That phrase came to be back in the ‘50s when NASCAR teams campaigned cars that any regular Joe could pick up from their local dealership. Racing has a long and fabled history when it comes to the automobile’s progress and development. Did you know one of Honda’s first cars was an F1 competitor? The company’s founder, Sichiro Honda, reasoned that more could be learned from competition than could be gleaned from hours of R&D in a lab. Racing plays as much of a part in vehicle production today as it did back then, with companies using the heat of competition to forge ever better products for the streets. Just recently Nissan took a tarmac rally win with their GT-R—the most advanced production Nissan ever produced. The car managed to beat out the likes of Porsche 911 GT2’s and Lamborghini Gallardos on nothing but street tires. The competition was running race rubber.

Would it surprise us terribly to see the technology in the mighty GT-R supercar work its way down into the likes of the Sentra? Not at all. [JPCN]