Give a bunch of college kids a few cars along with free reign to create whatever they want and the results will be interesting every time. If they were in America, they’d probably make a Corvette pickup truck or a lowered Bronco—something anachronistic. If they were in Germany, maybe they’d take a touring BMW and turn it into a beer cart for Oktoberfest or Tuesday family dinners. But if they’re in Japan, they’d apparently combine a new Nissan Z with the back half of a Leaf to make a “sports station wagon for family journeys.” At least, that’s what these students from the Nissan Automobile Technical College did.
Students from the college’s five campuses—Tochigi, Yokohama, Aichi, Kyoto, and Ehime—worked on different projects to display at January’s Tokyo Auto Salon. They imagined three concepts and actually built them, so in addition to the Z/Leaf mashup, there’s also a “NEO Skyline” based on the Japanese domestic version of the Infiniti G35 and a 36-year-old Bluebird Maxima sedan they call “Kiwami” with a sick skirted body kit. While the latter is the most stylish, the bright yellow Z “Lealia” is by far the most… intriguing.
I say that genuinely—it is intriguing. And I love the motivation behind it as Nissan says the students designed the vehicle “for fathers who love sports cars and aspire to own a Fairlady Z, while allowing them to enjoy driving with their families.” Honestly, it sounds like they made it for people a lot like me. They started with good bones, too, as the build is based on an M35 Stagea wagon from the ’00s—only the bodywork is more modern.
It took the students six months to complete the Z Lealia build. The front-end design is pretty similar to a stock Z, but it gets funky at the rear where they grafted parts of a Leaf EV’s fenders and roof onto the shell. Those back fenders are also widened some more to give it a tough stance, and to make it flow, they also flared out the back doors. It’s a common trick in car design, but it looks a little odd to see the handles pointed straight at you from a front three-quarter view.
Beholding it from the rear, the Leaf influence is clear because all the design elements are tilted up ever so slightly. They still used the Z’s taillight assembly, which looks interesting on a hatchback, for sure. And peep that window behind the rear doors—that might be the strangest component of ’em all, along with the big bumper out back.
