S3, E58 - SEMA 2025, Part 1

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Hey, what's up everybody?

I may have lined you.

I may have told you I was done being on the road and we're gonna get back to you in a moment.

Surprise! I'm back on the road!

It's your host, Holman.

Here at the Truck Show podcast.

And I'm actually on my way to SEMA.

So I've got the 25 boatmark Ladiator.

They've been driving around for a while.

I've got the amount of miles on it already and I've been putting it through its paces.

I gotta tell you, I really like this thing.

It's too much to live, 35. It's perfect for a gladiator.

The JPP Bilstein shocks, the tuning is awesome on it.

There's a few of the gladiator things that I would like them to focus on, maybe a little quieter, although it's not bad.

And you get the solid axle off-road in the way that feels, which is great.

But the solid axle pushes the front axle ahead of the engine.

So it gives you a longer wheelbase compared to say a Ranger over a Tacoma or Frontier or Colorado Canyon.

Because those IFS vehicles can put the wheels and suspension right under the oil pan because you don't have to worry about up travel.

So it's a little bit longer and when you drive a Wrangler every day, if you get into a gladiator,

sometimes you have to remember, oh yeah, even though the exact same view out the front, you don't remember,

but yeah, I got a whole bunch of track behind me.

So it takes you a few times to go through drive, through is where you don't, you know, clip the rear tire on that curb or things like that.

Other than that, I love the interior. Comfort's fine.

My armor wheelbase in the gladiator makes the steering a little, you know, less, you just need less input or directionally stable,

I guess is the right way to say that.

And yeah, so far I'm really enjoying it and kind of thinking about getting one for myself still.

See, after this one goes away, I would love to get back into just a couple year lease of a hobby version of the gladiator,

which I think for my truck needs is perfect.

So you look at the Rubicon, they're not the same price.

Rubicon has the front locker, front ding, sway bar disconnect.

I don't need all that stuff because on a Bahami, it's just going to be my daily and I need to get to the properties,

so I definitely need a rear locker and check and have that.

And I need some good suspension from Rough Roads.

Well, guess what? It also has that because you get the Fox front suspension.

Well, the upgrade is all the way around with the Fox shocks, but you also get a jounce, hydraulic jounce bump in the front.

And so that really mellows out that, you know, the bottoming out on the solid axle, which I really like on the Bahami.

The Bahami tuning is really good.

You would expect the solid axle to be able to do well over the woods.

But, you know, just for a daily driver right now, I've got, you know, my wife and two girls fit in it fine.

My seven-year-old has her car seat in the back. She just kicked the front seat.

She loves climbing up into it.

And she absolutely loves this thing.

She's like, let's take the truck. I want to be the gladiator. I like sitting up high. This is fun.

Let's open the roof up, all those things.

She just loves it. It's like a jungle gym.

I picked her up from a school and she's crawling into it because she's using the rock rail to get in.

I do wish the rear door cut lines were a little bit bigger because right now, the gladiator uses the regular one with the wheel cut out,

which you don't need on the gladiator body because there's extra body, but neither is not up in the wheel well.

So they made that door square and it would be a little bit easier to get in and out of.

But, you know, that stereo is great. The new interior.

It seems to have a little bit of my 392 as far as the interior goes and the U-Connect 5 and the screen.

Love it, love it, love it on the gladiator.

So we'll see. I might pick one up for myself.

I'm not sure. I've got some parts arriving from Bobar.

I'm going to do some installs. One of the first things I think we're doing is we're going to be putting on the Bobar exhaust to give a little more personality.

But I'm telling you, a gladiator 35 is for daily.

I'm not talking about getting Boab and all that.

You know, if you want to do that stuff, 37s, 38s, great.

But for a round town, occasional dirt road, doing camping,

just having it of clearance.

And 35s are kind of the sweet spot, although it does look really good on 37s.

But I'm a fan. I like it.

And it's my esteem to make it.

So, you know, if I also say this, the pen starts to totally find it.

I know it's down on power compared to some of the competition,

but it's also non-turbo charge, which might make some people happy.

I still think if you were to do the ultimate engine combo on a gladiator, it would be a 5.7 heavy.

To me, that's the sweet spot.

So who knows, maybe it'll come.

We know the 382 was most likely the heavy that's coming.

I think that was probably overkill.

I would love to see this as like the gentleman's V8 midsize truck.

Chevy did it for a while in the Colorado with the 5.3 LS.

And I thought that was really, really sweet.

And I just think a 5.7 in one of these would be awesome.

What else is going on?

Well, day zero, I guess, of SEMA.

So I'm heading out.

I've got a Nissan dinner tonight.

I'm going to hang out with our friends over at Nissan.

And for the next day, I'm going to drive the new Nissan Frontier Pro 4XR, the Roush version,

which is I've been dying to drive.

I can't wait to drive tomorrow and I'll bring you that.

Anyway, I am off to Vegas and I just passed the big thermometer.

And hopefully we'll get you some good truck content, some conversations with builders and people.

And as soon as we're looking forward to it, so stay tuned.

All right, so I'm here with Chris Forsberg and you guys probably know him from Racing

and also the Forsberg Edition Frontier that came out.

We had a little thing on the show last year.

You didn't have to go something like that.

Then you've got a beautiful, beautiful Z that you built that is unbelievable.

That thing is so perfect.

But then I walked by this thing and I'm like, oh, this is this is so proper.

Okay, so 1990 two door right hand drive Nissan Patrol.

So envision that while we're talking because right now the hood is up and it's got stacks sticking through the hood.

