2005 Nissan Sport Concept
Could the Tiny Sport Concept Truly Get Built?
Detroit showgoers saw the hot little AZEAL concept, but at the Nissan stand in New York Citys Jacob Javitz Convention Center, home of the New York International Auto Show, those in attendance will have the opportunity to experience something even more interesting.
Why so? While the AZEAL is a cute little two-seat sports car that probably wont see the light of day, the Sport Concept looks to hint at a next-generation subcompact targeting the same types of customers who have regularly stepped up to by its Sentra SE-R.
Of course, a quick look at the Sport Concepts specs shows that its not all that small. Actually, other than length, where it would need another 6.2 inches to match the larger Sentra, its wheelbase is 2.6 inches longer than the larger compact Nissan, width 3.8 inches broader and height 3.6 inches taller.
If Nissans little number is truly the real deal, fans of the Japanese brand have a lot to look forward to. The two-door hatch features a decently sized four-seat interior, with aggressively bolstered sport seats that complement the cars import-tuner exterior bodywork.
The new prototype, penned in-house at Nissan Design, is the third in string of concepts that started with the Nissan Actic.
"The story behind the development of the Sport Concept, AZEAL and Actic is that Nissan is thinking big about the small car segment," said Mark McNabb, vice president and general manager, Nissan Division, Nissan North America, Inc. "With these three design explorations, were focusing on how we can bring Nissans heritage of innovation, sportiness and driving pleasure to a category of vehicles that traditionally lack design excitement and strong visual appeal."
Whats so good about the Nissan Sport Concept is that it was conceived from the onset to be an "affordable, attainable vehicle for buyers entering the new car marketplace for the first time," or so says Nissan.
Of course to allow for affordability, dont expect a production trim version to feature the Sport Concepts carbon-fiber components, or its 20-inch 6-spoke aluminum-alloy wheels that feature a "machined and lustrous paint finish surface treatment."
In a unique fashion the Sport Concepts headlights and rear combination lights are made up of small lamps with multi-layered reflectors - very nice, very expensive and probably not production items either.
The sport seats are also way over the top for a production model, featuring 4-point harnesses integrated into the seat design, front and back.
The Sport Concepts seats arent the only items custom designed with hard charging in mind. A nice little short throw shifter sits elevated on the center console, trimmed in leather and bright metal. The shiny stuff accents other cabin surfaces too, such as the door pulls, vent surrounds, center stack edging, instrument bezels, steering wheel spokes and foot pedals; just enough to give the concept a high-tech appearance without going overboard.
Its overall interior design looks ready for production too, other than the seats and high-tech center stack that features a top-tier audio-video system boasting a massive speaker and subwoofer mounted in the rear parcel shelf - a bit on the expensive side for the B-class. The design layout of the audio and HVAC controls, however, could be brought forward as is, and interestingly, appear to be influenced by the best-in-class Mazda3.
While Nissan hasnt announced anything about potential production plans, many elements of the Sport Concept will most likely show up on the B-segment vehicle Nissan has been promising to North American buyers.
No doubt, the company is looking for feedback from would-be buyers in order to judge its new design, considering that what was to be the Sentra replacement has been sent back to the drawing board after negative results in focus groups.
The Sport Concept definitely embodies much of the excitement the brand needs in the small car segment, and for that matter, much of the excitement the small car segment needs on the whole if it plans on luring in the youth of America.