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.

We received word today than Nissan will debut a "revised" version of its 370Z sports car series at the upcoming 2012 Chicago Auto Show via an invitation to a press event that will take place next Thursday.

Unfortunately, the invite does not detail the changes on the 2013 model year 370Z so we don't know if it's a full facelift or a minor nip and tuck with very subtle updates here and there.

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.

Having entered the final quarter of 2011, automakers are ushering in their new model year lineups, though most of the times, there's nothing really "new" about the cars other than the different designations.

That's more or less the case with the 2012 Nissan 370Z series. The only changes for the new model year concern the addition of an oil-cooler as standard on both body styles, while Nissan eliminated the base 370Z Roadster with the 6-speed manual, leaving the more expensive Touring model for those that want to manually change gears while enjoying the sun.