A Nissan Z SUV idea will likely be introduced subsequent month on the 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon, nevertheless it wasn’t developed by Nissan. As an alternative, college students on the Nissan Car Technical Faculty in Japan created it.

The idea is named the Nissan Fairlady X, and was constructed by college students studying restore crash injury and add modifications. Nissan’s technical faculty, which helps domesticate the subsequent era of automotive specialists, has 5 campuses, and the campuses in Aichi and Kyoto had been concerned within the Fairlady X undertaking. The scholars additionally constructed a Serena minivan with styling borrowed from the Cedric sedan.

The Fairlady X idea relies on Nissan’s second-generation Murano crossover that debuted as a 2009 mannequin, and integrates design components borrowed from the newest 2023 Z sports activities automobile, referred to as the Fairlady in Japan.

The Murano was picked resulting from being comparable in width to the Z. Nonetheless, mixing the low-slung Z’s styling with the high-riding Murano’s physique proved to be a serious problem. One other main problem was lowering panel gaps to a factory-like degree.

Nissan itself has explored the sports activities car-SUV mashup with the Gripz idea from 2015. Whereas the automaker does not have any plans to place a car just like the Gripz or this Fairlady X into manufacturing, different automakers have began to supply sports activities automobiles with SUV-like functionality. Up to now month, Porsche unveiled its 911 Dakar and Lamborghini revealed the Huracán Sterrato.

The Tokyo Auto Salon is scheduled for Jan. 13-15. Nissan can have a various assortment of ideas and manufacturing fashions on show, together with the brand new Z fitted with official equipment the automaker plans to roll out shortly.