Do you think you own a boring car? I though so too, until I dug in a little bit deeper and tried to learn more about my car. I drive a 2004 Mazda 6, which happens to feature a 3.0 Liter V6 manufactured by Ford, called the Duratec 30. Wait… my Mazda has an engine made by Ford? That’s right, my Mazda’s 220 horses come from straight out of Detroit. After learning this fact I decided to try and learn more about my engine and the potential it has for making more power. What I learned surprised me and showed that learning more about your car can show you some surprising things.

My car isn’t fast,as much as I would like to think it is. However, by researching my engine I discovered that my engine has untapped potential. My car is a Mazda, but it has a Ford engine, the same engine featured in cars like the Fusion and the Mercury Milan. But more importantly it is the same engine in the Noble M400.

Noble M400

That’s right folks! This super car features the same 3.0 liter V6 that my old Mazda does. The only difference? A twin turbo charger and a bit of rebuilding. My stock V6 makes 220 horsepower, but this tuned beauty produces an outstanding 425 turbo charged horses. Potential? You bet, and this car shows that any engine can be turned into an absolute monster, even if your car is old or mundane. I thought the same too until my research proved that any engine, including mine, can become something special with enough hard work.

So finding this out was pretty cool, but this wasn’t the only thing I found out about the potential of my car.

Rossion Q1

Wait… so my engine is featured in more than one modern supercar? That’s right. Meet the Rossion Q1. Probably a car that you’ve never heard of, but you should know. The Rossion Q1 is a supercar that featured a Duratec 30 engine that is rebuilt and twin turbo charged. Unlike the Noble, the Rossion breaks the 500 horsepower level, as it produces an incredible 508 horsepower from the 3.0 liter V6.

Nissan is the 6th largest vehicle producer by volume in the entire world. They are responsible for some of the most legendary cars of all time. Without Nissan there would be no GTR, no Skyline, and no Fairlady Z. We would miss out out the highest volume electric car ever to be made. Heck, The Fast and The Furious would never really be the same. And so to honor the culture and heritage Nissan brought around the world, we are going to go in depth on the history of Nissan. From Datsun to Prince, 180SX to 400Z, we are covering it all. Here is everything you need to know about Nissan.

Nissan traces its origins as far back as 1911 when on July 1, Masujiro Hashimoto founded the Kaishinsha Motor Car Works. 3 years later the companies first product, the DAT, was created. It was a small 4 wheeled vehicle that really didn’t change the game much. After the DAT in 1914, the company went through several name changes. During this time they also started to make trucks and Datsun passenger cars. Then World War I began, and commercial production halted at Datsun, as they rushed to make military vehicles rather than passenger cars. In 1923 they merged with another Japanese automaker and began making cars under the name “lila” for about 2 years. Then in 1931, they created the Datsun 11.

The Datsun 11 is where we see the first bits of Nissan appear in the story. The Datsun 11 featured a 495 cc engine making a ferocious 10 horsepower to the wheels. The only transmission available was a 3 speed transmission that sent power to the rear wheels. The Datsun 11 was DAT’s attempt at appealing to a lower market, since the car had displacement under 500 cc it didn’t require a driver license and required less taxes. Only 150 were ever produced, most of which have been lost to history. But let it be known that this is the start of what we know today as Nissan.

In 1934 Nissan Motors was formed officially. They started to build Austin 7’s under license which ended up being very successful for both companies involved. Later in 1952, Nissan entered contract with Austin to produce 2000 Austin’s under the Austin badge. In this time Nissan used its experience with the Austin manufacturing process. Nissan continued their partnership with Austin until 1959 when they start to develop the A Series Engine and L Series Engine, the latter of which was put in the Datsun 240Z. The 240Z is what propelled Nissan to the world stage. It was their first sports car and garnered global attention. The next major step for Nissan was their merger with Prince Motors in 1966.

Prince Motor Company was formed in 1952 and was the precursor to many popular Nissan Models in the 90’s and early 2000’s. They were in the market to try and compete with Nissan and Toyota’s grip on the econobox market, but obviously plans changed as they merged with Nissan, and codeveloped the Nissan Cherry. Other Prince creations are the Gloria, R380, and the Skyline which we will get to later…

In the 1964 Olympics, Nissan used some women to promote their new line of sport cars. Both the women and the cars would go on to be called “fairladies”.

