One of the greatest things about Nissan’s automotive style is modularity, the intentional engineering of parts and components to be installed interchangeably in many different cars in the brand’s catalog. Most car companies do this to some degree, but for Nissan, it’s almost a religion.

James from JW Sportcars presents an excellent case in point: A North American built SilEighty conversion. A SilEighty is the combination of an S13 Silvia  front end with a 180SX  rear originally pioneered in Japan. The ability of take the North American equivalents, combine them and upgrade the result up to and past the Japanese domestic specification is a tribute to Nissan’s engineering and the skills of the team at JW Sportcars.

Video after the jump.


Links:
JW Sportcars - http://www.jwsportcars.com

Great driving and car control, but most of all great shooting and editing! Video was shot at Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond, CA. Video by Joshua Herron, driving by Forrest Wang.

Fatlace_S14 from iPhilms on Vimeo. Great car, nice drifting, need I say more?

As seen on Philly’s Blog on JDM Insider^tm.

In Nissans Sportwagen-Modellpalette kommt Bewegung - nach der Enthüllung des 370Z gibt es schon wieder neue Gerüchte, die aber schon auf ziemlich handfesten Informationen beruhen dürften.

Für den Verkauf in Europa ist ein kompakter Hybrid-Sportwagen mit Frontmotor und Frontantrieb geplant. Der Schönling geht auf das Nissan Sports Concept zurück. Konsequenterweise wird er auf der (hier modifizierten) B-Plattform aufgestellt sein, die mit dem neuen Tiida 2009 debüttieren wird. Voraussichtlich ab dem 3. Quartal 2010 wird er erhältlich sein.

Foto: 7tune.com

Folgende Abmessungen werden erwartet: 4400mm Länge, 1780mm Breite, eine Höhe von 1450mm und ein Radstand von 2600mm. Ein Panoramaglasdach soll zur Grundausstattung gehören. Dank Leichtbauweise mit Aluminiumelementen könnte ein Gewicht von nur 1100kg erreicht werden.

Foto: 7tune.com

Als Verbrennungsmotor wird ein aufgebohrter 4-Zylinder mit 1500cm³ (HR15DE) verbaut, der mit einem Elektromotor zusammenarbeitet. Per Schaltwippen wird durch die 6 Gänge des Doppelkupplungs-Getriebe sortiert. Als Preis werden 2,3 Millionen Yen genannt (Das wäre bei direkter Umrechnung in Euro ein schöner Preis, 13 700€ *g*).

Auf jeden Fall soll er günstiger werden als der Nachfolger des Silvia, von dem ich hier berichtet habe. Für den wird ein Preis zwischen 2,5 und 2,8 Millionen Yen genannt. Momentan scheint die Gerüchteküche darauf hinzudeuten, dass er schon 2010 auf den Markt kommt. Er könnte mit einem 2,0 Liter 4-Zylinder mit Turbo ausgestattet sein, der 225 oder 250PS leistet (MR20VHRT), aber auch 1,5 oder 1,6 Liter Motoren werden genannt. Die Plattform dürfte dieselbe wie beim neuen 370Z sein.

Foto: 7tune.com

Auch von einem neuen “Baby-Infiniti” kann man lesen, der ebenfalls auf der neuen Z-Plattform stehen wird. Der soll in direkter Konkurrenz zum BMW Z4 und zum Porsche Cayman stehen und ein 2 Sitzer mit abnehmbaren Verdeck werden.

Carbon Culture Now Available from Concept Bodystyling

We have now added Carbon Culture’s range of products to our site. They’re excellent range of Carbon Fibre bonnet, spoilers and aprons add suttle and stylish styling parts for Japanese cars. Carbon Culture also have a range of fibre glass and ABS Plastic parts which offer excellent quality and direct fit.

Today we will focus on the Nissan S13 & S14 models.