And the turbo is probably about eight, nine inches in diameter.

And the intake tube is about, that's got to be like a six inch intake tube or five inch intake tube.

It's five inch intake.

What kind of craziness is going on here?

So this is, as you mentioned, my 1990 Y-60 Nissan Patrol right hand drive.

We imported it from Japan.

It was absolutely mint unit.

Very, very little, I don't even want to say surface rust, just little minor imperfections that we went over.

We ice blasted the entire chassis.

By the way, that process is amazing, right?

It's incredible.

So that's the one where you're using the...

Yeah, it's the nitrogen and the dry ice.

Yeah, the dry ice.

And so basically you spray it.

It's barely the first day of see but it's like day zero, right?

I know, yeah.

We're negative one and we're already stuttered.

It's been a long six weeks, I'll tell you that.

But yeah, so they spray it on and as it evaporates, it takes all the contamination either with it or drops it off.

It's like crazy.

Yeah, so basically freeze blasts the components and the...

It's totally safe.

It's not like a media blasting where it'll...

Yeah, it will not eat the paint.

It will not disrupt your wiring.

You can spray it right onto an alternator, you're not going to hurt it.

Crazy.

And so yeah, we utilize that for this entire chassis just to get all that road grime that's under there

and some of the loose sealants and stuff that are kind of starting to peel.

So that's what I meant by the imperfections.

It wasn't rusty but just some of the coating was starting to flake.

So we blast it, it takes off any loose component, we get in there with like a wire wheel to take off anything else that we saw

and then we re-coated the entire chassis with steel it.

And so the whole frame, the underbody, all the wheel wells and the engine bay

re-did everything with steel it coating, which is like a fantastic...

It's awesome.

It's almost powder coat level grade out of a can.

Yep.

And so...

And you can weld with it.

I was just going to say, what I like about it is the powder coat, you're stuck with that.

I've seen people powder coat entire frames, which is cool, but then...

You strip them when there's something they need to weld.

Yeah, you have to grind something or weld a bracket.

Now you have this spray painted piece on a beautiful frame.

So I love the steel it because it allows you to continue to build and evolve the chassis

and still have the same toughness, durability is what I'm looking for, of coating on there.

But the engine, it originally came with a TD-42 Tango Delta.

Now it's a TB Tango Bravo.

This is not that.

It is not.

Yeah, so the original was a 24 volt, 4.2 liter non-turbo diesel.

And so this thing was diesel, it was 24 volt, it was non-turbo.

All of these things that we now have converted, stripped it out.

We're now gasoline powered.

We are a 4.8 liter.

It has turbocharger hanging off the side of it, and we convert it back to 12 volts as well.

Dude, it's so cool.

I mean, just the beauty of this build is that the only things that are fancy have to be there.

There's nothing like gratuitous.

Everything is for a purpose.

It's gorgeous because of how clean it is.

It's just everything is functional.

There's nothing here that doesn't need to be.

What kind of power are you putting out from the straight six?

So this engine is currently tuned up for 800 wheel horsepower.

So it's right about 1,000 at the crank.

And it's mental.

It's way too much for this little chassis.

Yeah, I'm sure.

And there are people that will make...

Does this do wheel stands?

No, not yet.

It doesn't have enough power to do that.

Maybe if I put a slick on the back, it might pull the front end off the ground.

I mean, it twists it really good right now.

I'm sure, yeah.

But yeah, like as of right now, it just burns the tire.

But yeah, maybe with a slick it would lift it.

You know, a pair of those tires on these top fuel cars on the back of it.

But yeah, so it's really, really great.

The stock transmission can handle up to 1,600 horsepower.

Wow, that's crazy.

We've been told, yeah.

And so I'm trying to keep it below that.

There are guys that make like 3,000 horsepower out of these engines.

Oh my gosh.

When they go full, full tilt built and do the drag racing setup with them.

So it is an incredibly capable motor that, like we mentioned, you know, is able to make

800-wheel horsepower without even cracking it open.

I mean, Nissan's straight sixes are legendary.

They're durability for turbocharging and things like that.

I mean, it's just...

It's one of those things that Nissan has mastered over the years.

And to see one in 1990 Patrol is awesome.

Now, the way it's sort of built is like this mashup of like sort of a Dakar vibe, but also

a little bit of Baja too.

Like you have more of an American wheel and tire fitment and package on it.

But the mobile and livery kind of, and the vehicle itself kind of screams of old school

Dakar.

And you've got a little bit of like, you know, the Nismo lights with the straight push bar

on the front.

It's just, it's funny, like there's a couple of different disciplines, but it's all in

harmony.

Like the whole thing is just harmonious.

Here's the thing about stuff that's cool.

It's only cool when somebody walks up and goes, that's cool.

You can't tell somebody this is cool, but you can't self-proclaim it.

But this is one of those vehicles you walk up and go, that's cool.

That's cool.

I mean, I think it's cool, of course.

But yeah, you can't convince someone else that it is.

You know, they have to make their way to that decision on their own.

But yeah, we love it.

We have, like I said, some pull from Baja, which is the wheels, the axis wheels that are

the same ones that we offer on the Forsberg Racing Frontier that are real beadlock wheels.

A lot of people ask that all the time.

There are full beadlock wheels.

And so, yeah, we have a custom set.

It looks like an M10 bolt on here, too.

Yeah, so it's a custom set that we have on this that has the 6x139 bolt pattern with

the 108 center hub to fit over these factory hub centers.

So it's really, really big front axle on this thing.

That's why it can handle so much power.

