The last Silvia was the S15 which was made between 1999 and 2002. The car was a two-door coupe with rear wheel drive and it was one of the best cars to drive of its time. Unfortunately Nissan decided to completely abandon the project in order to focus on the GT-R and the 350/370Z, the latter being the spiritual successor of the Silvia.
Despite that the car didn’t manage to become what Nissan hoped so it seems that they might actually release a new model. Not that long ago rumors about a new 2018 Nissan Silvia Concept started to float around the Internet. It seems that this new car will be a two-door, five seats model with rear wheel drive, very similar to the original.
The platform
So far it still seems unclear on what platform Nissan is going to build the new Silvia. They do have the great chassis of the Infiniti Q50. Unfortunately though, it seems that the new Silvia is aimed at the under $25,000 market which means competitors like the BR-Z or the MX-5.
Because of that, the expensive platform of the Q50 might not be all that achievable. However, Nissan will more than likely go for a variation of it. The release date is expected at the end of 2017 or early 2018 while the production model should follow shortly after that.
2018 Nissan Silvia Design
At this point it still is too early to say too much about the look of the 2018 Nissan Silvia Concept. The original was a very small car with a low roof and a true coupe shape.
The new model on the other hand might go for a more similar design to Nissan’s current line of cars.
This means it will likely adopt the “V-Motion” design scheme in the front and at the back and it might share a few things with the GT-R and the more expensive 370Z.
In any case though, we expect Nissan to borrow quite a few features from the original as well.
The interior
Unlike the original which was a bit too minimalistic, the new car should receive a proper interior. It will be able to offer more room inside the cabin than before, all while providing all the latest technologies available on the market.
The design here is very likely going to be very similar to Nissan’s other similarly-priced sedan. This will likely be done in order to save as much money as possible on developing it. Also, even though some rumors suggested five seats, it is quite likely that we will only see a four-seats Silvia.
The powertrain
Pretty much all the older models of the Silvia used a 2 liter engine with some being available with a smaller 1.8 turbo or with a larger naturally aspirated 2.4 liter unit in the US.
The upcoming 2018 Nissan Silvia Concept is actually expected to feature a 1.6 liter turbocharged inline 4 petrol engine. This would be the smallest engine ever to be fitted to a Silvia ever since 1968 when the first generation model was discontinued.
However, this time around, thanks to the massive improvements achieved by manufacturers, the tiny 1.6 is expected to make over 200 horsepower and 200 lb-ft of torque. This engine has been previously used in some Renault applications where it made as much as 225 horsepower.
The Silvia will be rear wheel drive and it will very likely come with a six speed manual transmission. An automatic version is also likely in some markets. In any case, thanks to the large amount of power, it should easily outrun most of its rivals which usually offer quite a bit less power than it.
The only unknown factor at this point is how the car will perform on a track which requires not only power but also a great running gear.
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