Remember when Humvees were a thing? So much so that people made their own using a donor chassis? Here’s one that’s both awesome and a little concerning at the same time: a Nissan Humvee.
Now don’t get us wrong – an H1 Hummer, which was the first-generation of civilian Hummer based on the actual military version of the Humvee (HMMWV – High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) before General Motors went and made the luxury-spec H2 and smaller H3 versions – is pretty bloody awesome.
If you live in Australia, genuine H1 Hummers are few and far between, but one mob churned out replicas back in the day; Rhino Buggies. So far as we can tell Rhino doesn’t exist anymore, but there are a few examples that still grace the for-sale pages every now and then, which brings us to this gem we spotted on Grays Online the other day.
This H1 replica is based on a Nissan GQ Patrol chassis, specifically a 1992 RB30 example (yep, the 3.0-litre Nissan petrol donk seen in the Holden VL Commodore and R31 Nissan Skyline, among others). The Patrol has obviously been totally transformed to get to where we can see it today, including removal the GQ body from the chassis before bolting the H1 Hummer replica body on top, and calling it job done… almost. There were, of course, other mods that had to be performed, to the chassis mounts and the chassis itself, with the H1 body being a fair whack wider than the original GQ.
In this specific case, it would seem that some rather adventurous soul has torn the RB30 out to make way for arguably the world’s greatest engine conversion: the LS1 V8. The most unfortunate thing about this sale is that we didn’t spot the little begger until the auction had already expired, and she sold at a rather tame $17,209. Now don’t get us wrong, a fair amount of work needs to be put into this old darlin’ before it’ll hit the tracks again, but with a big enough shed and a bit of time up your sleeve, we reckon it could have made a great custom feature vehicle in Unsealed 4X4…
How about you? Would you like an LS1-powered Nissan Humvee in your shed?
