Nissan Z SUV revealed

For those who yearn for the new Nissan Z coupe but need something with a bit more space and off-road capability, students at the Nissan Gakuen technical college have a solution: the high-riding, one-off Fairlady X.

To create the Fairlady X, apprentices carefully grafted the Nissan Z's nose and rear-end designs onto the bigger SUV body of the second-generation Nissan Murano not sold in Australia.

In what was no small feat, the new Nissan Z's headlight, grille and bonnet were all successfully implanted onto the Nissan SUV. Helping improve the Murano's stance, meantime, the budding team of designers, engineers and assembly workers also widened the Nissan SUV's wheel-arches.

At the rear, the Nissan Z's trademark tail-lights are added along with a prominent boot-lid spoiler, while the lower half of the Murano's tailgate were painted black to replicate the sporty coupe.

Inside, as you can see in the video, the Murano's interior has been stripped and it's thought the students will add four individual sports seats from the Nissan Z and clad the cabin with racy carbon-fibre and Alcantara.

Under the bonnet, it's unlikely the Murano's 3.5-litre V6 has also been uprated to match the 298kW output of the latest Nissan Z's twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6.

Wider wheels also hint at a chassis upgrade, but it's not known whether the Fairlady X scores suspension or brake enhancements. All is expected to be revealed at the Tokyo Auto Salon, which opens on January 13.