History

First Unveiled at the 1985 Frankfurt Autoshow, the MID4 was a concept car designed by Nissan to originally go on sale in the mid-late 1980s. Nissan had aimed the MID4 to compete with European supercars from Porsche

Porsche

Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....

 and Ferrari

Ferrari

Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...

. The MID4 boasted a wide array of technology and features that would eventually find its way into other Nissan production cars. The MID4 prototypes would evolve into the MID4 II, though it would never be put into production.

Early Development

The responsibility of creating the MID4 was given to a team of designers headed by Shinichiro Sakurai

Shinichiro Sakurai

was a Japanese engineer inducted into the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame who originally worked for Prince Motor Company then later moved to Nissan. After graduating from Yokohama National University, Sakurai joined Prince as a chassis engineer in 1952, and was heavily involved in the development of...

 in the Spring of 1984. The progress of Sakurai

Shinichiro Sakurai

was a Japanese engineer inducted into the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame who originally worked for Prince Motor Company then later moved to Nissan. After graduating from Yokohama National University, Sakurai joined Prince as a chassis engineer in 1952, and was heavily involved in the development of...

's MID4 team was amazingly rapid, the first four prototypes were completed by March of 1985.

See also

• Nissan 300ZX
• Nissan Skyline
• Nissan VG engine
• Nissan