Autoblog

Japan's Best Car supposedly has yet another scoop on the Nissan Silvia revival, and while the image gracing the mag's cover is little more than a photoshopped pipedream, the information presented within deserves note.

According to one of the publication's editors, a source at Nissan has suggested that the front-engine, rear-wheel-drive coupe could benefit from the Nissan/Renault alliance and fitted with a 2.0-liter engine lifted from the French automaker. Speculation is that the 225 hp turbocharged four-pot powering the Renault Megane Sport could be mounted up front, sending power to the rear wheels on a modified Z platform. Not only would that keep production costs low, but the motor could be shoved far back into the firewall, making it a competent corner carver in the process.

Best Car expects the S16 Silvia to be priced between $18,000 and $21,000 if and when it goes on sale in 2010.

[Source: GT Channel]

Japan's top two auto makers have a long and sordid history of ripping off each other's successful designs. No sooner had the Nissan Cube become a run away success in its home market than Toyota came up with the similarly boxy bB (Scion xB). Many years earlier, after the Toyota HiLux Surf (4Runner) proved a hit with, well, surfers, Nissan restyled their Terrano with nigh on identical lines, hoping to ride on the coattails of the Toyota. And let's not get in to the Supra vs. Z and Celica vs. Skyline wars.

Now, just weeks after confirming that Toyota does indeed have a successor to the lauded AE86 in the pipeline, Best Car magazine claims to have evidence that Nissan has got a team working on building a new Silvia. Like the final 2002 S15 Spec R Silvia the new car is reckoned to be powered by a turbocharged two-liter good for 247 HP, but will just be 10 kgs heavier at one and a quarter metric tons (2450lbs).

The new range should sell for between 2.5 and 2.8 million Yen ($21,000 - $23,700), but not until 2010. Best Car's scoop ties in nicely with photographs of a shortened Z, most likely a mule testing a new, smaller FR drive train, taken at the ring earlier in the summer. If the new Silvia is indeed to be based on a modified Z/Skyline LM platform, expect a similar wheelbase of 8' 6", but smaller overall dimensions, around 14' 4" long by 5' 8" wide.

Chances of Nissan bringing a concept car, possibly derived from the URGE shown in Detroit last year, to October's Tokyo Motor Show? 60-percet according to the magazine.

[Source: Best Car]

Call it the Silvia or the 240SX or the 200SX (read up on the various names of the 200SX and where they were sold in the world here), but Nissan's now demised budget rear-wheel drive platform has been sorely missed in its homeland of Japan, in our own North America and elsewhere around the world. Word has it, however, that Nissan is considering a new rear-wheel drive coupe that would take up the 200SX cause of rear-wheel drive fun for the huddled masses. The Foria Concept (shown above) that debuted at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show is the front running candidate to become a new 200SX, considering the good reaction it garnered at that year's show. Don't count out the Urge, however, which was unveiled at the 2005 Detroit Auto Show. AutoCar reports that Nissan is even open to producing a mid-engine car to slot below the 350Z. Whatever plan gets pinned down for production, we just hope Nissan keeps it rear-wheel drive and starts it around $20k - $22k. That seems to be the hot spot where a Ford Mustang V6, Pontiac Solstice and Mazda Miata would all be on the same shopping list for a RWD sports car.

[Source: AutoCar]