Continuing with Nissan?s apparent mission to add tracks to an example of every vehicle it currently builds, the company would like to present you with a concept car based on the 370Z roadster and dubbed the 370Zki. If you looked at the photograph and pronounced it ?370-Ski,? congratulations; you?ve won a dog that loves trucks! Pick him up at your local shelter. You?ll know him when you see him. Pickup-loving canines aside, what of this, the most zany application of snowgoing equipment that Nissan has yet pursued" Read on, snow speeder.
Set to bow at the Chicago auto show later this month, the 370Zki was a bit more of a production to create than simply bolting up a set of tracks to the rear and swapping the front wheels for a couple of skids. First, the whole drivetrain had to come out, followed by the fabrication of a custom three-inch lift kit to enable the 370Zki to better suffer the drifts and moguls of outrageous snowbound fortune. New mounts for the rear springs had to be fabricated, as did three-inch spacers to mount the 15-inch-wide American Track Truck tracks to the rear.
Up front, the suspension underwent some tweaking to work with the rear ride height, and custom adapters were required to allow for the travel and rotation of the front skis, which also came courtesy of American Track Truck. The skis themselves, 12 inches wide and 56 inches long, were simply mounted to the front hubs with some spacers. This is where the Z-car differs most from previous betra...