(engine whirring)
- Yo, do you like JDM stuff?
What about Inline-6 stuff?
What about the kind of Inline-6s
that make more twerks than HRSPRS,
for climbing over rocks?
Hell, they're good for drag racing too.
(engine whirring)
It's the four by four Aussies love to off road,
and the Middle East loves to hoon.
(engine whirring)
This is everything you need to know
to get up to speed on the Nissan Patrol.
I'm (beep) back baby!
(upbeat music)
(crashing)
- Hey guys, Nolan here.
Huge thanks to our sponsor this week, Ring.
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I install it at my house, and I can see
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He brings blankets and hot cocoa,
and we just watch TV all day together.
It's very fun.
As a loyal subscriber to Donut,
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Thank you Ring for sponsoring this episode.
(beeping)
- It was the late 40s, and WWII
had just done a number on quite a few countries,
just like a heart attack did a number
on quite a few of my heart. (laughing)
In Japan, government officials
looked at their wrecked roads and decided
to commission Toyota and Nissan
to make some utilitarian go er-where vehicles.
Those military Willys Jeep things
they saw running around looked pretty useful.
Plus building more stuff helps the economy.
That's running a country 101.
So, in 1951, Toyota introduced the first land cruiser,
and Nissan showed up with the 4W series.
The Japanese government officials
kicked tires on both of 'em,
and ended up giving the contract to Toyota.
(groaning)
Poor Nissan.
Always a bridesmaid, never the little
Japanese Jeep that they pick.
But they weren't gonna let a little rejection
stop them, so they went ahead
and put the new four wheel drive utility
up for sale for the public.
The first 4W60 models were sold only in Japan.
They were what you might call basic.
Not Ugg Boots and pineapple spiced basic.
Basic as in literally rough around the edges,
bare bones, basic.
They were made to be useful, not comfortable.
Not even one bit.
There was no roof, just a soft top,
and for some reason, the passenger seat
was wider than the driver seat.
I assume it's in case you need
to pick up a very, very wide friend.
Over the rest of the 50s,
a variety of practical 4W70 models
were added alongside the original Jeep like 4W60.
It wasn't until 1958, the same year
that my dad was born, that Nissan started
calling the mid sided Utes the Patrol.
They were mainly used by fire departments,
police forces and the military.
Don't act surprised.
You could probably see that coming.
That 1950s 4W models are some
of the rarest Patrols today.
You're not gonna find one on Facebook Marketplace.
After nine years, sales were good enough
that the Patrol got an update,
and officially started shipping
to other countries shores in 1960.
This generation is known as the 60 series.
So that's easy to remember,
because that's when they started.
Most importantly, it was also
when the patrol first went down under, mate.
(engine whirring)
You can get a short wheel base, soft top 60,
a long with a wheel based G60
in pick up for wagon form,
and later a hard top K60.
And the Nissan Patrol meant big Australian news
as the first vehicle to be driven
across the Simpson Desert in 1962.
Regg Sprigg, which is a guys name,
and his wife, and their two kids
made the journey in a G60 Patrol.
That's not some easy ass hard packed desert,
FYI, the Simpson Desert has the world's longest
parallel of sand dunes, which range in height
from 10 feet to 130 feet.
So just imagine what it was like
to slowly roll across some hot as desert,
and claw up dune after dune in a primitive,
uncomfortable four by four,
under the searing Australian outback sun.
Then put a couple of Australian children
in the back screaming.
- I'm hungry, mom.
I want shrimp.
- Yeah mom, feed up shrimp off the barbie and the Vegemite.
- Hey mom, it's a wallaby.
Can I have me knife?
- Oh that's not a knife, this is a knife.
- Oi, where'd you get that knife?
- I packed it in my kisser. - Your kisser, I told you not
to put no knives in your kisser.
I'll turn this G60 around and go right
down this dune, and I'll flop on you with it.
- Oh Regg, just let them be.
- I love you Sheila.
You're my Sheila.
(kissing)
- Ew!
- Yuck!
- Mom and dad are making the boogins again.
- The Sprigg family adventure
proved that Nissan could make rugged stuff
that took all the abuse that you could throw at it,
just like me when I was a kid.
Patrols came with beefy leaf springs,
three speed manual transmissions,
and 2-speed transfer cases.
The SUVs had tall ride heights
and narrow bodies, perfect for traveling tight,
rough trails and squeezing between rocks
and trees and other obstacles,
like trees and wolves and bears.
First gear was so tall, you could just
let it go and it climbed stuff by itself.
And Nissan started exporting the second gens
to other harsh environments too,
like Africa, the Middle East, and the United States.
