Nissan is hitting the Montreal Auto Show with a wild, snow-hungry, tracked sedan project that it's calling "the ultimate expression of all wheel drive." The Altima-te AWD is an interesting mix of mild and wild, and its massively flared arches actually make it look super tough.
We've seen plenty of tracked car conversions for snow driving from Nissan before, but the concept looks a lot less outrageous when you start out with a Rogue or Pathfinder 4WD. Start out with a sedan – in this case the Altima, which comes standard with AWD in the Canadian market – and the visuals are a lot more interesting.
The Altima-te AWD uses American Track Truck's Dominator track system, with a 380-mm-wide (15-in), 750-mm-tall (30-in) track at each corner. Getting the tracks to fit a sedan took a fair bit more work than usual, but the resulting 180-mm (7-in) flares on the wheel arches look deadly cool from the right angle, and the extra width at the bottom level gives this thing a wide and aggressive stance. Well, from low down, at least, it has a bit of a dorky look from the side but we'll give it a pass.
The resulting snow tosser sits some 80 mm (3 in) higher than the stock car, with the load bearing chassis dropped by 30 mm (1.2 in), the suspension components raised by 50 mm (2 in), and the geometry corrected to "restore the proper kinematics."
It's a one-off project vehicle for Nissan, and after Montreal it can be expected to do the rounds of North American auto shows.
Check out a cheesy video below.
Source: Nissan
