Sweet Dream: Nissan S16 Silvia

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.