Nissan Serena C27 AUTECH

Nissan made AUTECH as their new premium sub-brand that blends sportiness and premium quality on everyday Nissan vehicles and the first outing for the AUTECH brand is none other than Nissan's best-seller minivan, the Serena C27.

2018 Nissan Serena AUTECH

Before explaining what's it all about the new Serena AUTECH, what is this AUTECH brand anyway? AUTECH was known for making specially customized Nissans under the Axis and Rider banner as well as making special edition models. With the banner of "Premium Sporty", Nissan's AUTECH sub-brand wants to be their answer to Honda's Modulo X line of specialty vehicles and the Serena C27 is just the start of the story.

Known to be the replacement of the Serena Rider specialty vehicle, which is made by AUTECH of course, the all-new Serena AUTECH features special cosmetic treatments inside and out but they didn't bother touching the specs, which means, the S-HYBRID powertrain with total energy management that takes charge to the sub-battery unit, eco motor, idling stop, the MR20DD 2.0L petrol engine, and the CVT remains the same as the normal Serena.

The Serena AUTECH features a specially-made front face (including that fancy looking grille), LED fog lamps, side slip protector, special rear bumper, special rims, and suede interior, not to mention the special Shining Blue exterior paint. For the SPORTS SPEC upgrade, the Serena AUTECH comes with MICHELIN PILOT SPORT 4 tires, specially reinforced body, specially made suspension that is somewhat between comfort and twitchy, special ECM, Electric Power Steering, and Vehicle Dynamics Control. Although it looks cool on the road, it's not as sporty as it hoped for and in the case of having three kids in the middle, it rather just spoils the taste when used as a family car but so what? It's a Serena and this is what it was made for.

The Serena AUTECH starts at 2,985,120 yen for 2WD models while 4WD models start at 3,218,400 yen.

Expect more additions to the AUTECH range when the X-TRAIL and the Note joining the AUTECH fleet very soon but don't get too excited just yet because although sporty in looks, they behave pretty much the same as your average Nissan.

Photo: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

THREATS FROM NORTH KOREA: President Moon to send special envoys to NK

South Korean leader Moon Jae-in is sending his top national security adviser and chief intelligence officer as special envoys to Pyongyang at 1400 hours in a bid to convince North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to come to the dialogue table with Washington.

Yoon Young-chan, senior secretary for Communication the President said the special delegation will take a direct chartered flight to Pyongyang Monday afternoon for a two-day visit during which they will hold talks with high-level North Korean officials to discuss ways to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula and develop relations between the two Koreas.

Yoon said Seoul's special delegation will comprehensively discuss various issues especially, on ways to set the "right conditions" for US-NK talks aimed at denuclearization and improve inter-Korean relations.

Source: Arirang News

Let's Do The News! (March 5, 2018)

- The Presidential Communications Operations Office are mulling about the creation of a government satellite network in a bid to better connect the Philippines. According to Secretary Martin Andanar, he has recommended to President Rodrigo Duterte the creation of a GSN back in December 2017 and with this GSN, all government units could be connected properly, especially far off local governments.

- The Department of Labore and Employment considers a deployment ban in other countries where Filipino workers are being abused.

- The Davao City Hall was found violating fire safety regulations. According the reports, the Davao City Bangoy Fire Station found that the building has no fire exit signs, smoke, alarms, and fire extinguishers.

- According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, they have issued over 207 notices against establishments who continue to violate the environmental laws of Boracay. In a press statement, the Department of Environment and Natural said that they have given notices to 116 establishments for violating the Philippine Clean Water Act, and 77 others for going against the Clean Air Act.

- Germany's Social Democrats began counting the votes of thousands of party members who will decide if a new coalition under Chancellor Angela Merkel takes office, more than five months after a general election.

- A portion of the CALAEX is scheduled to open at the end of the year. According to Department of Public Works and Highways Sec. Mark Villar, the project was initially set to be finished on April 2019 but they will attempt to finish it by December.

- Cadillac teases the XT4 crossover

Introducing the first-ever Cadillac XT4. Coming Fall 2018. #XT4 #DareGreatly

A post shared by Cadillac (@cadillac) on Mar 4, 2018 at 5:59pm PST

- Williams Advanced Engineering unveiled details about their lightweight electric vehicle platform that will be showcased at the JEC World 2018 in Paris. According to them it is readily scalable for C-, C-D- and D-segment vehicles, and boasts innovations relating to cooling systems, lightweight components and the assembly process.

- Actor David Ogden Stiers passed away at the age of 75 due to cancer at his Oregon home. He played Charles from M*A*S*H and most memorable, Cogsworth from Disney's Beauty and the Beast, among many others.

- Cinderella Girls Gekijo returns for their third season this July.

TTFN!!!

2018 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup - Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube

Sunday may be the night of the Oscars but NASCAR goes West as they began their wild wild west shootout at Las Vegas  Motor Speedway for the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube, where all the action for the best and wildest NASCAR drivers ever assembled is more than just cowboys, stetsons, and revolvers. It's all about V8 power at high noon.

As Kevin Harvick nailed both stages one and two in the heat of the Las Vegas action, it's starting to heat up as the race progresses. In Lap 183, Chase Elliot and Kurt Busch got involved in a crash and that's pretty much it.