The Fairlady Nissan/Datsun sports cars are perhaps some of the most famous Japanese sports cars ever. What started with the Datsun 240z plummeted into a plethora of fantastic sports cars on great chassis’ and ever greater engines. What was the Datsun 240sx morphed into the Nissan 240sx in 1988. From there, it only got better. The first generation 240sx got the name “S13” from Nissan enthusiasts. This is because the 240sx utilizes the now-infamous S platform. The S platform was a 2 door, rear wheel drive coupe that was more or less built to drift. Cars with the S platform typically had naturally aspirated 4 cylinder engines. The S13 in America featured pop-up headlights (versus fixed ones in the Silvia), and was available in coupe, hatchback, or convertible form. Then in 1994 we got the S14, which eliminated the hatchback and convertible forms of the 240sx. The S14 got a little bit heavier and longer, increasing its dirftability. We should also take a moment to talk about the Silvia, the Japanese version of the 240sx. The Silvia’s got SR20DET engines, meaning main they got turbochargers. The addition of the turbo makes the Silvia a highly coveted drift car, due to its extra tune-ability.

After the Fairladies came the 90’s Japanese sports car scene.

This is the first part in a 3 part series on Nissan

Honda is one of the oldest names in the Japanese Automating Industry. It has put out legendary cars (Integra Type R, S2000, Civic Type R) and created legendary spinoffs (Acura, Honda Racing Corporation) . It also created VTEC, which is like… super cool. But today we aren’t going to focus on Honda as a whole, but rather its luxury brand, Acura. Today, Acura could be seen as a brand of its own, as it competes directly with large automakers like BMW and Lexus. But, today isn’t even about the remarkable accomplishments of Acura, but the beginning of Acura. But rather the beginning of a new sports car era. The beginning of Japanese Sports Car Dominance. The beginning of American fascination with JDM vehicles. This is the Acura NSX.

The story of the Acura NSX doesn’t even start with Acura, but rather its parent company Honda. In 1984 Honda was testing out some new car concepts when they came across one that particularly inspired them. The Honda engineers took a Honda City and cut it in half, and shoved an engine behind the driver sending power to the rear wheels. Honda had just created a Mid-Engine, Rear Wheel Drive test mule. Although this idea didn’t ever reach development, it served as a large inspiration for the NSX. Later in 1984, Honda and Pininfarina created the HP-X concept. The HP-X featured a 2.0 Liter mid engine layout, and looked pretty insane. This HP-X spiraled into a project called “NSX”, and rumors began to spread of something important happening at Honda. The NSX made its historic debut at the 1989 Chicago Auto Show, where everyone immediately fell in love with Honda’s latest creation. The First Generation NSX featured a 3.0 Liter naturally aspirated V6 with VTEC, Honda’s technological infant. It was certainly a success in the auto industry as it was faster, cheaper, and more reliably that its Ferrari counter part.

The NA2 Version of the NSX debuted in 1997 which altered the car slightly. A larger 3.2 Liter V6 replaced the old 3.0 Liter which raised its horsepower figures from 270 to 290 respectively. It increased torque figures from 210 LB/FT to 225 LB/FT respectively. The NA2 model also got to see a new facelift and an optional Targa Top.

The Honda NSX was discontinued in 2005, and to be honest nobody is truly sure why. Maybe its time as number 1 was up, and maybe the market was looking for something different. But nevertheless, this wouldn’t be the end of the NSX…

But a quick discussion. I though this was the Acura NSX. Why are we calling it the Honda NSX? Simple, because of America. Anywhere the NSX was sold in North America, Honda had it referred to as the Acura NSX, in an attempt to kick start their new luxury brand. Anywhere outside of North America, it kept its Honda emblem.

As we all know, the NSX would return to make one heck of a rebound. In 2007, rumors started emerging that Honda was going to try to revive the legendary NSX name. in 2012, the all new Acura NSX was born and showed off at the North American Auto Show. This time, things were different. The new NSX would be a hybrid. It would feature all wheel drive, a twin-turbocharged 3.5 Liter V6, three electric motors, and a 9-Speed automatic transmission. It would likely be easier to list the things that aren’t in this car. All this combined allows the Acura NSX to put out 573 horsepower and 476 LB-FT of torque and reach a top speed of 191 miles per hour. To put it lightly, the folks at Honda went over-the-top for this car. The new NSX is featured in Honda’s various racing departments, and doesn’t have any plans for any modifications or discontinuation.