Tokyo Motor Show - Nissan

What’s the main attraction?
There are plenty of eye-catching concepts on the Nissan stand, but the GT-R Proto stands head and shoulders above the rest.

It appears to be a 90% finished version of the high-performance car that will, at long last, be unveiled at the next Tokyo Motor Show in 2007, six years after the first concept was unveiled here.

Nissan is tight-lipped on how well the prototypes drive, however, or how far it has to go to get the car right. New product boss Carlos Tavares hinted that it’s being tested at the famous Nurburgring circuit in Germany, a place for performance car benchmarks, but wouldn’t say what sort of lap times it’s achieving.

Insiders have revealed that while the previous version of the car had less than 300bhp in standard untuned format, the forthcoming car’ power output ‘will start with a four.’ We presume they don't mean 40bhp...

Even so, Tavares is keen to continue predecessor Patrick Pelata’s efforts to position the GT-R as more than a car with a big power output. He said: ‘This car is about passion, roots and performance.’ The GT-R will be both accessible in the way it drives and rewarding for those with performance car skills, Tavares said.

Any other concepts?
The Amenio gives some ideas of what the future Elgrande MPV will look like in Japan, while the Moco Preview is the company’s future sub-city car model. Neither is likely to wash up on UK shores.

Is that it?
Not quite. There’s the Pivo (the one with the rotating egg-shaped cabin) and the Foria. This is a pretty four-door coupe design but, unfortunately, it has yet to be given the green light for production.