Nissan insiders have revealed to CAR more details of the next-generation 200SX/Silvia that was cancelled in 2008. If you don’t want to know what we’re missing, look away now.
I didn’t even know that a new Nissan 200SX was on the cards…
It was. Nissan showed the Foria concept (the light blue car) at the 2005 Tokyo auto salon, and the pared-back Urge concept (top row, right) at the 2006 Detroit motor show, and both were designed to drum up interest in a potential replacement for the rear-wheel drive 200SX (also known as the Silvia in Japan).
So what do we now know about the cancelled car?
We’ve been told that a meeting was held in the US to set the final specifications in April 2008. ‘We set on a front-engined, rear-wheel drive two-seater with a limited slip differential and dimensions very similar to the Mazda MX-5 – it was 4.1 metres long,’ said our source. ‘The engine was going to be a 1.6-litre turbo producing approximately 185bhp [the last-generation S15 – never officially imported to the UK – boasted 2.0-litres and nearly 250bhp] with a weight of around 1200kg. It would have been a lot of fun.’
Sadly, Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn canned the project in November last year, choosing instead to focus on high-volume small and medium-sized cars. But it seems incredibly ironic to us that both the GT-R and 370Z reached production, yet the cheapest, least polluting Nissan sports car was canned at a time when downsizing and planet-saving are all the rage.
However, a reprieve for the 200SX isn’t out of the question, we’re told. Here’s hoping.
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