Fibre Glass parts available from Carbon Culture

C Speed Front Bumper S13 model

C Speed Side Skirts S13 model

C Speed Rear Bumper S13 model

Front Bumper S14 model

Front Bumper S14A model

Side Skirts S14 model

Rear Bumper S14 model

Carbon Fibre Parts available for Carbon Culture

Carbon OE Bonnet S13 model

Carbon OE Bonnet S14 model

Nach den News, dass man bei Nissan in den kommenden Jahren eine ganze Palette an Elektrofahrzeugen auf den (US-)Markt bringen will, habe ich schon wieder etwas in die Richtung entdeckt: Hier auf Wired.com kann man nachlesen, dass der 200SX, der bis 2003 gebaut wurde, wieder in den Verkauf kommen soll (in welchen Ländern genau, wäre noch eine gute Frage *g*). [Ups, das war undeutlich: Nicht dasselbe Modell wie damals *g* Aber eben ein 200SX wieder.]

Foto: starpulsechic

Statt Benzin-Motor mit Turbo soll in der neuen Generation des Sportwagens ein sparsamer Hybrid-Motor verbaut werden- ein Tribut an die steigenden Sprit-Preise, sonst kommt zum Fahrspaß heute wohl zu schnell ein langes Gesicht an der Tanksäule. Außerdem freut das die Umwelt. Der Elektromotor senkt aber nicht nur den Verbrauch, sondern bringt auch zusätzliche Leistung und steigert so die Performance.

Ansonsten aber will man wieder auf das alt-bewährte Konzept setzen: die Ausführung als Zweitürer, einen leistbaren Einstiegspreis, Hinterradantrieb und Frontmotor. Laut Junichi Endo, Nissan’s senior vice president of global marketing, stehen die Chancen, dass der Sportwagen tatsächlich so verwirklicht wird, 50:50. Entscheidend ist, ob die Zielgruppe, die früher den 200SX mit Turbo gekauft hat, auch mit einer Ausführung als Hybrid erreicht werden kann. Da wird wohl noch etwas Marktforschung betrieben werden müssen (wobei ich da absolut nicht schwarz sehe; wenn der Preis und die Fahrleistungen stimmen, werden kaum alle Käufer auf konventionellen Benzin-Motoren bestehen).

Laut Endo geht die Entwicklung der Sportwagen in der Art des 200SX aber nur mittelfristig in Richtung Hybridantrieb - langfristig denkt man bei Nissan offenbar schon an Ausführungen, die “nur noch” mit einem Elektromotor ausgestattet sind.

I’m not sure why I like this S15, because as far as aesthetics go, I’m usually not the hugest fan of darker-hues on JDM cars, nor am I a chrome aficionado, however there’s just something about it that draws my eye to this Silvia.

Garage LFW don’t manufacture a great deal of their own parts apart from some urethane bushes and mufflers, though they did debut a new bodykit a while back that was made in collaboration with parts manufacturer Hippo Sleek - this is the kit you can see on their demo car.

They’re not hugely well-known, however they were present at the recent Exciting Car Showdown in Osaka, as well as of course the last Tokyo Auto Salon.

- Leon.

Mooi spul, en gloeiende remschijven.

Met een mini gastrol voor een rode AE86

This tidy S15 is one of the demo cars of the Japan’s SunLine racing; not exactly a tuning house with the prestige of Top Secret, but well-known enough that they have a large enough following in Japan.

Extrenally, the car sports a C-West widebody kit, carbon GT-wing and set of beautifully-simple 17″ SSR Type-C wheels. The powerplant of the car is whole different story however, with SunLine going all-out on the SR20DET with Tomei internals, stroking it to 2.2L and bolting on a Trust T78-29D turbo.

This car is not just a show-pony either, it’s a track-bred beast that on its best day conquered Tsukuba with an impressive time of 0′57”291, only around four seconds shy of the official track record.

As far as S15s go, this is about as good as JDM gets.

- Leon.

I freaking love these cars. I know they’ve been around for what might seem like ages, but I just had to dedicate a blog post to these gods of steel and carbon.

