There are a lot of strange holidays that pop up each year — September 15 is Felt Hat Day, for instance — but some of them are right up there with Christmas and Mother’s Day. One of those time-honored occasions falls this year on Friday — National Doughnut Day.
To celebrate this year’s fried dough observance, Nissan added a few new ingredients to the basic doughnut recipe, namely a 350-horsepower 370Z NISMO and Formula drift champion Chris Forsberg. In what can only be described as doughnut-ception, Forsberg spun his 370Z around a sprinkle-filled studio a total of 15 times, spraying 2,800 pounds of multicolored sugar into 325 freshly-fried pastries.
Much like an actual doughnut, there’s nothing of substance to be absorbed here other than sweet melty goodness and a little fun. If nothing else, this is your official reminder to eat at least one doughnut today, not because you have to, but because you want to.
When Nissan isn’t doing donuts to make doughnuts on doughnut day, the brand is actually pretty good at making cars. To keep with the NISMO theme, the automaker recently premiered the 2017 GT-R NISMO at an event in Germany. With 600 horsepower and 481 pound-feet of torque on tap, the new GT-R is as Godzilla-like as ever, but this time around, Nissan decided to emphasize luxury.
Read more: Cheap, efficient and even kinda fun, Nissan’s 2016 Sentra is a competent compact
Inside, there’s a redesigned steering wheel and dashboard, both of which are covered in alcantara. The number of switches has been reduced from 27 to a streamlined 11, and there’s a new 8-inch display screen as well. In addition, the NISMO model features leather Recaro bucket seats complete with red synthetic suede inserts.
Our automotive editor, Alex Kalogianni, recently took a trip to Germany to give the new GT-R a whirl for himself. Our First Drive impressions and other goodies are coming soon, so for more, keep your browsers locked to DT Cars.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.