It came, it saw, it conquered: The Nissan Patrol
A few highlights that contributed to this included the 60-Series Nissan Patrol which became the first vehicle to ever make it across Australia’s Simpson Desert. Motorsport was also on the cards for the Patrol. The jewel in the crown of 4WD rallying is the Paris-Dakar Rally and in 1987, the Patrol was the first diesel to ever break into the top-10 at the prestigious race, in fine style too: 1st in class and 9th overall, no walk in the park. A rival, the Mitsubishi Pajero had a more dominant record, but the Nissan Patrol’s rally performance at Dakar made it enormously popular. The Spanish were particularly fond of the Nissan, in 1986 one in every two vehicles sold was a Patrol, a bonkers statistic that pays testament to the reputation and desirability of the model.
Through the 90’s and early 2000’s, the rise of luxury SUVs, such the Range Rover, BMW X5 and Porsche Cayenne was snowballing, but the humble Patrol’s popularity never wavered. It has remained honest and has never relyed on being a status symbol to reinforce sales, this remains the case to this day.
Y62 is the code for the current Patrol model which was first shown at a VIP event in Abu Dhabi, reflecting the Patrol’s special relationship with customers in the Middle East. As with the models before it, there were a host of sporting firsts such as Nissan’s ALL MODE 4×4, Hill Descent Control and Hill Start Assist, making the Y62 the most sophisticated Patrol to date.
Since its introduction, the model has claimed as astonishing three Guinness records – the first in 2013 when it towed the world’s heaviest aircraft, a 170-ton Ilyushin-76 cargo plane, for over 50 meters at the Sharjah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates. In 2015, it claimed another Guinness World Record for the fastest ascent of a 100-metre sand dune when it took just 4.9 seconds to climb the famous Wadi-Rum dune in Jordan, a formidable record and a shocking showcase of talent. Finally, in 2018, a group of 180 Nissan Patrols set a new record for the largest synchronised car dance in Dubai when two concentric lines of cars were driven in the opposite direction to create the body of a flying falcon.