 There's a lot more to pickup trucks these days than a cab, a bed and a big engine. Today's trucks are often as much about how they look as they are about what they can do, and it's often a case of the more rugged, macho and brutish they are the better. Of course, they still have to be highly capable as well as looking the part, and few production models check all the boxes quite as well as the Nissan Titan Warrior Concept truck that may have given us a tantalizing glimpse into the future of Nissan.
The Nissan Titan Warrior is a concept built on the sensational 2016 Titan XD, which already upped the ante in the full-size pickup market when it was released last year. The Warrior boasts an unapologetically aggressive style, uncompromising off-road components and capability, and its inspiration was taken directly from the off-road racing heritage of Nissan. Basically, the Titan Warrior Concept takes the Titan XD to an entirely new level of style and off-road performance.
Nissan's Titan Warrior also takes a big part of its inspiration from Project Titan, which was a crowd-sourced original-generation Titan that was customized to allow two U.S. military veterans to represent the Wounded Warrior Project on what was a grueling, once-in-a-lifetime adventure in Alaska. The Warrior also pays homage to Nissan's heritage of Baja "Hardbody" competition pickups and entries in the fabled Paris-Dakar Rally.
The standard wheelbase and length of the Titan XD Crew Cab was maintained for the Warrior, but an even more powerful presence than the original was required. To achieve it, the height was raised by almost three inches, from 78.7 inches to 81.5 inches, to accommodate a set of 37-inch high off-road tires mounted on custom 18x9.5-inch aluminum-alloy rims.
Another component that remained the same as the regular XD was the engine. Then again, as the engine already in place was a 5.0-liter Cummings turbo diesel developing 310 horsepower and a massive 555 lb.-ft. of torque, it's easy to see why it didn't need upgrading.
Where things did get very different though is the suspension, where a full custom design was brought in to replace the standard suspension. In the front, the Warrior got a custom upper and lower control arm with performance ball joints, and racing-style internal bypass reservoir coil-over shocks with custom reservoir mounts and tie-rod extensions. Rear modifications saw custom internal bypass reservoir shocks with custom reservoir mounts employed, along with adjusted-length prototype axles, a custom sway bar, relocated sway bar brackets, and rear lift blocks and U-bolts. Both the front and the rear suspension also benefitted from the addition of hydraulic pressurized bump stops.
The exterior and interior styling enhancements are plain to see, and there's no disputing the wisdom of Nissan for calling the overall look "modern armor." The final look certainly wasn't all style over substance though, as despite its massive bulk, the Titan Warrior Concept added a number of primarily aerodynamic elements, which included a carbon fiber rear cab spoiler and tailgate spoilers.
José Muñoz, the executive vice president of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and chairman of Nissan North America, said of the truck, "There's a sense to the exterior design that the Titan Warrior Concept could drive right off the auto show stage and retrace the historic route of Nissan's off-road racing victories in the Baja Peninsula. And given the high-torque Cummins 5.0L V8 Turbo Diesel, extensive suspension modifications and Titan XD heavy-duty durability, it certainly could."
There's only one problem that's glaringly obvious with the Warrior, and that's the fact you can't walk into a showroom and buy one, at least not yet.