Nissan hosted its first ever customer performance driving event in America at the brand-new Austin Formula One race track in Texas. The program is called Nismo Performance Academy – now that Nismo is the company’s official performance brand – and it is open to the owners of Nismo cars as well as 370Z, and GT-R owners.

The 370Z Nismo and the GT-R were of course the natural choice for exploring the amazing venue with professional instructors at hand, but what made the event more special was the presence of the Juke Nismo. It is a very stupid car to be honest, but it does sell – at least in Europe – and Nissan hopes that events like this help its street cred. Participants also got to experience Nissan’s limited-production GT-R Track Edition.

Nismo has recently teamed up with Williams to boost its operations and expand its lineup. There are a lot of new hot models planned for the next few years.

“NISMO is really the rallying cry for performance and excitement at Nissan,” said Carl Phillips, Nissan Motorsports. “We are giving customers an opportunity to explore the limits of their car on the track and really raise their own limits through some classroom and on track instruction.”