So talk about the use case for this.

Is it just for shows?

For fun?

Like, what do you envision?

Was it just like mad scientist?

Yes, and yes.

We can do it?

Yeah, okay.

So yeah.

You can drift it.

You can race it.

You can operate it.

We will not be racing it.

And so, yeah, like you said, many different disciplines applied to this build.

We didn't want to just go one single direction.

It's kind of like this eclectic evolution of different abilities that this car has.

But as far as what we're going to do with it, yes, it's a fun car.

We don't plan on racing it.

In my opinion, it's too clean to race.

I was thinking it's pretty damn nice.

Yeah.

I mean, I know that our GTZ we just built is just as, if not cleaner, but it's also,

this is just such a rarity.

This is a special.

It's been with 35 years old or whatever it is.

So, yeah, 1990 and it's in absolute mint condition.

So like I don't plan on just going out and smashing this thing up.

It's just, it's to show the capabilities of not only our shop and our team, but also,

you know, just a throwback of heritage to Nissan and Nismo.

And I will say, I love, there's a couple little touches on it.

Hey, it's right hand drive.

Yeah.

But like I grew up, you know, in the nineties where it was all JDM stuff, you know, Civic

SI and Honda Accord.

And you know, there's a, there's a few little of those JDM kind of little knots like your

carbon fiber racing mirrors on a super rad.

Yeah.

Because it had the big bulky window mount thing.

Yeah.

It's out to here.

I'm like, no, no.

It's funny how good they look on this thing.

I know.

I'm like, they don't look out of place at all.

Yeah.

And then you're running what is a 35 inch Yokohama.

Yep.

35's front and back.

And so it's, yeah, it's a great fit.

It fills out the wheel wells.

It actually had these extra little add on fender flares on it, but it really like closed in

the wheel well.

And so I, I took them off.

Open it up a little bit.

Let the tire kind of hang out a little bit.

One with the bigger tire.

It fits really, really well.

Well, dude, thanks for walking us through it.

This might be my favorite one here.

Oh, thank you.

I mean, I appreciate that.

You gotta admit that the, the GTR powered Infiniti's pretty rad.

But that's pretty sick.

But this is, this is almost the same power.

It's special.

It's a little bit more special.

Yeah.

So it's, yeah, it's got a really unique sound to those fireballs out the roof.

So, or to the roof, I should say.

Yeah.

To the roof.

Yeah.

It's, it's wild.

So we're going to be firing this thing up and driving it back to the show.

It runs and drives beautifully.

All right.

Hopefully I'm around to you to hear it run because this thing is super special.

Thanks for spending a few minutes with us.

No problem.

Thank you.

All right.

Moving on to the next Nissan concept.

I saw this one come out in an email blast and I was like, okay, that's cool.

So standing in front of the Dune Patrol and I'm with Michael Deardorf.

And where are you from?

We're from Hemet, California.

CJD racing.

Lovely Hemet.

I'm going to be in the Hemet on Saturday, believe it or not.

I actually know where Hemet is.

I have some property out in Anza.

So I'm not too far away.

Yep.

We're very close.

So tell me about this thing.

So this is basically the brand new Armada slash patrol chassis.

So IFS, IRS, but you took this thing to a completely nutty level.

Yeah.

We decided to pull everything off.

Obviously this thing came on airbags.

That was the first to go.

We had to get rid of the whole system.

We had to completely redesign the whole front suspension.

So we actually moved the upper control arms down.

They're frame mounted now.

We've made upper lowers and spindles and steering.

It is extended four inches wider per side, one inch forward to allow for the 37 inch tires.

It is unbelievable the stance this thing has and the bodywork that you created to cover

the four inches wider per side, obviously front and rear.

Correct.

It is, who knew that this body style would lend itself so well to a wide body kit?

Correct.

I mean, it looks really, really awesome.

I was poking around earlier because I'm an off-road guy and I'm like, okay, let's see

what they do with the IRS.

And the front suspension caught my eye too.

I'm a Bilstein guy.

Love the Bilsteins.

Bypasses, coilovers, 9,200s.

Let's talk about suspension on this bad boy.

Yep.

So on the front end, yes, it does run a two and a half inch coilover.

It's a 9,200 series with reservoir.

The bypass is a triple bypass, two and a half with reservoir.

We put 10 inch strokes on them.

It cycles up to 16 inches each time.

Oh my gosh.

16?

Correct.

And it's working four-wheel drive.

So it gets quite a bit.

Fully adjustable, obviously, through the bypasses.

So it works very, very well.

And right now the military is flying over.

We're at the Speedway and Nellis Air Force Base is just down the road.

Wish I was outside to see that.

It sounds cool, whatever it is.

And so I can see, you know, it looks like you have custom axles on it.

Correct.

Oh, another one.

I mean, that never gets old.

Dragster's on one side.

It's amazing.

This is like, this is like...

This is just recording.

We're just going to keep recording because it's awesome.

So, if he got science he would slide over.

That was awesome.

Yeah.

F-35.

Yeah, that was F-35.

That's awesome.

Awesome.

Good luck shooting.

Yeah.

We're still recording the podcast because, hey, who doesn't love engine sounds and genoises, so...

We're not done yet.

All right, so back to the 16 inches of travel, which is amazing on this thing.

You got custom, you know, axle shafts.

Correct.

They're all 4130.

Heat treated, extended, lower inches.

So, the front end is...

The front axles are made by Summers Brothers.

Oh, okay.

So...

And then you're using factory transmission, factory differential?

Correct.

