For the past decade or so, the 350Z and its successor, the 370Z, have offered mainstream buyers with a regular budget in many markets around the world the opportunity to own a fine-tuned and powerful rear-wheel drive sports car without breaking the bank.

Nissan is now reaching over to the same crowd to help create the ultimate Z car with the launch of "Project Z" that was announced today at the Chicago Auto Show where the Japanese company also unveiled the de-fanged 2013MY 370Z facelift.

And how will Nissan do that, we hear you ask? The answer is through its Facebook channel where fans will propose and vote on potential modifications while following the progress of the tuned 370Z online.

"Together we’ll create a vehicle that expands on the already outstanding performance and style of the Nissan 370Z with a balance of street and track ready modification," said Jon Brancheau, vice president of Nissan Marketing, NNA.

Less than 24 hours before the grand opening of the 2012 edition of the Chicago Auto Show and Nissan has lifted the covers off its mildly updated 370Z sports car that goes on sale in the U.S. next June as a 2013 model.

The changes on all configurations of the 370Z including the Coupe, Roadster and the NISMO edition are extremely subtle.

Starting with the Coupe and Roadster, on the outside, you'll probably notice the revised front bumper that gains vertical LED daytime running lights in a similar position that the older 350Z featured reflectors.

Nissan's designers also added a red reflector to the rear fascia that replaces the previous black center cover. The regular coupe now rides on newly designed 18-inch wheels while the Sport Package equipped models gain revised 19-inch alloys, red-finish brake calipers, and what Nissan describes as "Euro-tuned" shock absorbers.

Following on from the recent presentations of the Juke Nismo Concept and the LEAF Nismo Concept, Nissan's in-house performance division has now crafted a conceptual study based on one of the Japanese firm's smallest models, the latest generation of the Micra (called March in Japan) that debuts at the 2012 Tokyo Auto Salon.

Nismo used the five-door version of the Micra as a base developing a full body kit that comprises of a modified front grille incorporated into a newly designed front bumper with a separate spoiler, matching side skirts, a roof spoiler, a new rear bumper with a diffuser and finally, different exterior mirrors.

The 2012 edition of Japan's largest annual aftermarket event, the Tokyo Auto Salon, will see Nissan in cooperation with its in-house tuners Autech Japan and NISMO presenting 10 models, most of which we've already seen in previous shows such as the Juke NISMO Concept that was displayed at the Tokyo Motor Show earlier this month.

Nissan will showcase two models, the GT-R Pure Edition equipped with the right-hand drive only Track Pack and the JDM Skyline (sold in the rest if the world as the Infiniti G37) 55th Limited Edition, which commemorates the series' 55th anniversary and features bespoke aeroparts and a sportier chassis setup.

This has been a rough year for Japanese automakers but if there's one company from the Land of the Rising Sun that's showing a lot of potential, that would be Nissan - be that with its quirky looking Juke crossover, the pure electric Leaf or the tarmac-shredding GT-R sports car.

Perhaps the most important news coming from Nissan at the Tokyo Motor Show is the company's decision to heavily invest in its performance arm NISMO and expand its offerings to include more focused editions of Nissan's mainstream models.

Nissan has big plans for its in-house motorsports and performance arm, Nismo, as the Japanese company announced earlier today that it wants to use the sub-brand's expertise to create a variety of sports cars based on the company's mainstream models on a larger scale.

We're going to get a taste of what this means for Nissan with the presentation of the Juke Nismo concept at this week's 2011 Tokyo Motor Show.

If you are a gaming, racecar or even a frequent visitor of Carscoop, then you already know about Nismo. For the rest, it’s an abbreviation of Nissan Motorsports, the Japanese carmaker’s in-house performance division established in 1984.

Yet its activities have been restricted mainly in motorsports, where it has been involved with great success in events like the FIA GT1 World Championship, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and of course, numerous racing series in Japan .

Nissan just couldn't wait for the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show on Wednesday to share the news on a fresh concept version of its Juke crossover prepared by its in-house motorsports and performance division, Nismo.

Unlike the extremely radical Juke-R project, which features the inner works of the GT-R sports car including its twin-turbo V6 engine and advanced all-wheel drive system, the Juke Nismo concept is a very realistic study for a down-to-earth sporty variant of the regular model.

Ferrari and other luxury sports car makers aren't the only ones to offer race-spec variants of their series production models. Joining the club is Nissan with its newly revealed 370Z NISMO RC that is now available for customer orders.

The Japanese firm's track-ready racer is based on the street-legal 370Z NISMO but has undergone an extreme diet dropping the production model's luxury amenities. As a result, Nissan Motorsport engineers managed to shave more than 350 pounds off the 370Z NISMO RC, which tips the scales at just 2,954 lbs (1,339kg).

In addition to the crash diet, Nissan Motorsport also added numerous NISMO performance upgrades such as a race-spec exhaust system, a tuned ECM, a high capacity clutch, flywheel, engine oil, transmission and differential coolers.