Nissan tech students turn a Murano into a Z

There’s a technical college in Japan that has become famous for wild student custom car projects called Nihon Automobile College (NATS). One of its recent projects that we brought to you was a Lexus SC (Toyota Soarer) turned into a new Supra convertible with a “Fast and Furious” paint scheme. So it was a big surprise to us that this custom Nissan Z SUV is not from NATS. It’s from one of Nissan’s official technical colleges located in Kyoto (Nissan Automobile Technical College). And it’s one of two retro mashups that the students have been working on for the custom show circuit, including the 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon.

You can see most of the details in the video above taken by the college itself. It combines key features and parts from the latest Nissan Z with a second-generation Nissan Murano SUV. It’s fittingly called the Fairlady X. We’re genuinely impressed at how well everything has been integrated. It does use real Z headlights, taillights, grille and rear spoiler. In a progress photo on the school’s Twitter account, we can see it has the classy-looking Z steering wheel, too. But there are additional custom touches beyond the Nissan parts. In the video, the student highlights the R35 Nissan GT-R flush-fit door handles on doors. A portion of a GT-R grille was used, too to help get the grille to fit the proportions of the taller front end. The SUV has custom wide fenders front and rear, too, along with wide Rays wheels.

We weren’t able to tell if any performance upgrades have been made. They would certainly be welcome with the performance looks, but would likely be a lot more work to add to a project with seriously extensive and custom body work. Plus, this isn’t the only car the students have been working on. The school’s social media accounts indicate that they’re working on blending a 1960s Nissan Fairlady roadster (Datsun Roadster in America) with a second-generation Nissan March.

The Nissan Fairlady X will be on display at the Tokyo Auto Salon. We’re hoping the March will as well, and if it’s not there, we hope the finished product will be shared by the school on their social media pages.

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