The name is an abbreviation of Nissan Motorsport International Limited and the company was set up in 1984 with the merger of two motor sports divisions founded in the late 1960s; Publication Division 3 and Special Car Testing Division.
Nismo Festival at Fuji Speedway.
Nissan’s intention with the merger was to specialise in sports car racing while providing support for teams competing in Japan’s F3 series.
In 1988, Nismo built its first car Saurus for motor sport use in the one-make series; the following year it developed the Skyline GT-R for racing and the 500 evolution editions for road use.
The company also designs and manufactures a range of aftermarket performance parts for Nissan cars such as spoilers, diffusers, alloy wheels, and engine and suspension parts.
To create the excitement and thrill among its followers, the company holds the Nismo Festival at the end of every race season (usually year-end) at Fuji Speedway and has done so since 1998.
A promoter at the Nismo Festival
We attended the recent 18th edition of the festival as part of the Nissan 360 Asia & Oceania tour to fully appreciate that Nissan is an all-rounder, not just a carmaker.
It just so happened that we were again not a newcomer to the Nismo Festival, having enjoyed the same electric ambience in a previous event, back in 2001 to be exact.
There was the same colourful and vibrant atmosphere in the wide variety of stalls selling engine performance parts to scale model cars and souvenirs; the long queues to get autographs from the Super GT team drivers; the races featuring classic Nissan cars, that of the Sunny range was of special interest as we were familiar with them; the grid walk to take pictures of the Super GT cars and gorgeous track girls were memorable highlights.
This time we had an interview session with the year’s Super GT winners in both categories – GT500 and GT300 – and of course the man who oversees Nismo product planning and strategy, Hiroshi Tamura.
He was clearly in his element describing the establishment of Nismo, its motor sport successes in Japan and abroad, and its rise to be a global player, with its brand business expanding to Europe, Russia, China, US and in a smaller way to Asean.
Nismo’s road car sales soared in the last three years, growing up from about 2,000 cars in 2012 to more than 15,000 in 2014.
He explained that apart from cars, the other Nismo business pillars included merchandising, parts business and licencing.
Tamura described the company’s new brand strategy as a synergy of ‘performance born in motor sports, progressive design and personalisation, and advanced information technology and connectivity’.
Nismo target customers are the ‘performance seekers’ who comprise race and performance enthusiasts and the ‘highlife seekers’ who are seen mainly as new race/performance fans who are interested in cars.
Spectators at the Fuji Speedway during Nismo Festival.
The first is a ‘power’ group seeking stronger engine performance, sports exhaust and improved braking while the second group is catered to exterior car body parts like bumpers and spoilers, and Nismo alloy wheels; interior motor sport-inspired items like steering wheels, Nismo special seats, red tachometer; and handling and traction mods in reinforced car body and suspension and steering tuning.
In the advanced information technology and connectivity area, Nismo has the Gran Tourismo GPS Visualiser and Data Logger, and Smartphone App for Launcher, Meter Display, Lap Timer and Data Logger.
This re-definition of Nismo customers, Tamura said, fulfilled Nissan’s credo of ‘innovation’ and ‘excitement’ in car development and portrayed its all-rounder status and profile.
The more than 30,000 participants, many with family in tow, who throng the Nismo Festival each year would surely reflect that appreciation of what Nissan and Nismo represent.
