Nissan X-Trail completes Aragon Baja Rally

A small team of engineers from Nissan's technical centre in Barcelona has entered and completed the Baja Aragon Rally in a modified X-Trail e-4orce powered by Nissan's unique e-POWER system.

The Nissan X-Trail successfully finished the rally after two gruelling days during which it covered more than 498km over demanding, unforgiving terrain. The vehicle was modified and prepared by a team of seven engineers from the powertrain function at Nissan Technical Centre Europe - Spain and was driven by Jonatan Gijon from the chassis dynamics team and Cesar Fernandez from the powertrain tuning team - both of whom are experienced and highly trained Nissan test drivers.

The Nissan X-Trail that competed in the rally only received a modified cooling and suspension system, alongside a host of mandated safety equipment 

The project was started after the group of engineers at the centre who studied the X-Trail and its powertrain and concluded that it had the potential to compete in a rally competition without significant modifications to its powertrain. They then spent their evenings and weekends to make the modifications needed to for the car to compete.

The X-Trail is said to have faced demanding during the rally including high temperatures and difficult terrain, and Nissan states that the fact that the car finished the rally is a great recognition of e-POWER and the e-4orce twin motor all-wheel system, on top of being a credit to the passion and commitment the group of engineers who worked on the vehicle.

Nissan states that the competing car was only modified so that it had increased cooling capacity and an uprated suspension system. The car was also fitted with a roll cage, a competition fuel tank amongst other mandated safety equipment, and had its interior stripped out.