Autoblog

click image above for high-res gallery of the Altima Coupe Turbo

While we're just beginning to see a few Altima Coupes around town, once sales begin to head northward we're expecting the new coupe to become one of the darlings of the aftermarket. The Altima Coupe's sleek lines coupled with Nissan's 3.5 liters of V6 perfection are a solid foundation with which to begin, and Turbochargers.com has done exactly that. The VQ-series V6 gets a GTK650 turbo setup by Artisan Performance, supposedly good for over 450 HP. Fuel delivery comes courtesy of a new fuel rail and 650cc injectors, while charge temps are kept low through a custom intercooler. Although the 20x8.5-inch wheels are all show, the AP racing 13-inch, four-piston calipers are the business.

You can read through all the details in the press release after the jump and check the gallery below for a handful of high-res images.

UPDATE: We've spoken with NIssan just in case, who has verified that car which should be pictured is the Altima Sedan.


This is kind of funny. While reading the New York Times, Winding Road noticed an interesting tidbit in a graph detailing automotive winners and losers. The soon-to-be-released Nissan Altima coupe is tagged as a big loser, with a 12.4% dip in sales. "We don't know how they did it, but the New York Times has seen into the future and the future is not bright for the Nissan Altima coupe," says WR. Of course, the graph is referring to last month's sales, and the new Nissan coupe won't be available until May 25. All kidding aside, the tag says, "Nissan Altima," so it's likely the Times meant the sedan, but the photo is clearly the coupe. Can't be good for a car's self-esteem, being labeled "Biggest Loser" by the NYT before you even hit the market, but the car looks strongs enough to get over it and still succeed in the market place.

UPDATE: We chatted with Nissan, who confirmed that the sedan was indeed the car that should have been shown in the Times graphic, and not the forthcoming coupe. - Ed.

[Sources: NY Times via Winding Road]

We recently told you about the pricing of the new Altima Coupe. What we didn't know at the time was when we would see the sharp fwd coupe on showroom floors. Well, now we do. The release date has been announced as May 25. Just in time for summertime buyers to get out and enjoy stretching the legs of this G35-for-the-common-man-or-woman. As we reported, the new coupe will start at $20,490, plus a $625 destination charge, making G35-coupe-like looks easily attainable.

For the $20,490 base price get you an Altima Coupe 2.5 S with a six-speed manual transmission. An extra $500 ($20,990), gets you the CVT transmission in place of the stick. Both cars feature the 2.5L four-cylinder producing 170 horsepower. As nice as that sounds, how could one pass up on the available 270-horsepower, 3.5L VQ-Series V6 engine? Available in uplevel SE models with a six-speed manual tranny starting at $24,890. Again, add another $500 to make it $25,390 for a 3.5 SE with Nissan's CVT transmission. Twenty-five grand for a 270-hp, stylish coupe sounds pretty good to us.

[Source: Clarion Ledger]

Last week we brought you fuzzy mobile phone shots of the Nissan Altima Coupe. Brenda Priddy pulled out her good lens and took a few shots of a heavily camouflaged Nissan Altima Coupe.

To refresh, according to Auto Express magazine, the coupe will be shared with Renault which will call it the Laguna Coupe. It's expected to be powered by the same 3.5-liter V6 as the Altima with around 260 hp. That should give the Laguna a 0-60 mph time of less than seven seconds and a top speed around at least 140 mph. An automatic gearbox is expected to be the most popular choice in shifters. Prices on the Laguna Coupé are being pegged at around £25,000 ($47,400) when it reaches showrooms next year.

[Source: The Car Connection, Auto Express]