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A thundering supercharged V8 engine was almost a reality for the incoming Nissan Patrol Warrior, in a move that would have surely struck fear into the heart of arch rival the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series.
We now know that Victorian engineering outfit Premcar has tweaked just about every part of the Nissan Patrol to create the new Warrior, but the one thing the company left untouched is its 5.6-litre petrol V8, which still delivers 298kW of power and 560Nm of torque.
But that wasn't always going to be the case. In fact, Premcar seriously considered fitting a supercharger to that already potent powertrain, which would have produced Australia's most monstrous off-road ready SUV.
Premcar Engineering Director, Bernie Quinn, even spent time behind the wheel of a supercharged V8 Patrol - one produced aftermarket - to assess the powertrain for the Warrior program, but the supercharger was left on the cutting room floor, ostensibly owing to the increase in fuel use, but also because of fears it would make the vehicle less useable across the breadth of driving situations.
"The really important thing is that, whenever we do a Warrior program, we increase the bandwidth of capability in the vehicle," Quinn says.
"So practically what that means is that, when we do a suspension program, we can't sacrifice on-road comfort for off-road capability.
"We have to increase the bandwidth, not shift it. When we do an exhaust system, we can't make it loud at the expense of highway comfort, for example."
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Australian firm Harrop Engineering produce an aftermarket supercharger package for the Patrol, which increases the V8's outputs to around 400kW and 735Nm.
One thing the Patrol Warrior does get, though, is what Premcar describes as the best sounding V8 exhaust note the company has ever produced – a big promise from a company famed for working on Ford's FPV performance vehicles.
"It's got a bimodal exhaust. Premcar has done a lot of V8 exhaust programs, and I can tell you that this exhaust is the best-sounding one we've ever done," Quinn says.
"When you want to hear the exhaust, go past a certain accelerator pedal opening, or past a certain speed, that exhaust will open up and you hear the NASCAR noise. It's great."
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