Text: Danie Botha
Photography: Jannie Herbst
Why did the cow cross the street?
To donate its skin to Project Navara! Well, not really.
But a total of five cows’ skins landed up in the Nissan Navara 2.5 dCi 4×4’s cabin, turning the already plush interior into a sumptuous one. The transformation was quite a process, with only a week available for the interior modifications to be completed before the Nissan had to report for more show duty.
The operation was facilitated by Johann Marais-van Vuuren from Cellsound in Centurion, and it was a bit like those customising programmes on DStv, where everything is a race against the clock.
After the bakkie was delivered to Johann’s premises, all the seats and the sidepanels were removed, and sent off to AK Leather, in Pretoria West. There Johan Cloete and his team set to work on the seats.
Meanwhile, back at the Cellsound workshop, Johann Marais-van Vuuren set about installing the latest Planet Electronics GPS/DVD entertainment system in the centre console, replacing the standard Nissan Navara radio/CD system.
The new Planet Electronics system is one cool accessory.
The large, High Defintion digital screen with touch-function takes pride of place in this impressive unit. It has a USB and SD card reader.
It’s got a built-in TV tuner. It connects to an iPod player. It features Bluetooth connectivity. It plays DVD, VCD, CD, CD-R, DivX, MP3, MP4, and more. It is equipped with the latest Garmap navigation. It has a built-in hard drive on which music can be stored. It has a video “zoom” function. An infra red remote control can be used in the cabin, to control all the functions.
Optional extras include a tyre pressure monitoring system, reverse camera and integrated reverse parking sensors.
Oh, and it even has an RDS radio with pre-set stations! This unit retails for around R12 500.