Nissan Bringing One-Off Vehicles to SEMA
This year’s SEMA Show in Las Vegas is coming up fast, so you know there will be a rush of breathless PR about the rigs being hauled to the desert by manufacturers for this soirée. Nissan is getting into the game with a couple of concepts – one of which is inspired by cars used in a spec-racing series north of the border.
But we’ll start with the Project Rugged Rogue, a machine that said ‘yes’ to an entire catalog of accessories and add-ons including a 3-inch suspension lift and Yokohama Geolandar mud-terrain tires. The roof rack and front bumper guard are described as prototypes, meaning they could be closer to something resembling an eventual item in the parts department than the custom fender flares and rear spoiler. Our own Chris Teague wisely pondered the suitability of a CVT for real off-road duty, while this author will muse that a dual-exit center exhaust rudely scuppers the chance of towing anything. Still, if this is a prelude to some sort of Rogue Rock Creek trim, we’re sure they’ll sell an adequate number worth mentioning.
Oddly titled the Sentra DET Concept (translating to “dual-overhead cam, electronic fuel injection, turbo”), the compact sedan gets an injection of speed inspired by the Sentra Cup spec-racing series in Canada. A turbocharged 2.0-liter engine is under the hood, mated to a six-speed manual and breathing through a prototype stainless-steel Nismo exhaust. Its coilover suspension featuring twin-tube shocks is described as a prototype, not custom. Whilst we feel the more recent SE-R or SE-R Spec V moniker would have been appropriate, the company points out DET once appeared on historic rigs like the 180SX and Pulsar GTI-R.
Also showing up at the Nissan stand at SEMA this year will be the Frontier off-road race truck once piloted by Chris Forsberg, developed by Forsberg Racing and blasted through rigors found in the NORRA 500 marathon. If you’re keeping track at home, Chris Forsberg and Yokohama teammate, Leticia Bufoni, entered this year’s race in the stock production class and took home the first-place win in the category.
This year’s SEMA Show will be held from October 31 – November 3 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
[Images: Nissan]
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Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
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- Aja8888 Staying home, cutting grass, watching PGA golf.
- Ras815 Those enormous, hideous U.S. spec bumpers remind me of those full-head orthodontic braces that kids used to have wear back then, too. Yikes.
- Ravenuer I was looking forward to this article on the 59-60 Broughams (Italian). One of my favorite Cadillacs. However I was disappointed that you didn't even have any pictures of it in the article. I was expecting much more detail about it. Oh well, still enjoyed reading it.
- Dartdude Mitsubishi's problem is that the designs are ugly and weird. Using Nissan's platforms isn't going to help. Build a new Montero and a pickup. Ditch Nissan's CVT use a six speed auto. Make sedans and minivans.
- Carsofchaos I guess I'm probably the target market: 50 years old, I own a house and make north of 200,000 a year. I've not found the styling as bas as most people on TTAC seem to. I don't even really mind the name (though it should have been Galax-E....come on Ford). I looked at these last weekend on the dealer lot and the only model I would go for is a GT but they were still pushing $60,000. It's still a no sale for me
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Rogue and Pathfinder are very good looking CUVs. Sexy, flowing as opposed to HK > good looking but jarring, jagged, odd?
For a company that builds so many "off" vehicles, why bring just this one?