As promised, Nissan unveils new NISMO plans – but they’re a bit underwhelming

By Nick Jaynes February 26, 2013

Last week, Nissan teased that it would unveil the new NISMO world headquarters in Yokohama, Japan alongside some new and exciting NISMO vehicles.

A large part of the announcement’s allure was the promise of new NISMO offerings: ones that had only previously existed in video games.

Well Nissan has finally made the reveal and, well, it’s a bit disappointing.

What will be the first offerings from NISMO, which will now stand as Nissan’s performance brand? The Nissan Juke NISMO, the 370Z NISMO, and the GT-R NISMO. All exciting, sure, but aside from the GT-R NISMO, they already existed.

Nissan admits the Juke NISMO has already been offered in Europe and Japan but will soon send it Stateside. The 370Z NISMO has been on sale in the US for some time now but will be soon unveiled in Europe. The GT-R, which already stands as one of the world’s finest supercars, is going to get a bit faster with some NISMO tinkering. This could be exciting news if Nissan had detailed any of the GT-R NISMO facts and figures but it didn’t.

So which of these “new” NISMO cars had only existed in video game land before this announcement? Supposedly it’s the Juke NISMO, which originally debuted in Gameloft’s Asphalt 7: Heat. Since it already exists – and isn’t new at all – we’ll call Nissan’s claim last week blatant false advertising.

While this announcement isn’t especially exiting at this very moment, it may prove more exciting in the future. We’d love to see a new Nissan Sentra SE-R NISMO or something along those lines in the near future. Nissan recently unveiled the new Nissan Note. A high-tech compact hatch like that could make a pretty cool Volkswagen GTI competitor after receiving the NISO touch.

None of those vehicles have been hinted at, though; so don’t hold your breath.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Nick Jaynes is the Automotive Editor for Digital Trends. He developed a passion for writing about cars working his way…

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