Swapping faces in cars is a thing. We’ve seen a number of social media pages have done it over the last few years, rendering the car’s face on another model via the great power of Adobe Photoshop. But this exchange of faces was different – it was a full transformation, courtesy of students in Japan.
Meet the Nissan Fairlady X. This is a cross between the Nissan Z (or Nissan Fairlady Z, as it’s called in Japan) and the Murano crossover. This is a student project at Nissan Gakuen (Nissan Automobile Technical College).
And while you might think that this is just a photo manipulation job, it’s not. The students actually worked on cleaning up the Nissan Murano and destroying the front and rear Z on it. We suspect some fabrication was involved in this put together given that the Murano wasn’t precisely carved to have the shape of a Z car.
The results are interesting, to say the least. With the front end and rear end of the Z mounted on a crossover we didn’t think it was possible but here we are. It even comes with a set of Rays wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S tires for good measure.
We can’t pinpoint exactly what went wrong (or right) in this transformation, but suffice it to say, the Z design’s enlarged proportions will have you staring at the car longer than you should.
Better still, the Murano’s interior has also been tweaked to match the Z’s sporty interior. Based on images posted on Nissan Gakuen’s Twitter account, the mashup comes with a Z steering wheel and seats, although we’re not sure the extent of the changes inside the cabin due to the limited photos provided.
The Nissan Fairlady X will make its public debut in 2023 at the Tokyo Auto Salon and Osaka Auto Messe. If you’re in Japan for the show, maybe also discover this unexpected mix-up for a visual treat.
