It may have escaped your attention but there's an all-new Nissan Navara out. Called the NP300, it launched last November, went on sale in the new year and is powered by a 2.3-litre diesel engine with 160hp in single-turbo form and 190hp if you go for the twin-turbo version. You can have it with a six-speed manual or a seven-speed auto and if you go for the crew cab version it gets - gasp - multi-linked, coil-sprung rear suspension. OK, it's still got a live axle but in truck terms that's pretty trick tech. Looks mean too!
Well if you have one of these and lots of money...
As yet Nissan isn't offering a version with GT-R running gear and the potential to do 200mph, so that's falling to Severn Valley Motorsport. They of the infamous 222mph, sub-10 quarter-mile,
1,150hp Qashqai
very serious supercars
Vmax200 event
and seemed to wind up quite a lot of PHers in the process. Was it a GT-R cut'n'shut to look like a Qashqai? Or a Qashqai with lashed-up GT-R running gear? Regardless, it was chuffing fast and a great way of promoting SVM's business of tuning up GT-Rs with four-figure horsepower figures.
And now it's looking to do the same with the Navara. Why? Just because. Certainly the Navara's basic layout of a longitudinal engine and four-wheel drive powertrain would appear an easier basis for a conversion than a transverse-engined crossover. Straight engine swap then? You could do that. But SVM is looking to go a lot further, for anyone willing to stump up the cash.
Layout should make the job easier than Qashqai
The cost would very much depend on the extent of the work but SVM says you could simply go for an engine swap, have it rear-wheel drive, four-wheel drive or go for a whole running gear transplant and do the job properly with a GT-R transaxle gearbox and running gear. For starters SVM is talking 800hp but it has tuned GT-Rs up to double that and beyond so, really, sky is the limit on that score. Whatever you do don't expect it to be cheap - the car you see in the pictures is simply a nifty bit of Photoshoppery to show what could be done but our man at SVM reckons you'd be looking at £175,000 upwards. That's a joke with a very expensive punch line but having put the mock-up pictures on its
Facebook page
SVM says it's been overwhelmed with the response. And the Qashqai proved what they're capable of. All they need now is a Navara owner to step up and they'll build one...