Nissan Based Classic Dakar Entries...

Lets face it…Nissan has always been an “also ran” in the Dakar…coming close a few times but never taking the top spot in the world’s best endurance race. That said…with the opening of the Dakar Classic category the last few years it has brought out some cool vehicles from mothballs and I like to track them and see pictures of them. So here with the official release of the Dakar ‘23 entry lists we can see what we have for this edition. They’ll be up against the usual range of Mitsubishi Pajeros, Landcruisers, Fiat Pandas, Rothsport Porsches, etc. but are represented in surprisingly good numbers with many coming from the Italian firm of Tecnosport who is sending a whole range of Nissans over for the Dakar Classic as you can see in the car hauler picture at the bottom…So without further delay, here are your Nissan based Dakar Classic entries for 2023 and a few photos of the vehicles.

• Team # 722 Nissan Pathfinder Valentina Casella

• Team #729 Nissan Patrol GR Y61 Gian Paolo Tobia Cavagna

• Team #748 Nissan Patrol K260 Luis Pedrals Marot

• Team #749 Nissan Patrol GR Y60 Radek Vavra

• Team #750 Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder) Urbano Alfonso Gherardo Clerici

• Team #754 Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder) Francisco Javier Benavente

• Team #757 Nissan Patrol Y60 Jean-Christophe Moine

• Team #767 Nissan Terrano 2 (Pathfinder) Dutschler Gian Enrico

• Team #773 Nissan Patrol 260 Asier Duarte Rodriguez

• Team #790 Nissan Terrano 2 (Pathfinder) Garosci Riccardo

• Team #792 Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder) Lorenzo Piolini

• Team #796 Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder)

• Team #806 Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder) Peter Schey

Nissans at Baja Portalegre 2020

Rally Raid goes on regardless of Covid and worldwide disruption. I have my concerns about whether Dakar is going to happen in early 2021 but many organizations are pushing forward with events including the Baja 1000 coming up in Mexico, a host of rally raid events in Europe and South America over the past month or so and upcoming two events in the Middle East. So…some of us have gotten on with the business of living life….

Baja Portalegre is a big annual event that has a fairly lengthy history and brings out some big names. This year it was Dakar regulars Bernhard Ten Brinke and codriver Tom Colsoul taking home the win behind the wheel of a top flight Overdrive Toyota Hilux.

Nissans didn’t take the win (unsurprising!) but did have a number of respectable showings in what looks like a particularly wet and sloppy event. Five of the 29 finishers were behind the wheel of Nissans. Three of these were Navaras and two Pathfinders, finding themselves in 14th, 18th, 21st, 26th and 29th places out of 29 finishers. One Nissan ended as a DNF being the Navara of Nuno Tordo. Of additional note is that the 18th place finisher in Ronald Van Loon and 21st place Stefan Carmans were both VK56 Navaras manufactured by the RedLine Motorsports effort from South Africa who continues to produce these high end vehicles for Privateers across the globe. Photos of some of these vehicles in action at the Portalegre below.

December 2018 Nissan Sales

So let’s not kid ourselves…we only care about trucks or maybe SUVs…if they’re cool.

Nissan released its final number for both December and its full year 2018 results. Overall Nissan sales were up more than 7.5%but that didn’t offset earlier declines and overall ‘18 results were down some 6% from ‘17. This isn’t necessarily terrible given how strong the whole industry was in ‘17 and ‘18 truck results were what I’d call “acceptable”.

December was another exceptionally strong month for the Frontier, moving 7500 trucks bringing ‘18’s results to about 80,000. Given this is a now 13+ year old platform that showed a 7% growth over ‘17, Nissan execs have to be wondering why they would ever bother replacing it…Hell, why not introduce a new model and continue to market a down-contented “classic” Frontier as they have with the Rogue in the past?

The Titan? Oh the Titan…as an owner of a ‘17 Titan (and Frontier, and Pathfinder) I root for this truck but despite the money Nissan spent in developing it and what a quality truck it is—strong engine, good quality, good amenities, solid towing and cargo, good gas mileage, etc. Nissan just hasn’t seemed interested in promoting it outside of the occasional small sponsorship. People just truly don’t realize the value the truck is given its 100,000 mile warranty. And so…its December sales were only 4,600+ units bringing its ‘18 total to about 50,500 which is down from ‘17’s 53,000. There is just too much competition in this segment for Nissan to let it sit without major marketing backing.

So that’s it for the month and year…we’ll see what ‘19 brings…maybe the intro of the next Frontier?