Nissan gives an old city car a V6 makeover

Nissan gave the Micra, an old city car that’s no longer in production, a Fast and Furious-style makeover, and it also tweaked its V6 for good measure.

The Japanese automaker had a look at its back catalog and decided to remind everyone it once made a hot version of the Micra, an unassuming city car.

We’re certainly glad they did that because it looks amazing.

But we should also point out there’s another reason behind this ‘restomod’.

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Some people would call this a restomod, which is a blanket term that’s often used for old cars that are restored, and sometimes modernized, to better fit today’s world.

Most restomods are designed to make obsolete cars usable again, and this is usually due to safety or environmental reasons.

That’s what happened with the Ferrari F40 made by Alte Prestazioni, which looks exactly the same on the surface but it’s completely different underneath, or the Lamborghini Gallardo-based supercar named after Mount Etna, a volcano in Italy.

But sometimes, automakers just build them for fun, and that’s the case with this Nissan Micra.

But there was another reason too.

Nissan decided to revamp a hot version of its city car, the Micra, ahead of the launch of the new model, which is going to be electric, and loosely based on the Renault 5.

But this one isn’t electric, not even remotely.

The Micra was unveiled in 1982 and it was exactly the sort of car people would buy and enjoy, but then forget all about the second they got rid of it.

This probably explains why even hardcore car enthusiasts may have forgotten about a one-off, mid-engined (!) concept called the Micra 350R.

That’s the car you see here.

Nissan made it more modern, with LED lights, Apple CarPlay (the standard one, not the new ‘Ultra’ version), new wheels, a new spoiler and a new livery.

The manufacturer also tweaked 3.5-liter V6, which now makes 300 horsepower.

In a Micra.

For the record, this is the powertrain that comes from the same family of engines that Nissan also used for some Z-cars, including the 350Z, and the Skyline.

Unsurprisingly, the Micra 350R is a one-off that’ll probably end up in a museum at some point.

One last hurrah ahead of the transition to electric power.

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