It's all factory.

None of that got touched.

Still has got the factory E-locker in the rear.

So, it's still got all that.

So, moving to the rear, because that's obviously going to be the thing that I'm most curious

about is you got some fair amount of camber here.

So, I'm guessing your rear was probably a lot of fun to figure out how to get similar

travel and have it match front to rear, right?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I love it.

I mean, this is cool, but that's cool too.

Yeah, so the rear, like I said, from the front, you know, it was airbags all the way around,

so we had to get rid of that.

And then, so the rear has three arms.

It's got a lower, an upper, and then a trailing arm off the rear.

Oh, okay.

So, now the rear trailing arm...

Kind of like a desert buggy in a way, right?

Yeah.

So, and the rear arm was for the airbag.

That's what held the car up.

Now we've converted it over to run a coilover.

So, it runs an 8-inch travel 9200 Bilstein coilover arm.

Okay.

And then in front, so they got it spread, but on the front it runs an 8-inch travel 2.5,

9200 Bypass.

And then what are you getting for travel out of the rear?

We're getting 16.

Wow.

It's amazing to have an all-independent car where you have the front and rear matched

and balanced, because, as you know, being off-roader, you can really feel the limitation

on one side of the car.

And when they're both dialed in together, it's pretty awesome.

Yeah, we had a chance to take this thing out.

It works pleasantly well, surprisingly, with the size of the vehicle.

Well, in the V6 that's in here, the Twin Turbo V6, we did the drive.

I love it.

I think that the powertrain is awesome on this thing, and the 9-speed transmission is awesome.

Now, you've got some other Nismo bits on here as well.

You've got the Nismo roof rack with some cargo boxes, and then you've got the CJD racing

Mali panels on the outside with some Rotopax on it, and then external tire carrier swing

out, which is mounted to the frame.

Through the bumper, tastefully, might I add, not just a trailer hitch mount, right?

Correct.

And you've got a full-size spare in mattress on here.

It does.

And that's actually a Mali panel set up too, so it could be changed out if you wanted

to carry fuel back there or you could change your valves and do whatever.

There we go.

Not at all.

So, yeah, so the Mali holding the Max Tracks is basically however you want to use that.

Correct.

And it also looks like you have a round of the Nismo catalog lights.

A lot of those parts are available now through your dealer as well.

Yeah, so the Nismo parts that we put on for them was the roof rack, the rear front bumpers,

the rock sliders, and the pillar melons.

Oh, and that's the other thing, the rock sliders, that's the prototype part that they're actually

looking to put, but you can get one for your Pro 4X down the line.

That is correct.

And it's super tasteful too.

You don't realize how much, you know, the shape of the body.

Obviously, this has the white body kit, so it's a little bit, it kicks out, but without

that, on the standard patrol or Armada, you would basically be able to use that as a foot

pad too, so you basically have the idea of being a step and a rock rail on one.

It's really tastefully designed too, like it's a nice looking piece.

And they're frame mounted so they can be used.

Even better, especially on something that's as heavy as this.

Any other tidbits on it worth checking out?

Only other things.

We did a couple little things on the inside.

We added Mali panels inside the doors, the front and rear, that we will be offering those as well.

So all the parts that we put on, all the CJD parts we will be offering.

So the suspension, the Mali panels, the roof rack Mali panels, even the fenders are going to be available.

So if somebody wants to go and purchase those, how do they find you guys?

We are at CJDRacing.com, or you can find us on Instagram or Facebook.

Right on.

Appreciate your time.

Yeah, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, just in time for more flyovers.

Let's see what's coming.

Hahaha.

Alright, I am standing in front of a QX80 here at Las Vegas Speedway with Mark Luvers.

Luvers, yep.

Luvers.

And it's a color shifting, it looks like the old chameleon that was on the Mustangs back in the day,

but it's a color shifting like purple to teal, bronze wheels, giant R-Spec calipers, and it's lowered.

And you are going, this isn't a normal QX80.

Now the QX80, luxury, powerful, quiet, and we know the new platform that shares with Armada and Patrol,

uses an engine that has roots in the GTR program.

And so we know that that engine program has roots in the GTR, so somewhere in the halls of Nissan Infiniti,

somebody said, let's just, what the heck, put a GTR motor in one of these?

Or, talk to me about it.

You hit it with that heritage, right?

QX80 shares great DNA with Patrol, and then in the Nissan family.

We've got that VR series of engines, none better than GTR.

So when it leaves the factory, the VR35 and the QX80, 450 horsepower, 516 foot-pound torque, no slouch.

But when you're coming to SEMA, we're looking at how to do that.

That's right.

So we went and found GTR motor.

Not only GTR, it's your Nismo motor.

Oh, even better.

That's right.

And then warmed it up.

And so did aftermarket internals, turbos, fuel system, all capable of a thousand horsepower.

Oh my God.

So we know that the GTR engine, one of the selling points of the new version of the QX and the Armada

is that it has this platform heritage as far as the engine goes with GTR,

which has to be one of the most hammered on turbo V6s in the history of all turbo V6s.

And so there was conversation, I wouldn't say conservative conversation,

like, oh, you're replacing a Triton True V8 with this turbocharged smaller displacement V6.

And you're like, well, hold on a second, because this is the V6 if you're going to do it.

That's right.

And we know how far that engine can go.

Nissan builds an amazing turbocharged V6.

You know what the internals can handle.

So you guys said, OK, let's just do it.

Yeah, lighter, more powerful, more fuel efficient.

So I mean, everybody loves the V8.