Kevin Harvick nailed his 100th NASCAR National Series win in his career after winning the Pennzoil 400 race right at the heart of Sin City, 2.906 seconds ahead of Kyle Larson and 13 seconds from Paul Menard.

The NASCAR Goes West continues as the next race is on ISM Raceway for the TicketGuardian 500 on the 11th of March.

Top Gear S25E02

The second episode of BBC Top Gear is all about the hunt for Bigfoot and a new McLaren.

In that episode, Matt LeBlanc and Chris Harris return to the United States for the hunt on the mythical Bigfoot. They try different kinds of offroaders at their disposal; a Ford F-650, a Sherp Pro ATV, they even ride the all-electric Alta Redshift dirt bike as well. They've even thrown a flying ATV to the mix.

Harris, being a McLaren nut, goes to Portimao, Portugal, to check out the newest McLaren supercar, the 720S. It even had a shootout against the P1 as well.

Then, when the boys went Bigfoot hunting, Rory Reid's occupied with the creation of reverse racing, which involves driving cars on reverse.

Lee Mack is this week's SIARFC and he did it in 1:55.2

2018 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship - Adelaide 500

Photo: Official Supercars Championship Instagram

It's a brave new world in the 2018 season of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship and even though Australia stopped making cars last year, the spirit of the competition burns hot as the Aussie crowd are greeted with the arrival of the new Holden Supercars competitor based on the all-new, fully-imported, ZB Commodore. Yes, it's sad that today's Commodore is just a commoner lacking the spirit of its Aussie-made predecessor but in its Supercars-spec, it's like donning a battle ready armor but anyway, the 2018 season began at the streets of Adelaide and new and returning drivers are ready to take on the brave new world they set into.

In Race 1, despite his controversial pole at the Top 10 Shootout, Shane Van Gisbergen, driver of the new #97 Red Bull Holden Racing Team ZB Commodore, kicked the season off with a win in the race debut of the ZB Commodore followed by James Courtney, who placed 2nd, and Scott McLaughlin for the Shell V-Power Racing placed 3rd.

In Race 2, meanwhile, it's a rumble out there as mechanical failures ended Jamie Whincup's 136-race finishing streak followed by Mark Winterbottom's kerb-hopping penalty and a puncture on McLaughlin, among many others. But in the end, the new ZB Commodore racing machines made a 1-2-3 finish as Van Gisbergen wins again followed by Erebus Penrite Recing's David Reynolds and Garry Rogers Motorsport's Garth Tander.

So, Van Gisbergen made the ZB Commodore's race debut looked promising but the clash of the Supercars has just begun as the next race will be on Melbourne for the Coates Hire Supercars Melbourne 400 from 22 to 25th of March, 2018.

GT SPORT: YOLO (You Only Live Once)

Mind the title anyway but while I was busy playing GT SPORT on the PS4, I stumbled across this beautiful JDM classic car I picked up from the January update. It was the legendary Toyota 2000GT and this classic J-Sports car is too beautiful to ignore.



As every James Bond fan would know, this car appeared in You Only Live Twice, which is driven by Japanese agent Kissy Suzuki while being pursued by enemies and despite the lack of gadgets, she managed to summon help from the Japanese intelligence to end the chase. Of course, even without the Bond connection, the 2000GT remains one of the most important cars in Toyota's rich history.

Dubbed Japan's first supercar, the 2000GT is built in collaboration between Toyota and Yamaha. It's powered by a Yamaha-tuned 2.0L six-cylinder engine producing around 153HP and the whole car is wrapped in aluminum. Little did you know that Yamaha also contributed to the wooden panels the 2000GT's interior possesses from their pianos?



Speaking of the Bond car, did you know that because of Sean Connery's height, he's too big to squeeze himself in the Toyota as a result, the people from Toyota gave the producers about two weeks to convert it into a convertible. Of course, being a new model, there wasn't any open-top 2000GT ever made and when it appeared in the film, an open-top 2000GT is nothing more than a one-off made exclusively for that Bond movie. Still, it's one of the prettiest Japanese cars ever built and it's also one of the rarest as a good one of these may cost you around fifty million yen or over half a million dollars.



To see how the 2000GT takes us back to the golden age of JDM sports cars, I went to Suzuka Circuit, and having spent a few moments driving this car around the track, I find that while it's short on power by modern standards and twitchy on the bends, it's somewhat easy to drive and that glorious noise adds some charm to the 2000GT. The more I drive, the more I realize just how cool Japanese cars of the past are, especially Toyotas.



Whilst I'm having some mid-century atmosphere in this classic JDM sports car of the 60s, I did manage to do a little filming with the 2000GT around the Suzuka Circuit. Do you wanna see how the 2000GT moves? Roll the tape.



Now that's what I called the best shot with Japan's first exotic.



I hope you folks had some moments driving the Toyota 2000GT on GT SPORT and while I'm writing this, I got a word from the mouth that the Toyota 2000GT will star in an upcoming special drama airing on NHK BS Premium on the 28th of March. It's called 真夜中のスーパーカー (Midnight Supercar) and this special drama will feature the 2000GT and the Lexus LFA on it and as you may have witnessed in a preview, you will see the 2000GT and the LFA race each other. Hope you folks from Japan enjoy the special TV drama if you're craving more Toyotas.