Nissan is bringing again a traditional identify, although most likely for a particular version and never an all-new mannequin.

A Eighties Traditional

From 1985 to 1997, Individuals liked a rugged, compact pickup truck referred to as the Nissan Hardbody. It wore flared fenders — tame by at present’s requirements however distinctive within the Eighties. Nissan (newly re-named within the American market after many years of doing enterprise as Datsun) marketed it as uniquely robust due to its double-walled mattress. The Hardbody proved it, profitable a collection of late-80s off-road races.

The Truck That Took Its Place

The Hardbody left the market after 1997, changed by the Nissan Frontier. That truck remains to be the center of Nissan’s truck lineup. Right now’s full-size Titan has an expiration date. However the Frontier is predicted to soldier on. Our skilled reviewer calls it “a superb midsize truck for drivers in search of a rugged workhorse with fashionable options at an inexpensive value.”

Which is a fairly good description of the Hardbody it changed. The brand new one ought to most likely salute the outdated.

That could be precisely what’s occurring.

New Saluting Outdated

Nissan this week launched a teaser photograph, explaining, “On Thursday, Sept. 14, the following chapter of the Nissan Hardbody story begins.”

That’s all the knowledge the corporate has to supply for now. Nevertheless it’s accompanied by a picture of a traditional Hardbody being photobombed by what seems to be like a modified present Frontier. Each are purple, with the brand new one carrying quite a lot of black plastic lower-body cladding of the type off-roaders usually use to soak up scratches on the path.

It additionally has a matte black hood decal (used to scale back glare), tow hooks, and all-terrain tires with a deep lug.

So the brand new Hardbody Nissan teases is probably going an off-road specialist model of the Frontier constructed as a tribute to the truck it changed. In its press launch, Nissan notes that it “paid homage to these race-winning vehicles, getting into a Hardbody-inspired Frontier within the 2021 Rebelle Rally, the longest off-road rally in america.”

Our personal Lyn Woodward was behind the wheel for that race.

Nissan will reveal the Hardbody salute in full subsequent Thursday.

If we’re proper, it joins a number of current fashions saluting off-roaders of the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, together with a Toyota 4Runner with improbable ’80s-style graphics and a Ford Bronco Sport with a shade mixture proper out of the Carter years.