Admittedly, a guilty pleasure of ours is a big, throaty V8 engine. As carmakers shift to smaller turbocharged engines, the large capacity, naturally aspirated eight-cylinder is quickly becoming a dying breed. Yes, those compact boosted engines are fast, but it’s hard to beat the charm and charisma of those dinosaurs.
One of the last SUVs to still use a non-turbocharged V8 engine in the local market is the Nissan Patrol. It’s a proper 4x4 too with a ladder frame chassis with a burbling engine at the front with a wonderful soundtrack. Sure, it drinks fuel like it’s running out of fashion, and the huge fuel tank must be fun to fill up to the brim. And you’ll be filling up a lot because with 400hp under the hood, you’ll want to, um, make good use of that ‘power reserve’.
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But what if fuel bills are no problem, you want to go even faster and burn even more gas? There’s the Patrol Nismo for that and, apparently, one Nissan dealership is selling it locally. That dealership is Nissan North EDSA under the Autospeedygo group.
Mind you, this is just a kit and not the full Nismo package. For the kit, it gets a unique front bumper with a deeper chin spoiler, along with side skits and a new rear bumper. Also included are the wheels from in-house tuning firm.
That said, it would be nice if the full package was sold here. That 5.6-liter V8 engine was handed over to Nissan’s ‘Takumi’ craftsmen to eke out more power. It’s a big deal too, given that Takumi craftsmen are also the ones that build GT-R engines. The result is 428hp, a healthy upgrade of 28hp over the standard Patrol. The torque rating is the same as the less-sporting Patrol, but it’s still a healthy 560Nm.
Other upgrades? It has a unique suspension arrangement by Bilstein, a sportier interior, red highlights inside and out, and stronger brakes. We’d be careful when taking it off-road, as the Nismo rides low-profile tires.
The price? Nissan North EDSA is selling the Patrol Nismo for P4,999,000. For comparison, the standard Patrol retails for P4,698,000, meaning that you’ll pay P301,000 extra for the Nismo.
It might sound like too much money for a cosmetic package, but remember that wheel and tire upgrade are easily in the six-digit figures, too. And let’s not forget that the kits attached to this modelcan easily be more expensive than a decent secondhand car. If you think of it that way, then the Patrol Nismo might even be a bit of a bargain...
For millionaires, that is.
