Tiny carwash used for somehow-serious purpose of testing Nissan paint

Yet, Nissan quite seriously uses this little guy to test its paint - a scaled-down car wash complete with a spinning blue brush that slaps the paint as water jets and grains of "Arizona dirt" replicate what it's like for a paint sample to do through a modern automatic car wash. And yes, we double checked, it isn't April 1.

Sadly, the little 1:16 scale model of a 370Z is for illustrative purposes only. Nissan actually uses a rectangular plate (the thing the Z is sitting on) that is repeatedly tested to make sure the car's paint isn't damaged by the scourge of the local Esso's spinning brushes.

So there you have it. Just another example of why being an automotive engineer isn't as glamorous as you might think. It is, however, slightly more adorable.