Sometime not long ago, Nissan realized that you don't have to wait until SEMA to create a fun, one-off show vehicle. Already this year it's revealed a number of them, including a BBQ-grade Titan and a skiable 370Z. At this year's ICAST sport fishing show in Florida, it's adding the Titan Surfcamp, a pickup built from the ground up for chasing waves and nibbling schools of fish before taking in sunsets on the sand.
Nissan's found itself a good formula – take a stock truck, SUV or car, throw on some big, loud aftermarket parts and accessories, and bring it to a relevant trade show to drum up some make/model hype. The company explains that these one-off builds are designed to help tie together customers' passions with Nissan vehicles. This time around, it's taken a 2018 Titan XD Midnight Edition and turned it into a retro-inspired beach-hopping base camp.
"Inspired by the vintage beach trucks of the 1960s, Titan Surfcamp is a celebration of the beach truck tradition with all the modern technologies Titan customers want when they head out to surf, shore fish and camp-out by the water," says Fred DePerez, VP of Nissan North America's LCV business unit.
It may be designed for the surfy coast, but the Surfcamp is stocked from tires to roof-top with brand names we see farther inland each year at Overland Expo. The most eye-catching additions are up high, where a Freespirit Recreation Elite Series roof-top tent and 270-degree Rhino Rack Batwing awning shelter beachgoers from the elements. There's also a Road Shower 4 solar-heated roof shower for washing up atop an accompanying teak wood deck.
Those upper-deck additions are held in place over top the Titan bed by a Leitner Designs rack. Beneath that rack, space is filled out with Decked storage drawers, a Yeti 125 cooler, and some open air waiting to be filled with miscellaneous odds and ends.
More storage is available atop the Rhino Rack mounted over the driver's cab. Fishing rods ride on that roof rack during the drive to the water and can be set up in rod holders on the no-nonsense Fab Four Vengeance front bumper once the bait has been cast.
On the automotive side, the big performance modification is a 3-in (76-mm) lift via the factory-authorized Icon suspension kit. That's complemented by big, ol' Nitto Ridge Grappler tires stuck to Icon Alpha alloy wheels. Power comes from the stock Cummins 5.0-liter V8 turbo diesel engine, and the addition of a full auxiliary lighting kit makes the Surfcamp a capable day/night off-road driver.
The truck's baby-blue wrap draws inspiration from the 1967 Nissan Patrol and the Hot Wheels 1971 Datsun Bluebird Wagon "JNC Surf Patrol." Inside, wetsuit-inspired neoprene seat covers and heavy-duty rubber floor mats accommodate wet, sandy passengers.
After debuting at ICAST in Orlando, Florida between July 10 and 13, the Titan Surfcamp will make its way to the US West Coast for an appearance at the Supergirl Surf Pro in Oceanside, California later this month.
Source: Nissan