Yeah baby, it's harsh here too.
Have you ever been to fricking Tallahassee?
Pretty harsh.
The two door Patrol first entered
the US market in 1961, with its trusty
Inline-6 making 145 HRSPR, and 235 pound feet of twerks.
The company was already selling cars
branded at Datsuns here, but they chose
to leave the Nissan badge on the Patrol.
The only car named Nissan in the country
at this time was the Patrol.
The top speed was a hair rustling 73 miles per,
and it had the turning radius of a freaking
stegosaurus, which everybody knows
is the worse turning dinosaur ever.
Nissan claimed it could climb
a 65% grand and hold six Nolans.
It had easy to clean vinyl upholstery,
so you could murder people in it.
And two, fold down bench seats
faced towards each other from the sides in the back.
So you would never miss your friend.
Hi.
(lightening striking)
To sway us merkins towards buying
a foreign car that was a little
outside of their wheelhouse,
Nissan hired a popular entertainer
to be the Patrol's official spokesman.
The king of the cowboys.
Singer slash actor slash cowboy, Roy Rodgers.
It was portrayed as the perfect vehicle
for the all American sportsman.
You can buy a Nissan Patrol
at a Datsun dealership all the way until 1969,
but they never made a dent in the market.
Even though it had been more than 15 years
since the end of WWII, people hadn't forgotten,
and buyers attitudes were slow to change.
Roy Rodgers didn't manage to change their minds either.
The FJ40 Land Cruiser managed to snag
more of what little SUV market there was.
The Patrol was actually better,
in a lot of people's minds, but you know
that quality doesn't necessarily correlate with sales.
I mean how else can you explain the PT Cruiser?
They sold a ton of those.
That reminds me, we have a podcast,
and there's a two part episode
about the PT Cruiser for some reason.
Check out the link in the description below.
And we are launching a second Donut channel
dedicated entirely to podcast.
I'm very, very excited about it.
Hit the bell so you know when we drop anything.
By the time Nissan pulled the patrol from the US,
they had only sold about 2200 in eight years.
So Americans still needed some time
to warm up to the old foreign made SUV idea,
but the Indian army knew something good when they saw it.
They licensed the 60 series and an earlier gen,
4W73 Carrier truck, and started building
the four by four in Indian factories in 1965.
They didn't call either one the Patrol though,
instead they used JONGA, an acronym
for Jabalpur Ordinance and Guncarriage Assembly,
which makes total sense to me.
Abbreviations usually use the middle letter of a word.
JONGAs earned a bulletproof reputation
and were locally produced all the way up until 1999.
The 60 series patrol was sold
by Nissan in other markets through the 1970s,
but after almost 20 years, it was time for a major update.
1980.
It's the start of the decade that
introduced us to synthesizers,
and the Pet Shop Boys, and the third generation,
160 series Patrol.
(engine whirring)
Or as was known down under, the MQ Patrol.
In Japan, Nissan changed the Patrol's name to Safari,
but left it the same for the rest of the world.
More engines were added to the line up,
including a 3.3 liter diesel,
and a 2.8 liter inline six.
You could get them with brightly colored
80s graphics and blue interior.
80s style was fricking rad, dude.
The four wheel drive market now spoke
to off road enthusiasts, and not just people
who needed capable trucks, but enthusiasts.
People who did work for fun.
Those people wanted graphics and colors,
and I don't blame 'em.
I fricking love both those things.
Now the SUVs came with the 4-speed manual,
or 3-speed auto, and top end models
offered AC and power steering.
There were limited slip differential options,
instead of the two speed transfer case.
It was getting to be a really good truck.
Then Nissan took a stake in a Spanish auto maker,
and in 1983, the Patrol was the first
Nissan model to be manufactured in Europe,
only they called it the EBRO Patrol in Spain.
Hey bro!
Let's take my EBRO.
(upbeat music)
I don't know why this thing had so many different names,
but all of them were the same,
and all of them were sick.
And honestly, all the names are pretty good.
They were so sick that a group of engineers
at Nissan's European Technical Center
decided to build two 2.8 liter
Nissan diesel Patrol race trucks.
Yes! (lightening striking)
Then they took them to a little event
called the Paris Dakar Rally.
You ever heard of it?
One rolled down a sand dune,
but the other finished the notoriously
brutal 8000 mile race in ninth place overall,
winning its class and becoming the first
diesel to ever finish in the top 10.
A year later, one out of ever two SUVs sold
in Spain was a Patrol.
