2009 Nissan 370z Base Coupe 2-door 3.7l on 2040-cars

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Nissan will restore Craigslist Maxima, display at headquarters [w/video]

Nissan showed that it had a great sense of humor when it bought Luke Aker's beat-up 1996 Nissan Maxima GLE for $1,400 back in December based solely on the quality of his tongue-in-cheek sales video.
Aker's Maxima had been thoroughly driven. It needed a strap to keep its hood closed, had front end damage, a missing turn signal and shredded leather seats. Of course, like Aker said in his ad, the car was still "fully loaded with an engine, wheels, tires and an automatic transmission." How could Nissan resist?
After buying the car, Nissan teamed up with MotorAuthority to decide what to do with it. The winning idea was to restore the car to its proper condition and display it at Nissan North America headquarters in Franklin, TN, with Aker's video playing nearby. According to MotorAuthority, the car has finally made it there, and its rebirth will begin soon. Nissan is not sure when the car will go on display.

Race Recap: 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans defines 'endurance'

Commenting on the rush of events that rocked beginning and end of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Paul Truswell of Radio Le Mans said "the race is about the ability to endure, not just the ability of drivers to do what they do for a long time." The entire race machine, all the way down to the pit boards and radios, has to survive the stress and abuse of the entire day. This was the race to prove those words.
There were two Toyotas, two Porsches and three Audis, five of the seven led the race at some point, six of the seven ran in the top three. Toyota will be hugely disappointed that it didn't win when its car and drivers were so, so strong, but they gave Audi the kind of scare we haven't seen since the best of Peugeot's days, and Toyota did a better job of it even in the loss. Porsche blew away everyone's expectations, falling 3.5 hours short of a fairy tale ending that would have made Disney cry.
But Le Mans doesn't really do fairy tales. Well, not that fairy tale. Audi's Twitter handle during the event was #welcomechallenges. As usual, Le Mans answered for the entire field.

How and why Nissan nearly killed off Infiniti

Launched in 1990, Infiniti was expected to be Japan's answer to BMW (Lexus would end up chasing Mercedes-Benz). Yet things went awry almost right out of the gate. Overlooking the fledgling automaker's now infamous early marketing campaign, its product line over the past twenty-four years has been a roller coaster ride of strong hits (Q45, FX35 and G35) and frustrating misses (M30, I30 and QX4).
In a recent interview with Ward's Auto at the Detroit Auto Show, Nissan Executive Vice President Andy Palmer revealed that the company's luxury brand was almost cancelled by CEO Carlos Ghosn as unnecessary. Infiniti, like most premium marques owned by a volume manufacturer, had fallen into the trap of losing autonomy and pushing its high-end product just like its mainstream models.
The one obvious exception to this industry blunder, said Palmer, was VW Group's Audi brand. Realizing that Audi's impressive comeback over the past two decades shamed even that of actor Robert Downey Jr., Nissan hired Audi veteran Johan de Nysschen to bring Infiniti to its intended glory - and protect it from extinction. Check out the complete interview here.