Still a place for those in the industry.

Sure.

But there's no complaints, no regrets.

Yeah, I've driven both of the new ones, and they're amazing.

Like, the power is amazing.

It's such a heavy vehicle.

They feel great.

They sound great.

But I can't even imagine what a 1,000 horsepower GTR and a QX is going to be like.

Yeah, and it gets even better.

Ticks, we borrowed more than just the engine from the GTR.

So you mentioned the brakes.

They say R-spec on there.

Those are actually GTR Nismo carbon ceramic brakes.

To slow this thing down, so almost 16 inches in diameter.

I mean, they're massive.

Are these 22-inch wheels?

They're 24s.

Oh my gosh, they're 24s.

Yeah, the brake rotors, I mean, they look like other cars' wheels.

That's right.

Exactly right.

Because QX 80 has 22s from the factory, which are awesome.

So to make these even better, we went with 24s and their custom made.

So they're taking inspiration from the GTR to Cougar wheel.

And then just blew them up bigger, wider.

So it's a 315 series tire on there.

So, you know, got to lay down 12 and a half inches of rubber, you know, down the road.

I mean, it's sitting just nice.

Like you can't even put three fingers between the top of the tire and the bottom of the

fender well.

And it just is sitting perfectly.

You have a nice arrow kit, you know, put the kit on it.

Now, when we go to the engine, what type of mods are downstream?

Is it the same transmission, differentials, things like that are all factory?

Yep.

So the QX 80 and the Autograph trim is an all-wheel drive vehicle.

This application, more of a race spec.

So we have rear-wheel drive.

So it does have the QX 80 transmission, which actually shares with the Titan.

So very durable, tried to awesome.

Awesome nine-speed.

That's right.

And then made a rear-wheel drive.

But we had to make custom adapter to fit the GTR motor, right?

So there's a custom billet plate there between the two.

And then the locking differential.

Because you got to make two even tire tracks when you do your burnout contest.

I want some of the guidance.

You know, want to two big, you know, burnout marks on the ground and run the air conditioner

and the massager seats at the same time.

Man, this is amazing.

So who's the group that helped build this with you guys?

So MotoIQ was our build partner out of California.

They did a phenomenal job for us.

So we had a cross-collaboration team inside the company.

Marketing, sales, engineering, our motorsports team as you can imagine.

And then MotoIQ put it all together for us.

So we're very thankful for their partnership and their dedication in making this what it is today.

Well, it's amazing.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

And look forward to seeing you on the Seaman Show.

Great.

Thanks, Joe.

Thank you.

All right.

So we're taking a break from the air show.

The Air Force is putting on for us right now.

And I'm sitting in a brand new, literally 2026 Nissan Frontier.

And this is the standard Pro 4X because we're going to talk about the special one in just

a minute.

But I'm sitting here with good friend Brent Hagen, who's been on the show a lot of times.

He's never tired of coming back.

And now he's going to let me drive him around the course.

So first thing I notice, I'm sitting in.

I already like this truck.

You know, I like this truck a lot.

And the first thing I notice is there's behind the shifter a mode button that says sand,

on-road, rock, mud, and hill descent control in the middle.

And that's different for 26.

Brand new for 26.

Yeah.

I mean, we already had class leading tuning, off-road tuning.

That's what we feel like.

And what we added to these new modes to really give customers confidence and be able to select

depending on whether in sand or rock, which you're going to show off here, a little bit

of the rock, just added performance and added confidence.

It's one of those things where the Nissan traction control system was already pretty

good, especially loose, rocky, rutted, muddy, slippery surface.

You wouldn't have to turn your diff lock on right away because the brake traction control

was really good.

So now putting into modes, are you further customizing those different modes for that?

So before, it's kind of a general, if you're slipping, we're going to help you get through

it, but now it seems like, OK, we've got drive modes.

So we are more custom tuned for the terrain.

Yeah.

It is custom tuned.

I mean, exactly as you mentioned previously, you had a jack of all trades, master of none,

so to speak, approach.

Now with this, it is specific and unique for each scene.

And the team, I give a ton of credit to their team out in Arizona who've done a lot of testing.

They've gone all kinds of places, butchered Jones trail and Glamis and Moab.

And they've taken the trucks all over, and they've done a ton of testing to get that

tuning just right for each one of those scenes.

So it showcases really, really well the performance and the potential that our engineering team

puts in these trucks.

All right.

So right now we're in four low, and truck is on.

Diff lock is on.

You're in four low.

Just slap it into rock mode there.

All right.

Of course, like that.

Oh, new graphic comes up when you do that.

Yep.

Now it says rock on the dash.

All right.

Away we go.

So we'll do it first in the pro 4x, and then we'll come back and do it in the pro 4x R.

So any other changes to 26?

No.

The addition of the Roush package, the pro 4x R, that's the other big addition to change.

We also have a new color, citrus strike, which you'll see.

Bright.

Which is, yeah, glows in the dark.

It's so bright.

I love it.

So now we're on basically offset moguls, and we can feel the front do its thing, and then

the rear wheel kind of hangs in the back.

So they're the perfect amount to lift the rear, but show you that in rock mode, the traction

even with one wheel is still getting you through.

Yeah.

And it showcases, I mean, you've got plenty of traction.

It's quite confident and confident through that.

But when you get in the other vehicle, you just notice how a little bit less body roll

and movement.

I do like on the Frontier how tight the chassis is.

It's one of those things where there's no creaks or rattles.

It's always been a really, really well-designed, well-engineered truck in terms of chassis

rigidity.

