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The media assembled for preview days at the Chicago Auto Show in February stood by the curtain to await the unveiling of the 2001 Nissan Frontier pickup truck.

Most scribes placed notebook and pen down to free a hand to cover the impending yawn. Frontier, after all, is a compact pickup, and as such doesn’t get, much less deserve, the rapt attention that PT Cruisers or Beetles do.

Besides, compact Nissan pickups have been, at best, non-descript since they appeared in the U.S. market in 1959 under the Datsun name badge and evolved into what has been called Frontier since the 1998 model year.

If you want styling sizzle, you take Frontier, add a cabin with a back seat to replace the cargo bed and call it an Xterra sport-utility vehicle, which is what Nissan did in the 2000 model year.

So it was a surprise when the curtain parted and a prototype ’01 Frontier rolled out and one by one the media reached down for notebooks and pens.

Here was a traditionally bland pickup laden with flared fenders and a bold front end highlighted by a massive, bulging body-colored front bumper complemented with large flush-mounted headlamps and fog lamps that made the machine look rugged.

Or, as Nissan boasted, a truck with the “look of a boxing glove” when so many small pickups resemble mittens.

The look is complemented by what Nissan calls “divot dimples” on the flared fenders. They appear to be body-colored rivets holding the plastic decorations to the metal.

To set the uplevel SE off from the base XE, the SE has body-colored plastic cosmetics; the XE has dark-gray plastic cladding.

We were surprised by the number who gawked at Frontier, primarily youth, which is the target for this species. Maybe it was the SE body colored cladding? Adding to the surprise is that while the design looks all new, changes are minimal.

“It was a minor remake, the front end, only a $40 million investment,” said Larry Dominique, chief product specialist for Nissan. “The look will polarize people, you’ll love it or hate it, but you’ll do a double take when you see it. “It’s a standout in a field of look-alikes,” said Fred Suckow, corporate manager for Frontier, who obviously forgot about the Dodge Dakota.

Got a hunch one of these two made the boxing-glove comparison, don’t you think?

Th e 2001 Frontier is in showrooms, though missing until November is a supercharged rendition for those who want more kick. For now the choice is a 2.4-liter, 143-horsepower 4-cylinder or 3.3-liter, 170-h.p. V-6. The supercharged 3.3 delivers 210 h.p.

Though not available to the public, we got one of the limited-supply supercharged Frontiers to test in a 2001 4×2 Frontier King Cab, King being Nissan’s name for an extended cab featuring a pair of small, side-facing jump seats in back for the kids that fold neatly into the sidewalls (the seats, not the kids) for more cargo room.

King Cab is only a two-door. If you want more doors opt for the Crew Cab, which comes with four front-hinged doors like a sedan. Frontier first offered a Crew Cab for the 2000 model year, and it has exceeded expectations, accounting for more than 40 percent of sales when 30 percent was the goal. Even more significant, Nissan says, most Crew Cab buyers never visited a Nissan dealershi p befo re.

What made the test vehicle special is the 3.3-liter, 210-h.p. supercharged V-6 teamed with automatic. A 5-speed is standard.

The supercharged V-6 in Frontier leads to speculation it will be added to the Xterra.

“We haven’t made a decision as yet,” Dominique said. “But if we do, it probably would simply be an engine option in Xterra and not a separate model like it is with Frontier.”

Nissan boasts you won’t find a supercharged compact truck among its rivals. But then, while the supercharger means quick off-the-line starts and lively pull-out-to-pass-or-merge power, you pay a 1-m.p.g. penalty in a 15-m.p.g. city/18-m.p.g. highway fuel-economy rating than in the 3.3-liter V-6 without supercharging.

Truth be told, 1 m.p.g. more in a non-supercharged version isn’t anything to rave about, but Nissan insists that 1 m.p.g. is a small price to pay for 210-h.p. and 245 foot-pounds of torque from an engine that normally would deliver 170-h.p. and 200 foot-pounds of torque.

If you go the supercharger route, you must accept that performance comes at a price, and the price is whatever a gallon of gas is going for at the moment.

Ride is more truck firm than car soft, though the suspension does an adequate job of reducing road harshness in the cabin. Handling was influenced by the large p265/55R17 radials. Decent grip, but you ride a tad high in the saddle, a feeling magnified by body lean when taking the off ramp at speed. Odd, since for 2001 Nissan stiffened spring rates and shock valving plus lowered ride height by 10 mm to upgrade handling.

Nissan projects Frontier’s new design will help it capture 122,000 truck sales for 2001, 12,000 of them supercharged versions, up from an estimated 115,000 for 2000.

The look of the 2001 Frontier helps set the stage for what should be a bold design on Nissan’s first full-size pickup expected out in 2003 to rival the Toyota Tundra.

The full-size Nissan truck that will be built at Nissan’s Smyrna, Tenn., assembly plant that now produces Altima cars, Frontier pickups and Xterra SUVs, will be powered by a V-8 built here as well. Once pickup production is under way, a full-size SUV built off the same platform will follow.

There are reports that to cut production costs, the new full-size pickup/SUV platform will be shortened to produce the next generation Frontier/Xterra in 2004 a year after the truck bows.

Base price of the King Cab 4×2 we tested is $21,049. Standard equipment includes any item starting with the word “power” plus air conditioning, anti-lock brakes and cupholders.

Our tester added Supercharger Value and SE Deluxe packages for $1,549. They include leather seats with S/C stitched in the seat backs, a pop-up sunroof, cruise control, tilt steering and AM/FM/CD player with CD changer in the dash.

Nissan says Frontier comes in 17 varieties of regular, King and crew cabs with a choice of t wo- or four-wheel-drive (part time with automatic locking hubs), three engines, two transmissions, two trim levels and optional Value, Popular, Body Color, Utility, Power, Deluxe and Supercharger Premium or Supercharger Value packages.

We counted 50,000 versions, not 17. If you add enough engine/trans/trim/package items, you can get the sticker to about $8.7 million–before freight.

Can the salesman keep track of 50,000 versions and make the customer think he knows what he’s talking about? Can the service manager stock parts and components for 50,000 versions? Can someone remind Nissan that simplified pricing and limited options are what made imports a hit here in the ’70s?

While Frontier is here now, Nissan has a variety of high-mileage, low-emission “environmental” vehicles under development should the U.S. government raise federal fuel economy and/or pollution standards, considered a strong possibility if Al Gore is elected president.

Those tha t caught our attention were the two-passenger Hypermini, and four-passenger Altra EV and Tino wagons. Hypermini and Altra are powered by lithium-ion batteries. Hypermini can travel only 40 miles before having to stop for a four-hour recharge, while Altra can travel 80 miles before a five-hour recharge, meaning a debut in the U.S., where electrics have not been readily received, of either is unlikely.

Tino is a hybrid employing a 1.8-liter, 4-cylinder gas engine teamed with lithium-ion batteries that recharge as you drive to eliminate any need for a length stop, making it a candidate for the U.S. if needed.

Nissan says stay tuned.