Serving Notice

Some folks just gotta be different. For those with a need for a fullsize truck, who want to depart from the multidecade parade of Detroit-made iron, Nissan has introduced its '04 fullsize Titan.

Merely sporting a different brand banner wasn't enough for Richard Gautreau. Richard owns Rich's Motorsports in Corona, California. The welding tables at Rich's are usually busy melting chassis tubing together for NASCAR cars and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series pickups. The NASCAR production was halted by a brief interlude sufficient to turn Rich's Titan into a truck that turns heads and piques curiosity.

Despite Rich's having squarely hit his mark, that was just the beginning for this Titan. The truck has since gone back into the shop for custom long-travel suspension. Look for the big T soaring over the Glamis sand dunes sometime soon.

In a sea of multihued, overdone bling-mobiles, Rich's Nissan takes a bold, understated approach. Athan's Body Shop applied the House of Tints graphics at its Covina, California, shop. Nissan saw fit to equip the Titan with 33-inch tires from the factory and a Dana 44 rear axle. The workhorse Dana 44 has been a part of scores of successful vehicles through the years and enjoys a host of gear ratios and locking differentials available from the automotive aftermarket. For off-road grip, 37x13.5R17 Pro Comp Xterrain Tires wrapped around Pro Comp 17x9-inch Xtreme wheels fill the wheelwell voids. Bilstein dampers control the rear wheels' bump and droop.

The Titan takes a cue from archrival Toyota's Tacoma and Tundra models, with its factory coilover front suspension. If we had our druthers, we'd see coil springs under the front of every OEM offering. Why? Coil springs offer excellent ride quality. Coils reliably suspend the vehicle, while only taking up space between the wheel and frame. Coils are also easy to tune, either by substituting a stiffer or softer spring, or by adding preload tension. To gain the height necessary to clear the 37-inch Pro Comp Xterrains, Richard brought CST's 8-inch Titan lift kit on board. The kit boasts taller steering knuckles, with upper uniballs for longevity and long travel. CST's design allows the CST upper control arm to remain anchored to the factory mounting points, while the OEM lowers find their places in a one-piece CST cradle.

The Titan's front facade was beefed up and dressed up to suit Richard's needs for performance and good looks. Richard's company, Rich's Motorsports, took some time away from building NASCAR racers to cut, bend, and weld the tubing and skidplate jutting from the Titan's stock bumper. A trio of PIAA Racing Series lights awaits the signal to light up the night. A Carriage Works grille shell and Glassworks fenders round out the look of the Titan's front end.	Anyone who's been elbow-deep in a grimy engine bay can appreciate a motor that's clean enough to eat off. The Endurance V-8 pumps out ponies on par with the rest of the big T, so a K&N air filter serves as the sole engine upgrade.	Nissan painted the Titan using bold strokes. Although the company is Japanese, the look, size, and feel of the big T is red-blooded apple-pie American. "Every time I drive this truck, everyone stops me to take a picture or ask me, 'What is this?'" declares proud owner Richard Gautreau.
Stock tailgates are among the first items to part ways with a custom truck. Rich's Motorsports crafted a tube-and-sheet rear tailgate, which saves on weight but is heavy on functional fashion. Rich's crew also created the equally trick hitch, which incorporates another pair of PIAA lamps featuring armored lenses.		To fit the 37s under the rear wheelwells, Rich's Motorsports used a time-honored method and flared the bedsides by 1-1/2 inches. It's that simple and effective.