One little-known but incredibly cool variant of the original Nissan/Datsun 240Z sports car was a rally version decked out with knobby tires, a full array of auxiliary lights, and mud flaps. That racing Z won the East African Safari in 1971, and now it is forming roughly half the inspiration for a crossover concept from Nissan set to debut at the 2015 Frankfurt auto show. The rest of Nissan’s inspiration for the impending show car, which goes by the slightly silly name “Gripz,” came from racing bicycles.
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Setting aside the tenuous overlap between road-racing bicycles and one of the coolest rally cars of the 1970s, the Gripz concept looks quite interesting so far. Nissan has released a coy video of the Gripz’s roots as well as two teaser photos that show a very sporty front end of a crossover wearing the 240Z race car’s black-over-red color scheme. The “V-motion” design theme Nissan debuted on the latest Murano and Maxima models is exaggerated for Gripz duty, and the thin, boomerang-shaped headlights echo those on a rash of modern Nissans.
-Fiddling with the darkened front three-quarter view Nissan provided, we were able to uncover more of the Gripz’s shape, and it appears to be a two-seater, or at least a 2+2 with an aggressive roofline. In fact, the car’s overall gist reminds us strongly of the Juke, meaning our minds immediately wandered toward placing this concept as the next Juke’s early preview. (Today’s Juke has motorcycle-inspired design elements, as well as a coupe-like body on stilts not unlike this show car’s.) We’ll find out more in Frankfurt at the debut, so stay tuned.
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from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/1K1ZYOR
via Agya
