Automotive

Nissan GT-R designer pens a lightweight carbon EV “drivers car”

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You may not previously have heard of AIM, or its EV Sport 01, but if you are into sports cars, the chances are that you have driven a car penned by Shiro Nakamura who has been responsible for many iconic cars such as the Nissan Cube, numerous models in the Nissan Z car lineage, the fabled Nissan GT-R, plus other Nissan's such as the Murano, Qashqai, Juke and LEAF. At Infiniti the M, FX and Essence were created under Nakamura's guidance. Indeed, it's quite possible that Nakamura has his fingerprints on more sports cars than any other single designer on the planet.
Automobile Council
AIM EV Sport 01
AIM EV Sport 01
Shiro Nakamura and AIM President/CEO Yukinori Suzuki unveil the EV Sport 01 at the Japanese Auto Council on 14 April 2023.
AIM EV Sport 01
AIM EV Sport 01
The interior of the AIM EV Sport 01
AIM EV Sport 01
Shiro Nakamura wanted the EV Sport 01 to "express dynamism with sophisticated elegance through a simple, clean design." Check out the pics of the car in the image gallery for this article and we think you'll agree that he has certainly achieved his objective.
AIM EV Sport 01
AIM EV Sport 01
The comparitive specifications of Shiro Nakamura's last masterpiece and his latest work, with the key differences highlighted. Shorter wheelbase, lighter, more torque and slightly less power all back up Nakamura's promise that the essence of the AIM EV Sport 01 is all about turning the wheel and riding the torque with the go-pedal.
NewAtlas.com
View gallery - 13 images

One of the most refreshing and elegantly simple designs we’ve seen on an automobile in many a year, the AIM EV Sport 01 is a concept car from Japanese automotive engineering consultancy AIM, but the design work was done by legendary Japanese designer Shiro Nakamura. Nakamura may have retired from his many Chief Creative Officer roles at major manufacturers, but he still gets involved in projects that excite him via his own company SN Platform.

Shiro Nakamura was the head of design who was behind Nissan’s renaissance under Carlos Ghosn, and has served as Chief Creative Officer at Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun and had stints at a number of other major manufacturers, most notably General Motors.

His body of work most notably contains several iconic sports cars including several of Nissan’s Z-Series models (including the 350Z and 370Z), and the legendary Nissan GT-R, making him one of the heroes who helped democratize off-the-showroom-floor supercar performance for those who can't afford a Prancing Horse.

You may not previously have heard of AIM, or its EV Sport 01, but if you are into sports cars, the chances are that you have driven a car penned by Shiro Nakamura who has been responsible for many iconic cars such as the Nissan Cube, numerous models in the Nissan Z car lineage, the fabled Nissan GT-R, plus other Nissan's such as the Murano, Qashqai, Juke and LEAF. At Infiniti the M, FX and Essence were created under Nakamura's guidance. Indeed, it's quite possible that Nakamura has his fingerprints on more sports cars than any other single designer on the planet.
Automobile Council

AIM President and Chief Executive Officer, Yukinori Suzuki is a personal friend of Shiro Nakamura and the pair attended the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed together, where the ideas that have gelled together into the AIM EV Sport 01 were first hatched.

“The vision for the AIM EV Sport 01 was fast, and enjoyable to drive, while the mainstream trend for EVs is AWD, the character of this car called for a RWD configuration," said Suzuki. "Having created our own series of advanced electric motors, the AIM EV Sport 01 is also the perfect way to showcase our expertise in advanced powertrain development."

Suzuki will be one of the participants at the Goodwood Festival of Speed next weekend, where he will drive the EV Sport 01 up the famous Goodwood hill.

Whereas bleeding-edge supercars once propagated in dozens of units per landmark model, then at most 500 units per model, the Nissan GT-R has been leaving the Nissan factory at more than 10,000 units a year for more than a decade, and though the nickname of "Godzilla" originated prior to the current R35 model, fans still use it with reverence and relevance because it is still the benchmark for millions of performance car fans across the world.

Shiro Nakamura and AIM President/CEO Yukinori Suzuki unveil the EV Sport 01 at the Japanese Auto Council on 14 April 2023.

