Looks like the vintage action at SEMA is in SUVs. Like Toyota’s turbocharged FJ60 Land Cruiser, Nissan has reached into its off-road past and modified a Y60 Patrol. with some serious shove underhood. Unlike the Toyota, the this generation of Patrol was never sold in the US, but is a hugely popular platform for modification elsewhere on the globe.
In the Middle East, tuners even swap Skyline GT-R RB26 straight-sixes into Y60s and use them in drag racing. This Patrol swaps in a TB48DE, a 4.8-liter inline-six from a Y61-generation Patrol. Then, NISMO and Forsberg Racing tuned it to 1000 horsepower via Garrett turbochargers and Link engine management.
The suspension is branded NISMO but consists of a slew of custom bits. The 17-inch beadlock wheels are a collab by NISMO and Axis, wrapped in 35-inch Yokohama Geolandars.
Elsewhere in the Chris Forsberg garage is a Nissan Z built for the Gridlife GT series. It’s a Z NISMO, automatic transmission and all, but with every part from the NISMO catalog thrown at the suspension. The wheels are prototype NISMO LM-RS1 18-inchers with Yokohama Advan A052 tires.
The star of the show was arguably the Nissan Dune Patrol. Though it left the US after the first generation, the Patrol had a long and illustrious life on other continents. One even won the diesel class of the 1987 Paris-Dakar Rally and was restored in 2016.
Paying homage to that racing history is a Y63 built to tackle desert terrain. It takes the US-market Armada Pro-4X and modifies it with a completely custom-fabbed suspension. It showcases a ton of prototype NISMO Off-Road parts, from roof rack to skid plate.
Beadlock wheels are once again a NISMO and Axis collab, this time measuring 18 inches and wearing 37-inch Yokohama Geolander MT G003s tires. The previous-generation Y62 Armada shared a platform with the rest-of-world Patrol, but didn’t have the serious off-road gear underneath, like a locking diff or adaptive air suspension. For 2025, the Armada Pro-4X remedies that and is as close to a rest-of-world Patrol as you can get in the States.
It’s noteworthy that at the America’s biggest aftermarket showcase both Nissan and Toyota are heavily focused on off-road vehicles. Even Honda’s booth has a rally-ready Civic Type R and Passport Trailsport as their headliners. It’s further evidence that 4x4s are popular blank canvases for customization, and why Nissan should hurry up and bring that Xterra back to market.
Additional Images:
Images courtesy of Nissan.
