This is The Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place at 9:00 AM. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parse it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?

As you've probably heard, Nismo is the division of Nissan that's responsible for motorsports and hotting up their normal cars with performance goodies. On one end of that spectrum we have the upcoming Nismo GT-R; on the other end, we have this guy.

My first car was a 2004 350Z and it was modified to no end. Vortech supercharger, carbon fiber hood, body kit, Racing Hart wheels – it was the quintessential definition of import tuned.

Yesterday, we covered the ongoing saga of a GT-R owner who had complaints about work done by Forged Performance. The complaint thread had gone viral across many car forums, and now Forged seems to be lashing out at some of their detractors.

One of my favorite small vans from back in the day was the Chevy Astro Van. It was like the bulldog of the real van world. It went away a few years ago and GM hasn't really had a small van since. Even though we know they can build one, GM is getting its new van from Nissan. Whaaaaaaa?

It's often stated by enthusiasts that the Nissan GT-R is devoid of a soul. Is this actually the case? No, actually, it's not...

Great news everyone! Remember that game you all so loved, the new SimCity, what with its always-on requirements, Orwellian DRM, small scale, and general unpleasantness? Well now you can make it even better, with the first free downloadable content — a Nissan Leaf ad!

As mentioned earlier this week (thanks for all the advice), I'll be driving the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway over the weekend in support of a group of cyclists making the journey. Day One starts now with, apparently, leg shaving.

MotorWeek starts off its segment called 'Car Keys' with the sound of a meaty V8 doing a huge burnout. Maybe that wasn't totally appropriate for the Nissan Leaf segment.