A TITAN STEALS THE SHOW
Impressive machine captivates in Motor City
THE NISSAN TITAN WARRIOR CONCEPT is a great hulking beast of a pickup truck. It was introduced this week at the Detroit Auto Show’s media preview and follows hot on the heels of the first deliveries of Nissan’s new Titan XD.
DETROIT— There’s one concept on the show floor in Detroit that’s impossible to miss: the Titan Warrior, a great hulking beast of a pickup truck that demonstrates a mean streak we never knew Nissan had.
The concept’s unveiling follows hot on the heels of the first deliveries of Nissan’s new Titan XD, which began last month.
The staff at Nissan’s U.S.-based design studio in La Jolla, Calif., undertook a study in what an off-road capable Titan XD might look like. The results are, in a word, imposing.
Randy Rodriguez, project lead designer for Nissan Design America — who is actually Canadian, hailing originally from Surrey, B.C. — is better known for his work on Nissan’s performance cars such as the 370Z. But his upbringing gave him a strong appreciation for trucks and truck culture that fed the new Titan’s design.
“My father was a mechanic and was also a semi truck driver for a few years,” Rodriguez explains. “As kids, we hung out with him a lot and would go on the road to container yards and truck stops. It made a big impression on me, being around these large vehicles.
“I took some of that and brought it into the Titan to make this vehicle have this feeling about it where you’re the king of the road.”
To conceive of a pickup truck with off-road chops, the natural place to start is the suspension.
“We’ve widened the track considerably,” Rodriguez says. “We’ve got billet upper and lower A-arms in the front suspension and big-bore shocks. With the 37-inch tires and the three-inch lift kit, it sets this great stance for the vehicle.”
From there, the design team moved to the body, widening the Titan XD’s front fender by three inches on each side to give it a more muscular stance. The grille and headlight treatment is themed after the truck’s warrior name while also invoking a sinister, technical and robotic feel. Carbon fibre is incorporated throughout the body design.
“It gives it this blend of materials and laminates that make it lightweight but also really strong and impact-absorbing,” Rodriguez says. “We expect whoever is going to drive this truck is going to want to have fun and really punish this thing.”
Other features include functional hood vents, LED roof-mounted lighting and cabin and tailgate spoilers. Skid plates are highly emphasized to add to the truck’s off-road capability.
While the exterior is rugged and brutish, Rodriguez describes the interior as premium sport. Aluminum, suede and leather are lined with accent-colour stitching. The truck is also equipped with integrated heat- ed and cooled beverage bottles — “probably the most expensive water bottles ever,” Rodriguez quips — and built-in tool and first-aid kits.
“We talked to some of the people who go to the desert a lot and it happens a lot where they run into people who did some ridiculous thing in their dune buggy or ATV and they hurt themselves,” he says. “You can help them out with the first-aid kit.”
An off-road warrior would be an entirely new product for Nissan, but this concept stopped onlookers in their tracks on the show floor. Does the company see a market for turning any of these ideas into reality?
“We need a lot of attention for this in a positive light to get it a green light,” Rodriguez says. “But this truck is basically done on top of the Titan XD and is keeping the cabin, the doors.
“Some of the other concepts you see are a little more fanciful, but this one looks like you could imagine yourself driving it.”
Further Titan lineup details were revealed in Detroit: a gas-powered V8 producing 390 horsepower and 401 lb-ft of torque joins the 5.0 L, V8 Cummins diesel. When rollout is complete, the Titan line will feature three cab configurations, two frame sizes, three powertrains, and five grade levels.
Joining the Titan Warrior in Nissan’s booth is the IDS autonomous driving vehicle concept, making its North American debut after its introduction at October’s Tokyo Motor Show. Renault-Nissan Alliance announced last week that the two companies will launch more than10 vehicles with autonomous drive technology by 2020.
“We expect whoever is going to drive this truck is going to want to have fun and really punish this thing.” RANDY RODRIGUEZ NISSAN LEAD DESIGNER