And we just went over the mound, and the mound has a drop-off where you can't see over the

hood, and we're looking at the new, not new, but the front camera.

Last year it was new in the sense that it worked above, is it five miles an hour?

Yeah.

It goes all the way up to, I believe, 12 miles an hour, 20 kph.

And also, it automatically comes on.

So when you put it, you can go either side.

You can go on the outside or the inside.

So we're basically riding a man-made ridge here to demonstrate side sloping.

Yep.

And right now we're on the outside of it.

But as you mentioned there, you can't really see because of the hood, but then you're able

to see with the cameras.

It makes a big difference, and then automatically come on at four.

Is this a new view right here that has the front tire view?

No, we've always had it.

You can select through, but we've always had that one.

All right, coming up to another mogul here.

Having the camera views up to 12 miles an hour is super convenient.

Yeah, it makes a big difference.

Big difference.

Of course, this is the 3.8 liter and 9-speed combo that we're all familiar with.

So you can do an offset here.

Okay.

So just straddle it like this?

So this is an offset.

I think of a hill where one side is lower than the other, and it's slightly offset.

So we're going to show traction control.

We can feel it lifting in the front.

Now the rear is lifting as the front comes down nice and easy.

This has the Bilstein shocks on it.

So the damping on it on the landing was nice and smooth.

We don't need any neck injuries.

No.

We're beyond that.

So I asked Brent and Nissan team, they said, no helmets or anything like that, right?

I'm not approved for that yet.

Nope.

We're just driving the slow course.

It's like, all right, great.

All right.

So with an air show?

With an air show.

Yeah.

So it looks like I'm going to get to do a side slope process.

So think of two mounds offset and it's kind of creating a V-notch type of environment.

So kick up the passenger side here, get some really good lean on it.

He's going to help guide you here there.

And we're going to see the front tip all the way down.

And you have now basically both the passenger side front and the driver side rear in the

air and it's going to tip down.

There we go.

So that was complete chassis flex where one side and the other was off the ground with

the transition in the middle.

Yep.

And as you mentioned, right?

No body flex, no body movement.

You don't hear creaks and rattles and clanks and all kinds of stuff.

And that's a huge credit to our team in Canton, Mississippi who builds these vehicles as well

as our team in Farmington Hills, Michigan who helps design them.

All right.

Now we're going up another probably a 12 foot hill where we have to use the camera to see

what's on the other side.

And the cameras are particularly good for the type of...

No break.

Notice when rock mode, no break.

Just going down.

Yeah.

Not even hill descent control mode.

No, it just engine breaks and I wasn't even touching the pedals and it just did its thing.

The cameras are great for the type of wheeling I do in the desert where you're coming up over

rises and things like that.

And it's awesome to be able to see what's on the other side because you never know in

the desert, especially if there's a washout on the other side and it's not a smooth over.

It's gone on the other side.

All right.

Which way are we going?

Left or right?

You're going to go to the right.

So yeah, you'll keep your driver's side tires just on the inside of those cones.

And of course I'm experiencing the very comfortable zero gravity seats, which Nissan's known for

and I happen to really, really like.

And I found myself a little bit more sensitive to seats these days.

We're going to put you a seat tester.

You could be one of our seat testers.

I need to get one of those, just a zero gravity seat on like an office chair base.

I actually haven't built mine up, but I've got one of those.

It's going to be solid.

All right.

So that's the end of the course.

So this is the standard Pro4X and I don't want to say standard as if it's a bad thing.

This is the Pro4X we all know and love.

But you guys plus this vehicle up for 26.

It's something I found out about a while ago and I've been really excited to get into it

and we're going to hop in that vehicle.

So we'll be right back with you.

All right.

So here we are in another 26 Nissan Frontier.

This one's a little bit different because when you sit on it, there's a big R on the headrest.

Yeah.

So this is a 26 Pro4X R by Roush.

So we partner with them to do it.

It's got a two inch lift.

Olin's 2.0 external reservoir shocks are tough titanium colors on the grille, the skid plates,

the wheels, unique wheel with our more aggressive extreme sidewall tires.

So I like this.

By the way, this thing has the prettiest wheels of almost any truck that's out there right now.

The wheel design is gorgeous.

I do like versus the standard Pro4X have the silver inserts that these have that kind of titanium bronze insert.

And I love the new upper control arm and the new shocks look awesome.

Olin's isn't really well known for the automotive side in the US,

but they're massive in the motorcycle market and they did have some off-road kits, Jeep kits, things like that.

So I'm really excited to put these shocks to the test.

They're a beautiful unit, forged aluminum bodies.

I mean, you look at these outside of the truck and it's a fantastic looking shock,

but you can see there's a lot of engineering in them as well.

Absolutely.

You know, they've done, I've loved partnering with them through Roush.

And you actually see the performance here is quite, quite different than our base Pro4X.

If you would, this isn't two wheel drive.

So we'll go ahead and put this one in four low.

All right, four low.

So put neutral, turn the dial.

All right, we're in four low.

I'm going to go back to rock mode as well.

Correct.

And then put your diff lock on.

All right.

And let me put my diff lock on.

All right, done.

You're ready to go, sir.

All right.

Let's do this.

So instantly being up two inches in the front gives this vehicle a great look.

It looks proper.

The proportions to me are even better.

And it's how this should have come originally because I like having a little bit more height to it.

And it also gets the belly up off the dirt as well, which is nice because you have a little extra ground clearance

where you're not going to hear it on some of the softer type of trails.

Yeah.

Actually, I mean, you mentioned it.

