Nissan Silvia 1964–1968, 1974–2002
| Nissan Silvia | |
|---|---|
Nissan Silvia (S15) in Japan
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| Overview | |
| Production | 1964–1968 1974–2002 |
| Body and chassis | |
| Class | Sports car |
| Layout | FR layout |
The Nissan Silvia is the name given to the company's long-running line of sport coupes based on the Nissan S platform.
Although recent models have shared this chassis with other vehicles produced by Nissan (most notably the European 200SX and North American 240SX in the S13 and S14 generations, and 180SX in the Japanese market), the name Silvia is not interchangeable with the chassis codes Nissan Silvia's main competitors worldwide are Honda Prelude, Mazda MX-6, Toyota Celica and Mitsubishi Eclipse, and in North America, the 240SX also competed against Acura IntegraMotorsports
The S-series is a popular drift car, especially the S13 through S15 vehicles. The car has enjoyed success in the sport, having won 7 D1 Grand Prix championships with 5 different drivers driving the S15 (Nobuteru Taniguchi: 2001; Ryuji Miki:2004; Yasuyuki Kazama:2005; Masato Kawabata:2007; Youichi Imamura: 2009,2010,2011)
Silvias have been raced successfully in the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (now Super GT) and its predecessors. Both the S14 and S15 generations of the Silvia won the GT300 class championship in 1997 and 2001 respectively. In the late Eighties, when Group B was banned, S110 and S12 Silvias also saw limited success in rallying, mainly on endurance rallies. During the S13's production, there was a one-make series in Japan. The S13s were also successful in racing in the IMSA GTU class during the 1990s.
The Silvia S15 of Under Suzuki has dominated the Tsukuba circuit lap time record for some time. After it defeated the HKS CT230R LanEvo for the record in 2012, Under Suzuki's S15 has been resetting Tsukuba's lap time record. The latest lap record is currently timed at 51.127s, even faster than an official JGTC race car ARTA NSX.