an online time trial version of Gran Turismo 5 will be available for Playstation 3 owners to test their skills against competitors from around the world which starts on 17 December 2009,

GT Academy 2010 is the second instalment for this competition and this time around Australians and New Zealanders are welcome to enter for the major prize of an intensive race training programme and a season long drive in a full race-spec Nissan 370Z in the European GT4 Cup.

�Vincent Wijnen, vice president of marketing at Nissan International, commented on the exciting competition.

�Following the success of last year�s GT Academy programme, we had no hesitation in working with PlayStation on GT Academy 2010,� he said. �The idea behind GT Academy is a natural extension of our approach to sports cars � we�re determined to challenge the traditional way of doing things.�

�GT Academy makes the dream of becoming an authentic racing driver more accessible than ever thanks to Nissan, PlayStation and the stunning Gran Turismo�s online capability. Nobody else could deliver this programme.�

Kazunori Tamauchi, president of Polyphony Digital and creator of the Gran Turismo series was also very enthusiastic about the starting the search.

�This has been a very rewarding partnership. The whole GT Academy concept is very close to my heart. Our target with the Gran Turismo series has always been to come as close as possible to a real driving experience,� he said.

�To witness the level of driving achieved by GT players after a relatively short space of time at the GT Academy was very satisfying for me and I look forward to seeing the 2010 finalists in action. I am also very happy to have the opportunity for our GT community to have a preview of the Gran Turismo 5 game.�

The online section of the game will run from 17 December 2009 until 24 January 2010. The GT Academy itself will take place from 26 February until 3 March 2010.

Nissan Murano interior

Nissan murano-2010

Nissan India is on a roll to lauch premium SUV Murano in India by next year.
“Murano should be here latest by the first half of 2010. The car was initially schefuled for a rollout this year. It will be imported as a completely built unit from Japan,” said sources.�The SUV is expected to be priced between Rs 35 lakh and Rs 40 lakh and will contend with the Toyota Prado, BMW X3, Mitsubishi Montero and Mercedes Benz M-class.
The SUV may approach in three variants � the base S, the mid-grade SL and the top of the line LE. The all-wheel drive vehicle is expected to be poor with a 3.5-litre petrol�V6 engine.

The Nissan Murano is expected to have aluminum interior accents, leather seats, rain sensing wipers, memory seats and mood lighting.

In India, the small car will be manufactured at the Renault-Nissan plant in Chennai.

Nissan�s engineers say they are trying to source 80-90 per cent of the parts locally.

Nissan�s compact car project is also on its way. The hatchback will be developed in five countries, including India, China and Thailand.

Gravity defying lean angles

Nissan is making more cars other than the one like Eporo robot car that we have reported a while ago. Now that eporo does not look like a car, but this land glider ofcourse resembles a car.

It is a car that a person could actually ride, with a two seating arrangement. This is okay, unless you don mind sitting behind the driver(in-line).

The Land Glider is ultra-light, and the thing which makes it awesome is that it leans when it turns.

�

Exactly, it leans. With the technique in motorcycle leaning while turning is an inspiration to build a concept car like this. It is totally electrical� and a smart car.

To know more visit gizmag

School-of-Eporo-robot-car

The latest offering by Nissan is its school of fish EPORO Robot Concept Car which mimics the behaviour of fish in the water. This concept is designed to travel in group of vehicles, mimicking the behavioural pattern of a school of fish in avoiding collision with each other.

Nissan-eporo-robot-car

Nissan will demonstrate this breakthrough technology with a group of six EPOROs when they make their world debut at the CEATEC JAPAN 2009, October 6 – 10 at the Makuhari Messe.

In developing EPORO, three rules of fish behavior were applied to its driving control.

Fish behaviour Rules:

Collision Avoidance — look after avoiding collision with other fishes.

Traveling Side-by-Side —travel close to nearest fishes with a minimum distance to avoid contact or collision.

Get closer —move closer with the other fishes to fill in the gaps in between.

Nissan initially revealed its �anti-collision� technology in 2008, with the BR23C robot based on the behavioral characteristics of a bumblebee.

Though the bumblebees, like fish, demonstrate anti-collision abilities such as detecting and avoiding obstacles and collision, bees tend to move alone while fish travel in schools. Nissan studied the behavior of groups of fish, as it better mirrored a traffic environment.

Narrow form adopted by communicating

Eporo-robot-car-in-cue

This is the world’s first development of a robot car that can travel in a group by sharing the position and information of others within a group via communication technologies.