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Article name is... Nissan Judo

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Nissan Judo was one of six concept vehicles that debuted in the 1987 Tokyo Auto Show.

Nissan introduced 6 different concept vehicles ranging from the Toyota MR-2 like a midship sports car to a family-hauling minivan.

Judo was positioned as a two-seater compact offroader featuring a unique roof and rear.

Dimensions

The Judo had an overall length of 157 inches (3990 mm) and 66 inches (1690 mm) wide, and 62 inches (1580 mm) tall.

The dimensions of Judo were nearly similar to Volkswagen Golf from the era but slightly taller.

Design Features : Rear

The Judo had such unique design elements especially in the rear of the vehicle. Since it’s introduced as a compact off-roader, the features were closely related to off-roading and outdoor experience.

First, the rear spare tire was mounted on the bumper facing the rear of the vehicle, giving this small vehicle a look of a serious off-roader.

The size of the spare tire was known to be full-size which is also rare to be found in a vehicle in this class.

Next to the full-size spare tire was the first aid kit called “Winch”.

Winch was located on the left-hand side of the rear bumper, creating symmetry with the license plate mount on the right-hand side.

The size of a Winch system was quite large that Nissan engineers and designers had to figure out how to utilize a trunk space and opening.

Rather than having a conventional trunk that opens vertically, Judo featured a trunk that opened to the left or right.

Design Features : Top

The Judo’s top or the roof was designed to slide backward providing either an open-air Targa top experience or a traditional close-sealed hardtop crossover experience.

It could slide a few inches and this allowed the Judo to have a two completely different look from the outside especially from the side.

In the middle of the roof was a steel bar connecting the windshield and a B-pillar that also worked as a support rail allowing the roof to slide.

Design Features : Front

The front of the Judo had a large fog lamp and rugged design accents in order to mimic the off-road-ready look.

Design Features : Side

The side proportion of the Judo was remarkable compared to the other compact segment vehicle because of the lifted body with more aggressive tires from the Bridgestone.

The off-road-ready alloy wheels and tires were mounted to the axel by six-lug.

Design Features : Interior

The interior of the Judo was ready for a mass-production compared to the exterior of the Judo which had way too advanced features

The overall design had a rounded surface with a contrasting rectangular-shaped air vent in the middle.

The steering wheel had a three-spoke design.

The seat material was very unique to Judo and represented what Judo has been targeting.

The fabric was easily-washable and sun-resistant.

Judo’s interior design was nearly close to production but one thing that stopped from was the highly advanced audio system. The audio system was built by a company named “Sony” and it featured several convenient features that did not fit Judo’s vehicle class.One was a CD changer, which came into a mass-produced car in America in the 1990s.

The other feature was a sound equalizer that lets users control bass and treble or etc.

Powertrain

The powertrain for Judo was a combination of a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and a five-speed manual shifting transmission.

The 2.0-liter engine used in the Judo had a turbocharger giving an extra boost to the engine and made 210 horsepower at 6,800 rpm and an impressive 195 lb-ft of torque at 3,600 rpm. These were very impressive numbers back in the 1980s and are still considered a healthy number even by today’s standard.

The 5-speed manual shifting transmission allowed the Judo to finish 0-100 km/h or 0-60 mph in 7 seconds.

This combination of powertrains has been used in Nissan’s sedan lineup, such as Cedric and Gloria.

The all-wheel drive was a standard feature to allow Judo to go off-roading.

The all-wheel-drive system seen in the Judo was called ATTESA, which stands for Nissan’s Advanced Total Traction Engineering System for All-Terrain.

This all-wheel-drive setup was later found in a Nissan’s legendary sports car, Skyline GT-R.

Mass-Production Failure

Nissan was considering mass-producing the Judo despite its unique features but ended up canceling because of a complicity of the rear of the vehicle that featured a spare tire and a movable top.

However, in 1995 Japanese automaker named Suzuki introduced a vehicle called Suzuki X-90 which had a similar concept as Nissan Judo featuring an all-wheel-drive system in a compact-sized vehicle. But Suzuki ended up with only selling 1,500 of it.