Nissan plans two sports car concepts for Tokyo show

Nissan will show two sports cars at the Tokyo motor show; a crazy concept and a more realistic one that is closer to a production car.

The latter is Nissan's answer to the Toyota GT86, but rather than being a totally new concept, its styling is apparently inspired by a car from the company's past. Nissan would not confirm which model that is, but said it was 'not a Z car'.

The last sports car concept shown by Nissan was the Esflow at the 2011 Tokyo motor show.

The new concept is to be used to gauge reaction, and if the design goes down well, Nissan is likely to build a production version. This production car would be likely to feature the 197bhp, 1.6-litre turbocharged engine from the Nissan Juke Nismo.

Guillaume Cartier, the company's senior vice president for sales and marketing, admitted Nissan is still trying to build Nismo's identity in Europe. 'We mustn't do anything to dilute the brand. Nismo has to be credible.'

This means there won't be a Micra or Note Nismo in Europe, whereas Nissan feels it can get away with this sort of model in Japan where the brand is more established.