I’ve always been an immense fan of the S15, as there just seems to be an inherent aura of aggression and “I’ll-kick-your-ass-all-over-the-pavement”ambience about it, but I think that Yashio Factory have just taken it to a whole new level with their versions of the S15, desipte the fact that they’ve been lathered in a coat of seemingly-innocent pink paint.

But it’s not just a killer look these cars carry around with them like a fully-loaded Kalashnikov, one of them has been adeptly handled to several D1GP victories by Yashio Factory founder and owner Oka-Chan.

I think they have heavily modified three S15s in total as demo and race cars over the years, but I could be wrong. You almost can’t keep track of how many demo vehicles a Japanese tuning house can pump out these days and it seems as if some of them have a seemingly unending budget when it comes to purchasing new cars.

So in tribute to these awesome pieces of JDM weaponry, I’ve gotten together the few pics of the Yashio Factory S15s I could find on the web, in their various incarnations over the years.

- Leon.

Okay, since I’m now living in another country and without a set of wheels, of course I’m going to need something soon - well, I don’t really need a car, more of the fact that I need to sate my inner thirst for a Japanese vehicle and I hate using my legs for transport unless I absolutely have to.

For the last few days my thoughts have been wandering as to what I should buy over here in Malaysia and I’ve really been tossing up just about every option I have.

One thing I’ve seriously been considering is a Type-R Civic. Now for most, that may not sound like such a wierd choice, but for me it’s a little bit of a dilemma.

I’ve never owned a Honda before and although I know how reliable the little bastards can be, it’s a bit of a case of ’stick to what you know’ with me, especially considering I’ve not owned a front-driven car in my life.

At heart I guess you could say I’m a motoring purist; although I’m not the biggest fan of drifting my own cars - however I love watching it - to me there’s almost nothing better than pushing a good-ol’ FR car around a track, or stringing together a particularly good set of corners in one on an empty country road.

I have driven Civics before and I found them to be great to drive, though they always suffer from the latent understeer issues prevalent with most FF cars when you push them a bit. I dearly love the slight tail flick and bite-your-nails goodness you get when pushing a rear-driven car to its limit, and I can say that I never got the same feeling with anything like a Civic.

So, maybe as a daily driver, but I doubt it’s going to be something I’ll pour my heart, soul and a few thousand dollars - or ringgit - into. So I guess that’s the Civic out of the way.

So daydreamng aside, my serious mental battle is between two cars - or series of cars - that I’ve always had a whole lot of respect for. The first being the Mitsubishi Evo series, and the next being Nissan’s famous Silvia range, including of course the 180SX.

I’ve owned an SR20 powered car before - my last set of wheels being a 180 - and I can honestly say that it was probably the most memorable car I’ve owned. There is almost no limit to what can be done to an SR20, and the chassis the Silvia series is built on has got to be one of the greatest all-time sporting frames around. You could say when it comes to this choice, I’m already a bit biased towards a Silvia.

As for the Evo, the entire range has always been somewhat of a mental fantasy for quite some time now, especially since the inception of the Evolution VII. I know many Evo purists will say that the Evo VI was the best ever made, though to me there’s just something ruthlessly gorgeous about the bodyshape that started with the VII.

I have driven an eariler version - an Evo III - and I was impressed with the whole package, so I’d expect once I decide to take a VII for a spin I’ll be equally thrilled. The other great thing about owning an Evo is the fact that you can actually seat four or five people in the thing, unlike a 180 or Silva which require you to have legs the thickness of spaghetti if you want to sit in the back; not to mention the utterly insufferable amount of headroom you get in the back of a 180SX.

These are just a few of the pros and cons I’ve thrown around so far so far and I think I’m no closer to deciding what I should buy. I mean, I’ve even considered splashing out the cash for an NSX, and even though I could afford one at a pinch, I think with just a little cash spent under the hood I could have just as much fun in a 200SX or an Evo.

If you’ve got anything that might help my decision, please by all means help me out. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

- Leon.