New Nissan Sentra Spec-V Concept is the kind of exciting car we’ve been missing
The special version of the Sentra headlines a trio of cars Nissan is bringing to the SEMA show in Las Vegas
Nissan makes some great cars, but its range has lacked anything spicy for a while now. And no, we’re not counting the Ariya Nismo.
What we’d love to see in the line-up is something like this Sentra Spec-V, even if the name will mean little to the average UK driver. The Sentra is a car that’s never been sold in the UK, and Spec-V is a designation only used by Nissan a handful of times.
The prospect of a new Sentra Spec-V would be particularly exciting for American car enthusiasts, though. First arriving in 2002, the Sentra Spec-V sports saloon was a considerably racier version of an otherwise humdrum Nissan, but this one ups the ante much further than any of its predecessors ever have.
It’s hard to ignore the enormous rear wing, which has been pinched from an R35 GT-R Nismo, but it doesn’t look out of place, because there’s also a chunky front splitter, new side skirts and Nismo 19-inch wheels. It sits lower on Nismo suspension, and there are beefed-up Brembo brakes. Inside, there’s a Nismo steering wheel and Recaro front seats also borrowed from a GT-R Nismo.
Under the bonnet, there’s a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine shared with the standard Sentra, albeit punting out roughly double the original power. It’s packing uprated internals and a new turbocharger to give an output of 295bhp. Oh, and there’s a six-speed manual gearbox sourced from the Juke Nismo RS. Remember that?
Sadly for the aforementioned American car enthusiasts, this is just a piece of stand candy for the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show in Las Vegas, and we wouldn’t bank on even a heavily diluted version making it to showrooms.
Alongside it will be a couple of other concepts. One of these is the not-so-catchily-named Project NAT 2 SCCA Touring 2³, a reworked version of the Z sports car (another Nissan we don’t get in the UK) built for the Sports Car Club of America’s Touring 2 racing regulations.
The other is a gorgeous original Fairlady Z with modern mechanicals. In place of the original inline-six is a Nismo-tuned version of the Z sports car’s twin-turbo V6. Numerous body panels, including the front wings, bonnet, bumpers and boot, are made from carbon fibre, and the whole thing is finished in the same Seiran Blue colour the current Z launched with a few years ago.
There’s a new suspension set-up from Evolved, and six-piston front/four-piston rear brakes supplied by Wilwood. We want it.
If you are in Vegas and fancy having a look at the cars in the metal/carbon fibre, you’ll be able to do so from 3-6 November. Although SEMA has always been a trade show, the public now gets access on the final day.
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