They might be one of the biggest-selling brands globally and shift millions of cars every year, but Nissan had very humble beginnings. For its first few decades of existence, the Datsun/Nissan company was a local Japanese manufacturer that no one knew outside of its home country, and it was only in the '60s that its popularity began to grow worldwide. Part of that eventual explosion in global sales was thanks to Nissan's relentless innovation, as the company's cars were miles ahead of their competitors in terms of cost and reliability.
That ethos of innovation has continued right through to the present day, but it does produce one odd side effect. Nissan is always coming up with new ideas and models, and as a result, some of those models are incredibly weird. There are some famous Nissan oddities like the Figaro, the S-Cargo, and the Cube, but many other oddball models have sunk into the archives and been long forgotten about. Many of these stayed as concepts, but some found limited production runs and one even stayed in dealerships for several years. Let's take a look at eight of Nissan's most unusual creations that most gearheads won't even remember.
8 Trail Runner
The '90s and early '00s could well be considered Nissan's 'Golden Era of Weird', as it's when many of their craziest designs come from. The Trail Runner concept was unveiled in 1997, and although it's definitely weird, it's also kind of cool. It's an early attempt at mixing a crossover SUV with a coupe, a styling trope that's in vogue today with a number of high-end manufacturers.
It was powered by a 1.8L engine with 185 hp, which would have made it decently fast for the era. The large rear wing and angular front end are certainly a striking look, but unfortunately, the Trail Runner was too far ahead of its time. It never made production and was consigned to the archives shortly after debuting.
7 Nails
Nissan, or rather their sister brand Datsun, had seen a lot of early success with their compact pickups in the mid-20th Century, and so perhaps the Nails was meant to explore a contemporary re-entry into that segment. It was certainly innovative, with a low cargo bed that was supposed to help the loading of heavy objects into the truck.
The body panels were also reportedly scratch and dent resistant, so the Nails would stay looking newer for longer. Innovations aside, the design of the truck was just downright silly, and it was too small to be of any use to most buyers. It never entered production, but it did make its mark as one of the weirdest pickup trucks ever created.
6 DeltaWing
The DeltaWing design was originally created by an American racing designer, and then Nissan co-signed the project in return for providing an engine for the car. It's a completely unique shape and really re-invents the idea of how a race car should look.
The car competed in several major endurance races between 2012 and 2016, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring. It never won or even achieved a pole position, but it consistently drew attention thanks to how strange it looked. Changing regulations meant the car was forced out of competition in 2017 and since then it's been largely forgotten about by racing fans.
5 Judo
Debuted as part of a huge display at the 1987 Tokyo Motor Show, the Judo went largely under the radar even at its time of release. It was a sort of sports car SUV, with an off-road-ready chassis similar to a Jeep Wrangler but a cabin overall dimensions the size of a Mazda Miata. It featured a number of unusual design quirks, including a spare wheel that was placed behind the rear bumper.
The roof was also a strange feature as it was designed to slide backward as one piece, to provide an alternative to a sunroof. It slid so far back that the rear windshield was in line with the spare wheel, which made for a very odd looking vehicle. Nissan also decided to include some built-in ski holders on the roof to really push home the point that this rugged Jeep-Miata was ready for anything.
4 R390
In the late '90s, Nissan needed a way to satisfy the homologation rules of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which said that each competing car had to be based on a production model. To solve this, the company built a single road-legal R390 supercar, alongside a few prototypes. Apart from a few small changes, the road-going R390 was exactly the same as the competition racer, which makes it one of the most extreme cars of the era.
It's also alleged to have a top speed well in excess of 200 mph, although it was never officially tested. The car itself is pretty weird for a road car, but what's even weirder is that Nissan would build something this good and then never market it. It may well have even been the fastest car in the world at the time, but no one will ever know as Nissan quietly hid the R390 away in its museum and never did anything else with it.
3 Murano CrossCabriolet
There's been a few attempts by manufacturers at making a convertible SUV, and all of them have been awful. The Murano CrossCabriolet was Nissan's shot at this weird segment, and well, it looks just as odd as most people would expect a drop-top crossover to look.
Despite that, it was put on sale globally in 2011 and it continued until the Murano was refreshed for the 2014 model year. It sold surprisingly well and it's still got a small cult following today, simply because of how strange it is. Doug DeMuro reviewed the car and called it, "interesting [rather than] good", which seems like the perfect way to sum this oddball creation up.
2 Saurus Jr
The little Saurus Jr actually represents an important milestone in Nissan's history as it was the first car completely developed by the automaker's racing arm, Nismo. It was built as an accessible track day racer, with many of the 120 units being used at Nissan's own Racing School throughout the '90s and '00s.
A few examples were also sold to motorsport outfits, and those cars very occasionally come up for sale. The car above came up not long ago and was apparently racing in competitions as recently as 2016. It's powered by a 1,000cc engine and features a five-speed manual, so it's about as back-to-basics as it gets. It's very strange to think that the division that started off making these would go on to make legends such as the Skyline R34 Nismo Z-Tune just a few years later.
1 NCS
This weird and quite frankly hideous concept is the Nissan NCS, a car so strange that it's been all but wiped off the internet. There's no record of it on the company's official website, and there are only a few places that even still host these original press photos.
It was reportedly unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show in 1999, and so it's likely intended for the American market. An archived press release from 1999 claims the car combines "the style of a sports sedan with the interior versatility [...] of a minivan or SUV". Other than that, there are really no details on the NCS available, which is very unusual for a concept from a major manufacturer. It's not very often that a car this ugly disappears from the internet altogether, but that just serves to make the mystery of the NCS concept even weirder.