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Toyota, Honda, Nissan and more collaborating to increase fuel efficiency

Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Daihatsu have announced an alliance that will see a push to improve fuel economy from both gas-powered and diesel-powered engines by as much as 30 percent before the end of the decade.
The newly assembled Research Association of Automotive Internal Combustion Engines put the roughly $20-million project together, with the Japanese government committing to half the cost while the eight manufacturers will chip in the rest.
According to Automotive News, the automakers will team up and share basic research on internal-combustion engines in a bid to cut costs. Eventually, the results of the research will find its way into a production vehicle, although it's unclear just when we'll see the fruits of this partnership on the road.

2015 Nissan GT-R Nismo gets official

Behold the 2014 Nissan GT-R as dressed by Nismo and inspired by the GT3-spec race car that competed in this year's Nürburgring 24-hour race. Called the "ultimate iteration of Nissan's GT-R supercar," power goes up by 55 horsepower to 600 hp with updates like high-flow, large diameter turbos, and torque is "over 480 pound-feet," which means it's risen by at least 35 lb-ft.
Helping to keep it right-way up and pointed in the right direction are a race-tuned suspension with a larger, hollow anti-roll bar, custom Bilstein DampTronic dampers and the use of high-rigidity bolts. Outside, a new aero package from the wider front carbon bumper to the carbon rear spoiler above a longer, tapered rear bumper creates an additional 220 pounds of downforce at 186 miles per hour compared to the standard GT-R. Rumors of a 'Ring time of 7:08 abound, we'll get the truth - and we assume some video - very soon.
The bodyshell construction uses adhesive to improve rigidity, and behind those windows are carbon fiber Recaro buckets - in Europe and Japan, at least - and an Alcantara-wrapped wheel. It goes on sale next year, but you can get to know more about it right now in the press release below.

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.