What's this? A Nissan Z SUV?

Nissan Z SUV revealed and will be presented at the upcoming 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon.

With SUVs taking over the world, it's no surprise that more and more iconic nameplates are being conceptualised as a high-riding vehicle.

The latest iconic nameplate to receive the SUV treatment is the Nissan Z, and the creation will be presented next month at the 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon.

However, the Nissan Z SUV is not technically built by Nissan, as it was created by students of Nissan's Automobile Technical College, Japan.

The concept is called the Nissan Fairlady X, and it was built by students who are learning how to repair crash damage and modify cars. According to Motorauthority, the Z SUV concept is based on Nissan's 2nd-gen Murano which debuted in 2009, and integrates design elements borrowed from the latest 2023 Z sports car.

The Nissan Murano was chosen as the base of the project due to having similar width to the new Z, and the students have done a pretty good job of integrating the Z's styling with the Murano's SUV, including the challenge of reducing panel gaps to a factory-like level.

Nissan's technical college, which helps educate the next generation of automotive talents, has five campuses, and the Aichi and Kyoto campuses were primarily responsible for the Fairlady X project. According to Motorauthority, the students from the two campuses also built a Serena minivan with styling based on the Cedric sedan.