Motor Show: Nissan Foria

[Overheat]

The Foria, with a front-engined, rear-wheel drive layout similar to the 350Z's, proposes a more practical solution than the Z and looks a possibility for production.

It's a 2+2 with an extra pair of small rear-hinged rear doors, like those of the Mazda RX-8, for easy access to the back seats. An emphasis has been placed on user-friendliness, comfort and high quality of the cabin, suggesting that the Foria could be targeted at more mature, less hardcore sports car fans than the 350Z's constituency: could it be a successor to the 200SX/Silvia coupes?

Nissan hasn't confirmed details of the engine, but it's likely to be the Z's V6. The cabin indicates an automatic transmission with paddle-shifts and Nissan says that it could have four-wheel active steering.

The cabin, airy thanks to the frameless windows and absence of divisive B-pillars, is finished in a grey jersey fabric with ivory-upholstered seats and brown leather-upholstered and hand-tooled trims to the instrument panel, centre console and door trims; this contrasts with silver detailing. Large, chunky dials and switches combine a number of functions and keep operation simple and a wide dashboard monitor displays all the satellite navigation information and other useful data.

 

[flyingfridge]

Obviously Nissans answer to the RX-8 and it'd be really cool if they built it. Does anyone else think it just looks a bit awkward?

Putting it on a stand next to the GT-R Proto is a bit mean, though. It's a valid concept and worthy of attention, but next to the Proto, no one really cares.