So just over here on one of these other ones on the pro four X, you get just a little bit of skid plate scrape with this one, the two inches.

It picks right up and you don't even, you know, you go right over it.

And to your point about the posture, it's a two inch in the front, one inch in the back, and it changes the posture and look at the vehicle.

It means it's the same size tires as the base pro four X, but it looks completely different.

Part of that's the sidewall of the tire, part of that's the posture, the extra ride height.

It makes it, it makes a big difference in the overall appearance.

The other thing that you notice is, you know, having them parked side by side, the difference is immediate.

You look at the R model and you're like, oh, something looks different about that.

But you see it next to a standard pro four X, like, oh, wow, it's, you wouldn't think two inches make that much of a difference,

but visually it makes a ton of difference.

Yeah, it really does.

So now we're going, we went over the first hill and we're going to go through the side slope that we went through a minute ago.

And did you notice with the moguls how much less body roll?

I mean, it makes a big difference.

Yeah, I can feel how it feels compliant, but it's not, there's no secondary motions.

Even at the slower speeds to be able to get in and feel the differences is pretty incredible.

And the interesting thing about the side slope here is that there's bumps in the middle of it.

So as we're side sloping, the vehicles is actually going up and down the, you know, the suspensions articulating, you know,

in those little pieces as we're coming around the hill here.

And with the diff lock on, you can feel it kind of clawing as we slide down.

All right, so we're done off the side slope and now we're coming to this little hill here.

Yeah, it definitely has that, I don't know if it feels flatter, but it just, it's definitely more control.

I mean, I know that it seems like a catch-all statement, but you can definitely feel the difference in the little movements,

especially on the slow course versus the standard shocks on the Pro-4X, which is a Bilstein, we would call it a 4600.

Right?

No, I mean, I think Olin's and Rausch have done a fantastic job in the tuning.

It's still got our flavor, our Nissan Pro-4X flavor, but it's a little bit more competent,

a little bit more comfortable, honestly, through all of that.

And you don't get a little bit of the body movement, which is just, you know, as you're going around,

you don't have as quite as much head toss, which is more comfortable when you're off-roading, honestly.

Well, it was less fatiguing on a longer day.

And I just took that a little bit faster through that cross-stage because I wanted to see how it would land

and it just touches down and it doesn't, you know, there's no harshness to it.

Right.

All right, here we are on that kind of V-notch.

I would call it an offset V-notch, I guess.

And so we're coming through.

The passenger side kicks up quite a bit.

Get a little bit of pucker there.

And of course we have a little higher center of gravity because of the lift kit.

So it's a little bit different, a little more angle.

And here we are dropping down.

Almost pick up.

Now both sides are off the ground.

And then, all right.

Nice and smooth through.

Boom.

And then we just drop over on the other side and you can feel how when it comes down,

even though it was a little higher rate of speed, you're not running through the jounces.

You're not hitting anything that feels harsh.

It's just the vehicle soaks it all up, which is very cool.

Yep.

Smooth, controlled.

I know we're not driving this on the highway right now,

but how would it compare back to back just going down the road?

Yeah, I mean, it feels like, honestly, on the road, it feels smooth.

It feels comfortable.

It's just like the Pro4X, quite honestly, on road.

You really don't notice too much difference in an on-road scene until you start hitting potholes

or going off-road and getting really aggressive.

Then you start to notice as you start to push it a bit the differences.

But honestly, customers that are familiar with the Pro4X are going to be quite comfortable in their house.

It's going to feel like basically the same vehicle with a little lift and more aggressive stance

and tires and, as you mentioned, these wheels are just gorgeous.

They're so gorgeous.

This is the frontier to have.

I love the way it looks and I'm excited.

Plus, this has reservoir shocks.

So for those longer trips off-road where you're heating up this shock oil and things like that,

these are going to resist that fade and resist that cavitation and heat that you would get from a lesser shock.

Yeah, so this is where previously in the Pro4X you might just touch just a little bit.

You might just kiss the skid plate.

Not going to have any problem with that with the Roush for the extra two inches.

You hear trash control kicking in, starting to work a little bit there.

So is there any change in payload or towing with the Roush versus the standard Pro4X?

Nope, it's the same.

So you're basically getting all this off-road performance enhancement but you're not losing anything in capability.

That's right.

And you're not losing anything in confidence either because Roush backs it up with the same warranty that we have for through Nissan.

So the Roush authorized dealers, you're going to go back in.

If you have any warranty work that needs to be done, you're just the same as a Nissan vehicle.

You take it in and it's completely taken care of.

So quite confidence inspiring, good performance, fantastic looks.

It's a great package, especially at starting price at just over $47,000.

And when you look at the upcharge for the Roush package versus what you would do for wheels, tires,

upper control arm, really good shocks, it's actually a pretty damn good deal.

It's a great deal.

And with the warranty and everything taken care of, right?

You go back into your Nissan dealer and it's all taken care of.

So there's nothing in the aftermarket like it.

Yeah, this would definitely be on my list and as far as current midsize trucks go,

I think there's a lot of people who like the idea of having a non-turbo engine at this point

and having that option in the aftermarket.

Now, there's anything wrong.

There's some great turbo fours out there.

Of course.

But I think there's a subset of people are like, I just want a non-turbo reliable V6.

And obviously Nissan knows what they're doing when it comes to that as well.

And thanks for giving us the ride.

This is my first time in one of these and I can't wait to go do more.

There's a lot of fun.

Thank you, Sean.

All right.