So the involvement of Shiro Nakamura in this project is highly relevant and particularly fascinating because it is an electric vehicle and it doesn't go down the same "never mind the quality, feel the width" path that every other would-be supercar maker has gone in their first iteration of using power stored as electricity.

It seems that most car makers think that everyone wants 1,000 hp under their right foot, when in actual fact, having all that horsepower makes a heavier car with lots more batteries and means robustness must be added to every single component in the car. The brakes need to be bigger and more powerful to stop more weight from faster speeds, the suspension must work harder, the tires ditto and handling gets worse with every extra kilogram of weight.

There's another factor that may not yet have come home to roost for the purveyors of 1,000-hp luxury cars and that is that 1,000 hp is terrifying to the average person, and although we'd all like to think that we're a Max Verstappen without the opportunities, 99.9% of people on the planet would pale at the experience of trying to keep a 500-hp automobile going in a straight line. Pushing a throttle with that much consequence beneath it makes tires spin and cars go sideways, and it compresses your bowel and your eyeballs and your brain.

The comparitive specifications of Shiro Nakamura's last masterpiece and his latest work, with the key differences highlighted. Shorter wheelbase, lighter, more torque and slightly less power all back up Nakamura's promise that the essence of the AIM EV Sport 01 is all about turning the wheel and riding the torque with the go-pedal.
NewAtlas.com

In brief, Nakamura is proposing using the twin electric motors to offer a predictable surge of outrageous horsepower that can be mediated with software and torque vectoring to enable the average person to drive like a hero without (much) hero-like reflexes and co-ordination.

This makes much more sense than the battalion of 1,000-hp supercars that will squabble over a small marketplace while your average sportscar aficionado will graduate from their Nissan GT-R or Z-car, Toyota GR86 and Mazda Miata to a car with more power and more driveability ... like the AIM EV Sport 01.

Shiro Nakamura wanted the EV Sport 01 to "express dynamism with sophisticated elegance through a simple, clean design." Check out the pics of the car in the image gallery for this article and we think you'll agree that he has certainly achieved his objective.

“Designing sports cars is a complex exercise in packaging, performance and style,” said Shiro Nakamura. “We learned from the spirit of the great sports cars of the past, helped by the RWD configuration and layout. I wanted to express dynamism with sophisticated elegance through a simple, clean design. The EV Sport 01 has minimal form language and avoids exaggerated and complicated surfaces, reminiscent of the great European and Japanese sports cars of the 1960’s. Given that inspiration, it is particularly fitting we can demonstrate our car at Goodwood,” continued Shiro.

The interior of the AIM EV Sport 01

Although the AIM EV Sport 01 was developed as a concept and showcase for the capabilities of the AIM Company, early reaction to the car following its reveal at the Japanese Auto Council in April has encouraged the company to develop a feasibility study for a limited series production run.

Further, the company is continuing to invest in its own EV powertrain systems for both OEM customers and potentially for its own vehicles beyond the EV Sport 01.

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5 comments
DavidB
I’ve been wondering when someone might make a two-door two-seater EV.

I hope they go through with putting this into production. I don’t know that this styling is for me, but it would get the ball rolling…while I’m still agile enough to get in and out of one.
SteveMc
@DavidB Yes but is the wallet agility trialing for the Olympics? :p
GregVoevodsky
Ugly. I'll take Tesla's new roadster anytime over this duckling.
Towerman
And What do all (at least most bar a few honest to good priced ev companies i china need to adress before even thinking about production???: why guess what PRICE!!!

IT IS beyond sad that a technology that is suppose to be much cheaper than ICE and to maintain comes with loonbin pricetags.

Of course they wont sell but again maybe the point is not to make them get to commercialization. Its just to pretend they are working on electrics when they still sell millions of ICE's
SAD.

Whatever the sad state agenda is:

A other fact is
If you brought out an electric car in ARR form ( almost ready to.ride) its
easy for a decently normal person to put ot together.

There is absolutely no excuse for these cars to be SO ridiciousily expensive !

Not.in full factory production form.either !!!!!
Lamar Havard
I wonder what Nakamura thinks about the giant fields-upon giant fields of EVs, with batteries, that are being left to rot in China?