By Antti Kautonen
The second Japanese concept car of this Associates-soundtracked Concept Car Weekend Edition is the 1985 Nissan MID-4 concept. It’s another of my concept car favorites, and the ’80sness of it goes deep to the core – just like the RX500 is so very 1970. It’s like a blend of Renault Alpine design and Ferrari details, but still somehow recognizable as a Nissan.
The MID-4:s name correctly refers to the mid-mounted engine, but it’s not a four. Instead, it’s the VG30DE V6 engine that does service amidships, and the 4 in the name refers to the four-wheel-drive system which is an early version of Nissan’s torque-distributing ATTESA system, here giving a 33 front, 67 rear bias. The car also had Nissan’s HICAS four-wheel steering.
Nissan unveiled the MID-4 at the 1985 Frankfurt Motor Show. There were four prototypes built, in red and also in this custard yellow. There were talks of limited production, but that dried up and the MID-4 can be seen as a forecursor to the coming S13’s design instead.
[Images: Nissan]
Jeff Glucker
Looks like a Lotus Esprit to me…
I subscribed to Road & Track at the time this came out. I remember thinking it was cool..
I prefer this to the MkII version but both were knock-outs at the time. It's a good thing Nissan went on to create some amazing GT-Rs instead.
Looks a bit like the M1 in that first photo.