Well, Nissan has handed me the keys to a brand new Nissan Armada Nismo.

So this is the performance version, a little less off-road and a little more twisty road,

I guess.

I already like this package and the Pro 4X and the Platinum Reserve like them a lot.

But this thing is so quiet, isolated, buttery, smooth.

I almost can't believe like how quiet it is.

I don't even know if you can hear it and the throttle tip in is not too aggressive,

but really responsive, if that makes sense.

Like it feels really good.

It's not jumpy, but it gets up and scoot.

So the main changes on the Armada Nismo are the 3.5 twin-turbo V6 now has 460 horsepower

and 516 pound-feet of torque, so it boogies.

Also, it has a reach and exhaust system with the active sound enhancement that says it

amplifies the engine notes inside and outside, but I gotta tell you, it's pretty quiet.

You'd be hard pressed to find some loud engine notes in here.

It feels good, it's responsive, but there's no drone.

It's super comfortable.

Suspension and steering still has electronic air suspension, but it's been tuned by Nismo

engineers and then has the steering for a more responsiveness and direct feel.

It's got 22-inch Nismo RAZE forged alloy wheels.

So if you know RAZE, JDM Crowd, you know it's a great product.

And then high performance tires.

And then there's Nismo Drive mode.

As far as color, I'm in stealth gray, which is really close to bolder that you can get on a

Frontier, something that kind of cementy color.

Lots of red accents.

The Nismo or Nismo badging gets accents on the side mirrors, the red brake calipers,

the Armada badge on the D-pillar, and then lots of Alcantara on the dashboard and door panels

with red contrast stitching.

You get the Nismo unique seats, which are super comfortable with their own kind of embroidered

pattern.

Nismo steering wheels got the red center stripe on it, kind of like a Raptor steering wheel,

so you know where center is.

And then it gets different gauge graphics package, and this has the twin screens next to each

other like the Armada.

And it's great.

I like this in the standard Armada, and I'm loving it in the Nismo.

This would be a great cross-country trip vehicle.

It's just so quiet and so smooth.

I hammered it once, like merging, but it's like even when you hammer it, it's quiet,

which is super funny because it's like, oh, you want it rowdy?

No, you're not going to.

This is like refined performance, and it still has all the body on frame SUV.

Good things about it, like the tow rating and room for seven people and captain's chairs

in the second row, which is great.

I would say the steering is super responsive, if not a little quick off-center.

Other than that, no complaints.

Brake pedal feels great.

No issues there as well.

You can see if you could hear the acceleration there, but the problem is there's,

Thunderbirds are practicing at an Air Force Base and they're right above us right now,

so I doubt you're able to hear that at all.

If you want a sporty SUV that's quiet, rides nice, has room for the family, but has a little

bit of character and personality, this wouldn't be a bad one.

It's a looker, and it's definitely kind of bold in your face with the red accents and

everything, and you definitely know that somebody who's driving this is making a statement,

but all that being said, it's really nice.

Check it out.

We got another F-35 coming in for a landing.

Can you hear him?

I rolled down the window so you guys could see I was driving because it was so quiet.

He's landing right next to us, but probably can't hear it.

Anyway, now you know I'm actually moving.

That's how quiet.

So this is 45 miles an hour windows down.

45 miles an hour windows up.

I mean, what a just so isolated in a good way.

This is the machine that you would love to put hours of asphalt time behind so comfortable.

These seats are outrageously comfortable, and as I was telling Brent in the frontier with

the Frontier Zero Gravity seats, I'm a lot more particular to seat comfort right now

as I heal from everything.

I would say I'm probably pickier than most would be my thought, and the reality is these

are some of the most comfortable seats I think I've ever sat in.

Love this truck.

Love the 460 horsepower.

Maybe I can goose it here for a second and let you hear it green light.

That was just a 45 miles an hour, but man, it's scooted.

And as far as pricing goes, the Nismo sits at the top of the price line up.

So an SV Armada 58840 two-wheel drive SL 63 530 platinum 70,490 pro 4x.

Obviously that's a four-wheel drive standard 74 300 and the platinum reserves at 77 550

and the Nismo model is at 79 530.

All right, well, special thanks to Nissan for bringing me out to see the concepts early

and get some drive time behind the new Frontier pro 4x and pro 4x Roush edition as well as

the new Armada Nismo, which man, I'm really loving this thing.

It's funny, you'll get into something and go, yeah, okay, that's cool, but then this thing

just fits me like a glove.

I could easily mow some serious road trip miles off in these.

So maybe I can get Nissan to let me steal one for road trip.

That would be super cool.

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All right, I'm going to do one gratuitous acceleration run for you.

Of course, a closed course professional.

Don't do this at home.

So this is a sport mode on, and that's part.

I've got my massaging seats going.

Yeah, this thing has some really good massaging seats.

So I'm going to go through this acceleration run in sport mode in supreme comfort.

All right, here we go.

And that was 60.

So there you go.

And you can really feel the all wheel drive come into play.

As soon as there's any slip, the front grabs and pulls you through.

And yeah, it's so big.

And it's not like, like it's different than like a suburban RST or Tahoe RST

with that kind of big V8 brash.

This is like more refined.

It's similar in terms of something this big, you know, being silly and going that fast.

But it's also nice for, you know, passing power and towing and going up hills.

And it just doesn't care.

It just shrugs it all off and it feels great.

So anyway, I'm a fan.

I love it.

Oh, hold on.

Massage seat.

Oh, there's one more intense mode higher.

Let's do that.

S3, E58 - SEMA 2025, Part 1

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