(engine whirring)
(man cheering)
In 1987, the fourth generation Y60 series Patrol
hit the scene and offered a full coil spring suspension,
literally light years ahead of leaf springs.
The coil suspension improved both off road performance
and on road comfort, which are the two things
that you want out of an SUV, right?
The only other SUV on the market
that had coil springs was a way more expensive Range Rover.
Some Patrol models came with a front mounted winch,
and rear sway bar disconnects
for better articulation when off road.
(engine whirring)
A high roof TI model was added in 1989,
which scored Velour trim.
Rear air conditioning so your kids don't get hot.
An upgraded sound system, and get this, alloy wheels.
And in 1990, you could get one
with a fricking RB30 in it!
That's the motor from fricking Skyline, dude!
(engine whirring)
Some crazy Nissan freak even made it
a Patrol with an R35GTR.
(engine whirring)
SUV got constant updates as time went on.
The Nissan Patrol was so popular
that Ford Australia wanted in on the action,
and Ford is huge in Australia.
They sold them as badge engineered Ford Mavericks
between 1988 and 1994.
(engine whirring)
And I can't think of another car
that had so many different fricking names.
The fifth gen Y61 Patrol launched
at the end of 1997, only two years
after Post Malone was born.
It had a more refined look,
drive train changes and increased comfort.
They were more capable off road than ever,
and the 4.8 liter inline-6 could easily
be built out to handle.
- More power, baby.
- No, say it like he says it.
- More power, baby.
- Say it right, Jimmy!
- More power, baby?
- Get the frick out of here, Jimmy!
- More power!
- You'll never be him!
You'll never be him!
- I didn't even wanna be here!
- Get out!
You never come back!
You never come back, Jimmy!
You never come back!
(screaming) (lightening striking)
I guess if you want something done,
you gotta do it yourself.
More power, baby!
The 4.8 liter Inline-6 could handle
its share of more power, baby.
I'm talking like 1000 to 2000 HRSPRS, all right?
Their burley turbo charged Nissan Patrol
zooming up and down sand dunes.
(engine whirring)
And wasting Lamborghinis on the regular
in the high ways of the Middle East.
(engine whirring)
If you wanna build an SUV with super car crushing speed,
you're probably not going to reach Ford Land Cruiser,
and definitely not a Land Rover.
The JDM Safari was discontinued in 2005,
but the Y61 Patrol was in production
for most other markets until 2014,
and all the way through 2016 in Australia and New Zealand.
It was so good that they kept making it
at the same time as the six gen version
of the SUV that came out in 2010.
With all the demand for cross overs and SUVs,
Nissan probably figured they might as well double down.
And for the first time since 1969,
the Patrol returned to the US market
at the Infinity QX56, which is now the QX80.
Then in 2016, the American Nissan brand got it too,
only it's called the Armada.
Coby, are you keeping track?
There's a lot of SUVs going down.
The current Y62 Patrols are full sized,
three row behemoths.
In the 60s, the Patrol's curb weight
was about 3450 pounds.
Nowadays, a new Nissan Patrol
with four wheel drive weighs over 5800 pounds,
and stands six feet four inches tall.
That is an absolute unit.
Engine options now include a four liter
VQ V6, and a 5.6 liter VK V8,
making 390 HRSPRS.
You can get 'em with fancy pants
hydraulic body motion controls,
and ultra comfy interiors with USB power outlets,
and the pinnacle of luxury, fricking DVD player.
Meanwhile the Middle East got a tuned
428 horse power patrol NISMO version,
riding on Bilsteins, because obviously,
we're not worthy of that.
As per yoozh, Americans were left out
in the cold on the cool ass Patrol,
and it was our own damn fault.
Look at us now, you bunch of indecisive
SUV loving jokesters.
Now we might not get Patrols with the best badge.
But we can just go out and buy a new
Armada or an Infinity QX.
The old ones are rare and under appreciated,
so you can probably snag one
for less than classic FJ.
Whether you want to race up sand dunes,
crawl down rocky trails, haul ass on the street
or just haul your (beep) little kids,
Patrol can absolutely handle it.
Oh, did you miss the holiday shipping deadline?
(groaning)
No problem!
Introducing Donut digital gift cards.
Put the numbers in the 'puter,
give it to your lovey dove
and he'll be rocking Donut by January.
(upbeat music)
Guys, we got a new show that I'm really,
really, really, really excited about.
It's called High Low, and it's on the channel now.
We took two identical 350Zs,
we gave one of them really expensive dream parts.
That's the one I drive.
Then we gave one of them really, really cheap parts.
That's the one Nolan drives.
Then we compare the two.
Go check that out right now, it's live, baby.
I love you.