by David Finlay (30 Dec 05)

If you were born between 1976 and 1996, here are two things you maybe didn't know about yourself. First, you are a member of what's known as the Echo Boomer generation, which in turn means that your parents were Baby Boomers. Second, Nissan has designed a car just for you. It's called the Urge, it goes on display for the first time in public at the forthcoming Detroit Show, and it has been created from research conducted online among roughly 2000 car and gaming enthusiasts.

"Not surprisingly," says Nissan Design America's Vice President Bruce Campbell, "most of the young, primarily male, respondents to our survey said that they want a small, fun-to-drive sports car that can incorporate the technology products that they use on a daily basis, such as cell phones, MP3 players and game consoles.

"We also learned that these young adults are highly social - they're looking for vehicles with the flexibility to take along a couple of friends. They also don't want a car to dominate their social lives or budgets, so affordability is a definite issue."

The Urge is a sports car, designed to be entertaining to drive through lightness and agility rather than through high power figures. Its engine - "small-displacement," says Nissan, without yet confirming actual capacity - sits at the front and drives the rear wheels in the classic manner.

The wheels are large in diameter (19" front, 20" rear), but the tyres are relatively narrow at 195mm and 225mm. The car's wheelbase is, at 104.3 inches, identical to that of the 350Z, but overall length is a full 16" shorter thanks to minimal front and rear overhangs.

The lack of excess bodywork and the high-revving nature of the engine hint at motorcycle practice. So too does the gearbox, a six-speed unit with a sequential shift. The design also takes its inspiration from bike practice. As Campbell says, "we want Urge to replicate the raw motorcycle experience as much as possible, with the exposed engine, door panel cutouts and open top. Motorcycles are exhilarating to drive and we want this car to feel the same way.

“At the same time, we want parents to think of this car as safe, which, for example, led us to include the integrated cage structure and visible passenger's side airbag. Urge, like its target buyers, has a foot in each world, adventure and reality."

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