Photo by Morio, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (credit links at the end of the content)
We continue our journey by bringing you stories of forgotten prototypes, cars that never made it to the road, racing cars that never made it to the grid, and ambitious projects that were ultimately cancelled. While our main focus remains on classic F1 stories and forgotten racing projects, we also want to explore fascinating automotive prototypes such as the cancelled Nissan MID4.
In the 1980s, Nissan wasn’t content with simply building fast sports cars, the Japanese manufacturer was experimenting with technology that could have placed it directly against some of Europe’s most prestigious performance machines, at the center of that ambition was the Nissan MID4.
Nissan MID4 and MID4-II: The Cancelled project
It looked like the beginning of something much bigger, Nissan developed the car through multiple stages, eventually creating the dramatically improved MID4-II, which appeared to be close to production, yet despite all the engineering work, neither version ever reached Nissan showrooms, the MID4 became one of those fascinating forgotten proejcts where the car itself disappeared, but its tech lived on in some of Nissan’s most famous performance cars.
Nissan Wanted Its Own Supercar
The story began in 1985 when Nissan unveiled the original MID4 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the name itself described the basic concept: mid-engine, four-wheel drive!
That was already unusual for Nissan.
Instead of developing another front-engine sports car, the company created a completely new platform around a mid-mounted engine, the layout promised better weight distribution and improved handling, while the four wheel-drive system was intended to give the car exceptional traction.
Underneath the bodywork was a naturally aspirated 3.0-liter VG30DE V6 engine, the engine was reported to produce roughly 230 to 245 horsepower, those numbers might not sound extraordinary today, but the Nissan MID4 was never intended to be just another powerful Nissa, the objective was to demonstrate what Nissan could achieve if it entered the exotic sports-car market.
The Nissan MID4 Was More Than a Styling Exercise
Unlike many concept cars that exist mainly to attract attention at an auto show, the MID4 represented serious engineering work, Nissan developed a functional mid-engine chassis and experimented with sophisticated systems that were far ahead of what many ordinary production cars offered at the time.
One of the most features was its four-wheel-drive system, rather than simply sending power to all four wheel in a basic way, Nissan was exploring how torque could be distributed between the front and rear axles to improve traction and handling, the car also incorporated Nissan’s advanced HICAS four-wheel-steering tech, the system could actively influence the rear wheels, helping the car respond more quickly to steering inputs.
Nissan wasn’t simply trying to make the MID4 fast in a straight line, it wanted to create a car that could compete with sophisticated European sports cars through technology and chassis engineering, in many ways, the MID4 became a rolling laboratory for Nissan!
Then Came the Nissan MID4-II
Nissan didn’t abandon the idea after the first concept, in 1987, the company introduced the MID4-II at the Tokyo Motor show, this wasn’t simply the original with a different body, Nissan had substaintially developed the concept, producing a much more serious machine.
The styling became more aggressive, while the engineering moved closer to what enthusiasts would expect from a true supercar, most importantly, the naturally aspirated V6 was replaced by a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter VG30DETT V6.
MID4-II produced more horsepower compared to the first MID4, power climbed to approximately 325 horsepower, giving the MID4-II considerably more performance potential than its predecessor.
The engine would later become famous in another Nissan, the Z32-Generation 300ZX Twin Turbo, but at the time, the MID4-II was one of the most intriguing demonstrations of what Nissan could do with the engine in a mid-engine configuration.
Was the MID4 Actually Ready for Production?
This is where the story become particularly interesting, the Nissan MID4-II was developed far beyond the stage of a simple auto-show concept, they built functional prototypes and continued testing the technology, leading to the impression that a production version was a genuine possibility.
However, being technically feasible wasn’t the same thing as being financially sensible, a production MID4 would have required Nissan to build a specialized mid-engine platform almost from scratch, the car would have been expensive to manufacture, while the number of customers willing to pay a premium for a Nissan supercar would inevitably have been limited, that created a difficult business calculation.
Nissan could spend enormous amounts of money developing a low-volume exotic car, then hope that sales would eventually recover the investment, or it could take the technology developed for the MID4 and use it in car that could be produced and sold in much greater numbers.
Eventually, Nissan chose the second option!
RELATED CONTENT: If you are interested in more prototype stories, you can also read the story of the Aston Martin Bulldog, a radical supercar that never made it into production.
Nissan Found a Better Use for the Technology
This is arguably the most important part of the MID4 story, Nissan didn’t simply throw away everything it had learned.
Instead, elements of the MID4 program helped influence the development of production performance cars.
The twin-turbocharged V6 engine became closely associated with the NISSAN 300ZX Twin Turbo, giving the Z32 one of the most recognizable performance engines of the era.
The advanced thinking surrounding four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering also contributed to Nissan’s broader performance technology, including systems associated with the legendary Skyline GT-R, this mean t the MID4 could be considered a technological donor.
How Many Nissan MID4s Were Built?
Niether the original MID4 nor the MID4-II enetered series production, Nissan produced a small number of prototypes for development and demonstration purposes, estimates commonly place the original MID4 prototype count at around three or four cars, while several MID4-II prototypes were also produced.
That makes surviving examples particularly important, these cars are not merely forgotten concepts sitting outside Nissan’s production history.
They represent a period when the company was experimenting the technologies that would eventually influence some of its most famous performance cars, the MID4 was essentially a glimpse of a Nissan supercar that never arrived.
Why Nissan Cancelled the MID4
The cancellation wasn’t caused by one single problem, the biggest issue was economics.
A sophisticated mid-engine supercar would have required enormous investment while offering limited production volume.
Engineering complexity added another challenge, packaging a powerful twin-turbocharged V6 into a compact mid-engine chassis, while also accomodating sophisticated four-wheel-drive and four-wheel-steering systems, was far more complicated than building a conventional front-engine sports car.
The company had other priorities, Nissan could obtain a much stronger return by applying its newly developed technologies to vehicles that already had established production infrastructure and customer demand.
The MID4 therefore became a victim of its own ambition.
The project failed, but it helped create other legends, its technology didn’t disappear with it.
RELATED CONTENT: If you are interested in more cancelled racing projects, you can also read the story of the Porsche LMP2000, a prototype developed with the ambition of taking Porsche back to the top at Le Mans.
Featured image credits: Photo by Morio, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
