: to raise awareness of plug-ins. "My goals are consistent with those of National Drive Electric Week," said the freelance writer. "Misperceptions are rife.

Panoz mulls suing Nissan for ZEOD RC's Deltawing likeness

Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but in racing, where something as simple as a car's shape can lead to a competitive advantage, imitation can be a big no-no. That reality is being played out right now, with the DeltaWing prototype and the Nissan ZEOD RC. The two cars, as you can see from the images above, bear a striking resemblance to each other. They're so similar, in fact, that Dr. Don Panoz, one of the big names behind the DeltaWing program, is assigning some legal eagles to investigate any patent infringement.
The similarity shouldn't be a shock, though. Both cars are penned by Ben Bowlby, and the DeltaWing - which will be arriving as a coupe in the very near future - had Nissan branding and power for a not-insignificant amount of time. But for Panoz, the ZEOD RC's resemblance is just a bit too much, as he told Autoweek, "It's been interesting to watch people from Nissan trying to dodge the question, but the fact is that in their own press release they admit that the configuration of the ZEOD is the same as the DeltaWing. And we do have patents, in fact another one was just issued last week. We are in discussions with our legal advisors and we'll see what happens."
Frankly, it's not difficult to see what Panoz means. The general shape of the ZEOD RC, with its wide rear track and narrow front track arrangement - not to mention the headlights mounted over the rear wheel arches and any arrangements not visible under the body - are so reminiscent of the DeltaWing that differences like the shape of its closed cockpit and more upright front end might not prove different enough to avert Panoz's legal action. We'll stay with this one and let you know as more becomes available.