Fragile, priceless, and driven.
Nissan not only gave us some time with the car but also with Giovanny Arroba, Creative Design Manager at Nissan Design America. Arroba was responsible for the Titan and the Armada as well as the current Altima and Maxima. He rode shotgun with us and provided a designer's perspective on the IDx. He’s cool. He drives a ’69 911 T to his San Diego office every day and has a 1960 Alfa Romeo Sprint Special in the garage for weekends. Yes, we’re jealous. Here are eight things we learned in our time with the IDx.
The IDx was rear-drive from the beginning
Both the IDx Freeflow and the IDx Nismo that we drove were the direct results of a unique co-creation project. Nissan designers in Japan and England collaborated with younger Nissan employees to create a sporty car that might appeal to the millennial generation. And even the earliest sketches, according to Arroba, were rear-drive.READ THIS: The Nissan IDx is Tokyo's surprise RWD homage to the Datsun 510
“The whole design goes back to the purity of the three-box car with classic proportions and rear-drive,” he says. “I think we wanted to really harken back to an earlier time when there was this charming, connected feel between car and driver.”
Underneath that boxy bodywork might be a Nissan Silvia S15
Concept cars aren’t generally designed to drive around under their
own power for very long. But
to make them work reliably as they move from one global auto show to
another, there are likely some proven components underneath. Sometimes,
automakers
will use older platforms they have squirreled away in storage as the
basis for these show cars. And we’ve heard that’s what Nissan has done
here. It’s
completely unconfirmed, but we love the rumor that underneath the
skin, this is a JDM Silvia S15—the final generation of Nissan’s
legendary rear-drive
coupe that was never imported to the US.SEE THIS: Rising Datsun: The American history of a Japanese brand
We caught a quick glimpse under the hood of the IDx Nismo, and the engine looks very much like a longitudinal four-cylinder built back when car companies cared what engines looked like. In fact, it looked a lot like the SR20DE without the black plastic engine cover to us. Proof positive? Not exactly. But it is fitting that Nissan would use the chassis from its last awesome and affordable small rear-drive coupe as the basis for what could be its next one.
It doesn’t at all drive like the 1971-1972 Datsun BRE 510 race car
Surprised? Didn’t think so. Here’s what it’s really like to drive that car. The IDx is a priceless concept car that’s really only meant to be driven on and off transport trailers. And we were given strict orders: Don’t. Break. It. First thing to know? That awesome shifter and carbon-fiber console is just for looks. It’s a fugazi. Although we hope something that looks very much like it (connected to a six-speed manual) will be used if the IDx hits production.WATCH THIS: Love for the Datsun Z-car in this Petrolicious video
To drive this car, you pull up on the rear of the console and slide it back to reveal the old-school key starter, a stubby black metal shifter, and an E-brake lever. We shifted to 'Drive', eased onto the throttle, and rolled up to about 25 mph or so. Two things became very clear in our short time behind the wheel: Though the production car may someday have a CVT as noted by Nissan, this vehicle clearly has an automatic transmission. And second: It’s loud. And that’s cool, because as we trundled along that parking lot, we could hear lots of engine and lots of exhaust noise. We crawled out from behind the wheel and had a look at those glorious side pipes and noticed that all four of them are functional—all four. That’s just badass.
IDx may secretly mean 510
Nissan has a very odd explanation for what exactly “IDx” means. They say this in the press materials: "ID is the acronym taken from ‘identification,’ relating to the things all individuals relate to on a personal level in a car. The ‘x’ is the variable, representing the new values and dreams born through communication.” Um, okay. Oddly, Nissan didn’t call this concept “510” and doesn’t directly reference the legendary 510 in any of its auto show press materials. Arroba says, “There’s a heritage there, but we’re not trying to make a retro 510.” Maybe not, but it is strange that “510” is never mentioned. Perhaps it’s just a cool, subtle move by Nissan because there’s another way to read the name of this car. We’ve heard that “D” simply refers to the Roman numeral for “500” and that “x” stands for “10”. 510. So it really is called "the 510." Now that’s pretty cool.What’s wrong with the R&T production IDx sketch?
Andy Palmer, Nissan’s Chief Planning Officer and VP of its Executive Committee, wants to build the IDx. So how would that car look once it rolls off the assembly line? Would it lose the design elements that make it special? Not according to Arroba. We showed Arroba the sketches R&T had commissioned last month. He grew a wide smile when we showed him these photos. But he noticed some crucial elements omitted from the sketch that would absolutely be included in any production IDx.VIEW THESE: Photos: Nissan IDX concept
“It looks too normal without the floating roof,” he says. “The C-pillar kick-up and floating roof are missing, and those are key elements.”
In fact, we learned that the floating roof C-pillar design will become a major Nissan design cue on future production Nissans and will appear first on the next-generation Murano. Arroba says it would be very unlikely that a production IDx wouldn’t have this design element. And the same goes for the small chrome 'V' that surrounds the Nissan badge. Nissan calls this its “V motif,” and it’s on many current and future Nissans, including a much-exaggerated form on the Sport Sedan Concept that joined the IDx in Detroit. This element wasn’t on the IDx when it debuted in Tokyo, but it was added to both concepts right before the 2014 Detroit Auto Show debut. Any production version of the IDx would have this design element, according to Arroba.
Even the side mirrors are cool
Who pays attention to automotive side-view mirrors? We do. When mirrors are properly proportioned to the size of the car, they elevate the entire design. And yet when others, in the name of increased visibility, are grotesquely oversized and ill-shaped, it makes the car look heavy and dowdy. Mercedes CLS, anyone? The ones on the front fenders of the IDx Nismo are perfectly sized, perfectly shaped, and perfectly placed. These little retro-styled mirror bullets aren’t really mirrors at all, but they're designed to be cameras.This is number 000-004
There’s a plaque on the side of the transmission tunnel that indicates this is the fourth IDx built. There’s a similar badge on the IDx Freeflow that indicates the car is number '003'. Does this mean that Nissan has two other IDx concepts for us to see? Perhaps one is a wagon? Probably not. But Nissan hasn’t yet explained the numbering strategy of these two cars, nor which other concepts could be related to the IDx coming down the line. So until they do, our fingers are officially crossed for an IDx shooting brake concept and eventually … a production IDx.READ THIS: The top 7 cars from the 2014 Detroit Auto Show
So should they build it?
Of course they should. It’s awesome because this concept rings right on so many levels: It’s relatively bare-bones inside. It’s affordable. It’s a coupe that can hold four people. It’s rear-drive. And of course it would be great to hammer through the canyons. A production version feels like just the type of car that would be widely embraced by enthusiasts, from BMW E30 fans to Subaru WRX geeks. So what’s the holdup? Nissan needs a chassis and a business case. Our fantasy? We’d like to see Nissan develop a flexible and lightweight rear-drive chassis that could be used for the next Z as well as a production IDx.By February 6, 2014 / Photos by Ben Stewart
http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-reviews/first-drives/nissan-idx-nismo-concept-things-we-learned#ixzz2t2DeeElX
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