Photo: dm_jon/Instagram
A week ago, Donut Media let the world know that Lightning should have been joined by Thunder. That's right, Ford intended to make an SVT version of the Expedition SUV, but it never reached production.
The success of the Lightning truck not only led to this reclusive project but also proved to Ford that people wanted a sports truck. This birthed the Raptor, which in turn spawned the segment currently occupied by everything from the little Colorado ZR2 to the mighty Ram TRX.
People say that the SVT Lightning was ahead of its time, that it arrived before America was truly ready for it. But what if, instead of failing, it inspired other manufacturers to develop their own go-fast pickups. We're not talking about Detroit, but Tokyo. And there's no better company for that than Nissan.
Sure, Toyota has the Supra, but only one generation of that was iconic until recently. Meanwhile, Nissan cranked out a bunch of sports car series that dominated the scene across the modern era. It's not just the GT-Rs, ranging from the current R35 to the original R32 Skyline. There's also the Z car and the S platform.
A couple of days ago, we showed you the new Nissan Frontier turned into a virtual Nismo model. But this next rendering pushes things further back in time, to the era of the R34.
The GT-R was just a small part of the Skyline family tree, which included numerous RWD sedans and coupes as well. Most JDM enthusiasts remember those, but the Skyline series also split into the wagon we recently discussed. Also, the QX50 is technically also a Skyline; that's what it was called when the original premium crossover came out in Japan back in 2009.
Pickups? Well, your best bet for that would be a Datsun Sunny-based mini-truck from the 1970s. We've seen a lot of those with impressive "Hakotora" makeovers. While those builds look fast, the R34 pickup would be even more impressive, based on what we see in Australian renderer Jon Pumfrey's latest post.
It's got the front end of the Nurburgring-conquering models. Can you imagine that kind of lap record? Brian O'Connor probably wouldn't have driven that F-150 Lightning in The Fast and The Furious.
People say that the SVT Lightning was ahead of its time, that it arrived before America was truly ready for it. But what if, instead of failing, it inspired other manufacturers to develop their own go-fast pickups. We're not talking about Detroit, but Tokyo. And there's no better company for that than Nissan.
Sure, Toyota has the Supra, but only one generation of that was iconic until recently. Meanwhile, Nissan cranked out a bunch of sports car series that dominated the scene across the modern era. It's not just the GT-Rs, ranging from the current R35 to the original R32 Skyline. There's also the Z car and the S platform.
A couple of days ago, we showed you the new Nissan Frontier turned into a virtual Nismo model. But this next rendering pushes things further back in time, to the era of the R34.
The GT-R was just a small part of the Skyline family tree, which included numerous RWD sedans and coupes as well. Most JDM enthusiasts remember those, but the Skyline series also split into the wagon we recently discussed. Also, the QX50 is technically also a Skyline; that's what it was called when the original premium crossover came out in Japan back in 2009.
Pickups? Well, your best bet for that would be a Datsun Sunny-based mini-truck from the 1970s. We've seen a lot of those with impressive "Hakotora" makeovers. While those builds look fast, the R34 pickup would be even more impressive, based on what we see in Australian renderer Jon Pumfrey's latest post.
It's got the front end of the Nurburgring-conquering models. Can you imagine that kind of lap record? Brian O'Connor probably wouldn't have driven that F-150 Lightning in The Fast and The Furious.
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