Dag: 20 februari 2012

When you think of classic Nissan sports cars, you naturally conjur up images of Godzilla-spec Skylines, Silvias drifting through the mountains and the wonderfully boxy 300ZX. But pretty much every sporty Nissan and Infiniti – and some decidedly unsporty ones as well – have their roots in one car: the Mid4.

Back in 1984, Shinichiro Sakurai (who was involved with the Skyline from its early days at Prince right through until his death in 2011) was tasked with overseeing a project that was to be a testbed for new Nissan technologies. It was also around the time Honda began work on the NSX, and would’ve been a worthy adversary at the head of a twin-pronged attack from Japan on Europe’s performance car market.

In just one year Sakurai’s team produced four prototypes, and the car was displayed at the 1985 Frankfurt Autoshow. In 1988 the concept evolved into the Mid4 II, which went on display at that year’s Tokyo Motor Show. Unfortunately that was the end of the road for the concept, which never made it to production due to the costs involved with making the car a reality, however a number of technologies developed for the car ended up in iconic machines further down the line.

The key things to note about the Mid4 are that it is mid-engined and all-wheel drive. While the mid-engined aspect didn’t catch on, the actual powerplant placed in the middle of the chassis did. The original concept was powered by the 3.0-litre quad cam 24-valve VG30DE engine, making 223bhp and 198lb ft of torque.

By the time the Mid4 II came around in 1988, the engine had gained a couple of turbochargers, and now made 326bhp. It was downrated for production form, making 300bhp with a five-speed transmission and 280bhp with the four-speed transmission (torque was rated at 283lb ft on each). Both the naturally-aspirated and turbo engines featured in various models of the Fairlady Z and 300ZX.

The all-wheel drive system is arguably the more interesting story, though. Power was distributed from the engine with 33/67 per cent bias front/rear, and would evolve into Nissan’s iconic ATTESA system. That acronym stands for Advanced Total Traction Engineering System for All-Terrain, and it underpinned a number of Nissan and Infiniti products including the GTi-R Pulsar. It was the beginning of a long evolution of the system, and various iterations of the technology would be implemented in every generation of Skyline GT-R.

The Mid4 was also the first car to feature Nissan’s HICAS rear wheel steering system to aid handling. The original system used hydraulics and speed sensors to determine how much angle was required and which direction to turn the wheels, while the later Super HICAS system used an electronic setup to reduce weight. It’s featured in everything from Skylines to Silvias throughout the years.

It’s a huge shame the Mid4 never went into production. The Honda NSX is iconic, and having another Japanese supercar fighter on the market would’ve pushed both cars to be even better, as well as truly upsetting the established Europeans.

Still, it’s fascinating to look back at this technological testbed and see what grew out of its death. If Nissan hadn’t invested in such a car, some of its most iconic sports cars might have grown up very differently indeed. It also begs the question: What concept cars will we look back on that inspired such a wide variety of exciting cars?