Automedia Car

What weights ten tonnes and costs more than US$240,000? If you said, “a gold plated bulldozer”, you’d be close but no cigar. The answer is three sub-100k supercars: the Chevy Corvette Z06, Ford Shelby GT500 and Nissan GT-R. These three industry titans, with nameplates stretching as far back as the 1960s, were the recent subjects of an epic comparison test by MotorTrend. Here are three would-be-supercars – over 500hp and 3 second 0 to 60 mph times – that don’t command the supercar price tag.

The US$55,330 GT500, US$90,950 GT-R and US$98,010 Z06 are all within the budgets of most mid-life crisis suffers (providing you sell the house, the kids and the dog) and offer the sort of performance that was once the sole reserve of great Italians like Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati.

And they’re not stripped out racers either. The Z06, for instance, comes with such luxuries as heated leather seats, Bose audio, Bluetooth and sat nav. You can’t buy a second-hand Lamborghini with that sort of equipment for US$98,010.

If you want to find out who wins this legendary battle, you’ll just have to check out the video. Even if you don’t care who wins you should check out the video anyways for a sweet-as drag race between the Z06, GT500 and GT-R. Now that’s something you don’t see everyday...

By Tristan Hankins

Source: Motortrend

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The Nissan Versa hasn't received any substantial updates since its 2007 debut. It's a shame, since there's some pretty stiff competition on the market these days, especially from the likes of the Suzuki SX4, Honda Fit and Ford Fiesta. Still, Nissan adds incremental updates annually, and the 2011 model year is no different. What's most important, though, is that pricing for the latest Versa has gone unchanged, meaning the bottom-end 1.6 Base sedan still rings in at $9,990, and the top-end 1.8 SL hatch commands $16,900, with a variety of models in both body styles in between.

Visually, nothing will change from the 2010 car (pictured), but some new standard equipment makes its way onto some trims. 1.8 S Versa sedans now benefit from an in-dash six-disc CD changer, and mid-grade 1.6 sedans now come with standard ABS (sorry, 1.6 Base, you still have to do without anti-lock brakes).

We find the Versa to be a rather pleasant little economy car, but with fresher, more attractive offerings on the marketplace, Nissan will be wise to accelerate the development of its next-generation car. Still, with an unchanged price and more standard equipment on deck, the Versa should continue to sell relatively well until a replacement crops up.

We're pretty proud of the fact that over the years, many of our readers here on Carscoop have seized the moment to become the ones who create the news with their spy shots, like Nick K. who snagged the first ever photos of the Toyota Prius minivan last September.

The latest reader to join our list of car-scoopers is Jay Davis who photographed a heavily camouflaged four-door sedan prototype in California. "I saw this test mule in Agoura Hills, CA today. It had Michigan manufacturers plates. Not sure what it is," Jay told us.

A lot of names including Nissan, Buick and Lincoln were thrown around during our chat with Jay, but ultimately, we're still in the dark about the brand and model hiding beneath the camo. Can anyone help us solve the mystery? Leave your thoughts in the comment section after the break.

Many thanks to Jay for the scoop pics!

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It has been known for a while now that Nissan is struggling with the Leaf’s slow rollout. The demand for the all-electric vehicle is so high that the Japanese maker has been forced to stop receiving new orders and concentrate on filling existing ones. However, projected production figures show that the company will only assemble 10,000 units until March 31, while it has already received 27,000 orders from the U.S., Japan and Europe.

The remaining 17,000 orders are likely to be filled in the next fiscal year starting April 1, during which Nissan will reach the maximum production capacity of 50,000 units at the Oppama plant in Japan.

Consequently, the automaker could take 33,000 more orders in the next fiscal year, but it hasn’t decided yet when it will do so. According to Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga, Nissan wants to “deliver enough volume to the first lot” before giving new orders the green light.

One solution would be the opening of new assembly lines sooner than initially planned, but Shiga ruled out the possibility due to the fact that work has just started on the factory that would provide the additional lithium-ion battery packs needed.

That means Nissan's UK factory will begin producing Leafs in 2012, followed by the Tennessee plant in 2013, so the shortage could last longer than expected.

By Csaba Daradics

Source: Autonews [Sub.required]

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