Nissan's Sentra Spec-V Concept Has 300 HP, a Stick, and GT-R Brakes. It's Not for Sale
The SEMA concept turbocharges the Sentra's own 2.0-liter engine. Nissan says it won't be sold, but its SEMA builds have reached showrooms before.
Nissan's most interesting SEMA car this year is a Sentra. The Sentra Spec-V concept pairs a turbocharged 2.0-liter four rated at 300 hp with a six-speed manual and the brakes from a GT-R NISMO, and it arrives 35 years after the first Sentra SE-R reached North America.
The answer to the obvious question is already in Nissan's own release: these are SEMA concepts, and they are not for sale. The company's caveat is that show builds do shape production cars, and it points to the Rock Creek versions of the Rogue, Kicks, and Pathfinder, which it says were inspired by earlier SEMA concepts. The Spec-V goes on display at booth 21521 in Central Hall from Nov. 3 to 6, one of the stands flagged in our SEMA 2026 preview.
What's under the Sentra Spec-V
The Spec-V build sheet answers something the headline release leaves out. The engine is the Sentra's own MR20DD, the 2.0-liter four that makes 149 hp and 146 lb-ft in the production car. Here it gets a Garrett G25-550 turbocharger, a front-mount intercooler, forged rods and pistons, and supplemental port injection.
There is one wrinkle in the numbers. The build sheet lists 300 wheel horsepower, while the release says 300 horsepower. Nissan hasn't clarified which it means. If the figure is measured at the wheels, output at the crankshaft would be higher.
The gearbox is a modified six-speed manual from the Juke NISMO RS, with a helical limited-slip differential and a lightweight flywheel. Up front, six-piston Brembo calipers from the R35 GT-R NISMO clamp 15.35-inch (390 mm) rotors. NISMO coilovers with external-reservoir front shocks, 19x9.5-inch NISMO LM-RS1 forged wheels on 265/35 Yokohama tires, GT-R NISMO Recaro seats, a BOMEX widebody kit, and the GT-R NISMO rear wing complete the car.
That parts list is also the clearest sign of how far the Spec-V sits from a showroom. The turbocharger, intercooler, body kit, and much of the engine hardware come from aftermarket suppliers. Nissan says only that some of the Nissan and NISMO parts on its SEMA cars may be sold through dealers.
Why a manual Sentra lands now
The Spec-V name last appeared on the 2007–2012 Sentra SE-R Spec V, which made 200 hp from a 2.5-liter four and came only with a close-ratio six-speed manual. Today's Sentra starts at $22,890 before a $1,245 destination charge, and every trim uses a CVT.
The timing is pointed. Affordable manual sedans have thinned out quickly: Volkswagen dropped the last manual Jetta GLI, and Honda has paused the six-speed Civic Si. Honda says the Si will return with the next-generation Civic but hasn't committed to a manual. That leaves the $35,300 Elantra N as one of the few stick-shift compact sedans still on sale, as our list of every new car with a manual shows. A production Sentra in this spirit would walk into a gap rather than a crowd, though Nissan has announced no such plan.
Two Z concepts, old and new
Project NAT2 is a Z race car built to SCCA Touring 2 rules by the Nissan Acceleration Team, an all-volunteer group of employees who race in their free time. Its twin-turbo V6 runs 38 mm turbo inlet restrictors to stay class-legal, and the car gets a roll cage, a stripped cabin, and NISMO coilovers.
The third car is a Datsun S30 restomod from Formula Drift champion Chris Forsberg. It puts the current Z's twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 and six-speed manual into the original Z's shape, with Garrett turbochargers, NISMO intake and cooling parts, carbon-fiber fenders, hood, and bumpers, and Wilwood brakes.
The open-top Nissan Z Kaze concept, first shown at ZCON in September, joins the three on the stand.
What's next
Nissan says it will detail its SEMA truck and SUV concepts separately, and the show opens Nov. 3. The company hasn't said whether any Spec-V hardware, such as the coilovers or the brake conversion, will reach its accessory catalog, or what the NISMO parts on these cars would cost.
