Nissan’s all-new Titan XD has yet to hit showroom floors but already the Japanese automaker is keen to show its potential via the TITAN Warrior Concept.
Nissan Design America revealed the concept sport truck at the Detroit Motor Show with “unapologetic, aggressive, athletic styling” to display its off-road intentions. Already Nissan’s 2016 XD with its Cummins 5.0-liter turbo diesel V8 is getting the nod as a solid new platform, so it only makes sense for the brand to up the ante a bit.
As a result, the Warrior concept looks very much like a direct rival to another truck that stood tall in Detroit, Ford’s 2017 F-150 Raptor. Though Nissan’s TITAN Warrior is indeed a concept, performance trucks (which include the RAM Rebel) have been in supremely high demand and no doubt Nissan has been paying attention to the trend.
“Truck buyers have a seemingly insatiable appetite for more content and more unique offerings,” said José Muñoz, executive vice president, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and chairman, Nissan North America, Inc. “Even though our all-new 2016 TITAN XD just started arriving at Nissan dealers nationwide last month, we are already exploring new territory where TITAN might go in the future.”
Like the “Project Titan” before it (a crowd-sourced customization of an original-generation Titan that carried two U.S. military veterans representing the Wounded Warrior Project on a trip in Alaska), the TITAN Warrior honors the brand’s off-road racing heritage, including Baja “hardbody” competitions and Paris-Dakar Rallies.
The exterior seeks to blend the Titan’s styling (which itself is inspired by ancient Greek warriors … somehow) with extreme levels of off-road duty. This was done by raising the truck’s ride height 3.0 inches in order to fit 37.0-inch tires, adding long-travel suspension, widening the body 6.0 inches, flaring out the fenders, updating the headlights and grille, adding skid plates, swapping out the hood for one with air vents, and integrating a quad-exhaust system into the rear bumper. As a package, the Warrior is nothing but menacing.
Beyond the looks, the Warrior Concept boasts the standard Titan XD’s Cummins V8, a six-speed Aisin automatic transmission, a brand new suspension setup, and a slew of other enhancements aimed at high-speed off-road thrills.
