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Sweet Dream: Nissan S16 Silvia

Rear-drive hero car deserves a rebirth, says us

Sweet Dream: Nissan S16 Silvia
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We’ve never quite gotten over the death of the S15, or 200SX as it was known here. Our 2001 PCOTY winner was taken from us far too soon, leaving a hole in Nissan’s line up that the 350Z never came close to filling.

The outrageous success of the Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ twins proves there are plenty of people out there who still want a well-priced rear-drive sports car. It’s high time Nissan got back in on the action.

While there is no word from Nissan it’s even considering such a model, given that within its range it has all the component parts necessary for a new Silvia, it just needs to stick them all together. Simple.

There’s just one potential fly in the ointment: the 370Z replacement is currently mooted to feature a downsized, turbocharged four-cylinder engine.

We say scrap that idea, keep the 370Z six-cylinder (as Z-cars have always been) and build the Silvia off the new Z platform featuring the new 2.0-litre boosted four-pot. It makes even more sense now the IDx budget rear-drive concept is dead.

Using the Megane RS265’s outputs as a benchmark (it’s rumoured Nissan could even be using that engine), around 195kW and 360Nm should be easily achievable. Combine this
with a kerb weight of around 1400kg and a price tag of $40K and soon it’ll be “Toyota what?” and “Subaru who?”.

C’mon Nissan, it makes sense.

MOTOR staff
Brendon Wise

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