The first Silvia, a “craft” that is different from the successive Silvias
Nissan’s FR sports coupe “Silvia”, whose revival has been eagerly awaited, began in the 1960s.
However, the first generation CSP311 Silvia has nothing to do with Silvia, which developed after the second generation S10 and ended with the seventh generation S15, other than being a “closed body FR sports coupe”.
Since the post-war days when Japanese cars were still waddling about, Nissan was so tolerant of sports cars that they even created the Datsun Sports DC-3 just for form. Top secret project… In other words, it’s a car that employees made without permission.
That’s why the ideal is so many, and when it goes on sale, it’s much more expensive than the Cedric, so it’s a rare car that hardly sells, but it still has the charm of a highly artistic craft.
A secret car in which Yamaha was involved
In March 1963, a designer at Nissan was sketching a sports car.
The sports car that would later become the first generation Silvia was a fastback 2-door coupe equipped with retractable headlights. Although it was different from the notchback 2-door coupe with 4 round headlights on the market, the basic design had already been completed. increase.
Albrecht von Goerz, a world-famous designer who was involved in the first Silvia, is sometimes talked about, but he came to Japan as an advisor to Nissan two months later, and had little involvement in Silvia. , Rather, there was a lot of work related to the A550X
.
(* Also known as the “Nissan 2000GT”, a phantom sports car that was jointly developed with Yamaha before partnering with Toyota)
In the first place, the sketches by Nissan’s in-house designers themselves did not start as an official project, and even the upper management was secretly trying to make a sports car without permission. was one of
As the story of the A550X came out, at that time Nissan entrusted Yamaha with a partnership with a top secret sports car development to Fairlady’s hood for various large and small jobs. Somehow, Yamaha will be in charge of making the actual car.
The reason for the rush was to make it in time for the 10th All Japan Auto Show in October 1963 (which became the Tokyo Motor Show the following year and is now the Japan Mobility Show). It seems that the senior executives of Nissan were taken aback when they saw the cars mixed up.
Isuzu’s 117 coupe, Piazza, Mazda’s Luce rotary coupe and similar “cars that sold show models as they are”
In the first place, why did you make such a car on your own? In 1962, the previous year, Hino entrusted the design to Giovanni Michelotti, and the designers were surprised by the beauty of the “Contessa 900 Sprint” announced at the Turin Show. , it all started with a lot of inspiration.
“We’ll exhibit a car that’s as beautiful as next year’s show!”
At the time, 1966 had not yet reached the first year of owning a private car, and it is unclear whether it was considered reckless to sell two sports cars for a big firm like Nissan, or whether the plan was rejected. , The upper management who saw the secretly developed sports car was not just angry.
At the time, the concept of a concept car seemed to be thin, so exhibiting a car that you didn’t intend to sell is a no-brainer. It was then-president Kawamata who yelled at us, and although we were generally scolded, the president demanded that we submit a production plan.
With this, the first generation Silvia was promoted to an official project, and although it was not allowed to be exhibited at the upcoming show, it was announced as the “Datsun Sports 1500” at the 1964 Tokyo Motor Show.
Even when viewed from the side, the seams other than the door opening are not really visible, and they are not hidden by moldings.
As I wrote earlier, it seems that they were not particular about performance because they aimed for a “beautiful design”. .
The first-generation commercially available Silvia released in April 1965 was based on the Fairlady 1600 (SP311), which was released the following month.
Based on the 1.9 to 2-liter class H type used in Cedric, etc., the short stroke engine R type with a reduced displacement of 1.6 liters was installed, and the SU twin cab was assembled to generate 90 horsepower.
Basically, it’s a truck-derived ladder frame car, so it’s heavy and the suspension is cheap, but it’s a spartan side that you can rely on a powerful engine to drive, just like the Fairlady. It’s the same as being a two-seater.
The first generation Silvia is not a sports car with specs, but the greatest significance is that “a beautiful artistic design is running on public roads”, and it is like a cut jewel “crisp cut”. The design called ” was excellent.
The biggest feature is that there are almost no seams except for the openings.
Since Yamaha had already dissolved the partnership with the company that made the prototype, body production was outsourced to Tonosaki Seisakusho (currently Tonox), a body manufacturer in Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture. It became more expensive than Nissan’s finest car, Cedric Special 6 (1,150,000 yen).
As a result, only 554 units were produced in about three years, but considering the price, it was the only one that sold. I think
Just because it was born with a single desire to create beautiful cars, it seems that the obsession of the designer has taken over, and when you look at it, you can feel the mysteriousness that seems to draw you in.
The show model was displayed as the Datsun Sports 1500, and since it was actually based on the Datsun Fairlady, it seemed like it could be marketed as the “Datsun Silvia,” but there was some criticism from the upper management.
In other words, it seems that such a beautiful and luxurious body would not fit in with the popular car brand Datsun, so it should be released under the Nissan brand like Cedric, so it was sold as “Nissan Silvia”
.
(*However, when it was exported to Australia, it was called “Datsun 1600 Coupe” because the “Nissan” brand was not well known overseas.)
Just because the body was different, it was seen as much higher than the Fairlady, but it was strange that there was a Datsun that was more expensive than the Cedric, so that was the correct answer.
As you can see from the CSP311 model, the first generation Silvia can be said to be a closed coupe version of the SP311 Fairlady 1600, but an open body “Silvia Convertible” has also been confirmed.
It is unknown whether it was a specially-equipped vehicle that was modified simply because it was a prototype, or because it was a ladder frame type that was easy to open (Daihatsu Compano Spider is a good example), but if it was the latter, it would be a very luxurious story, and if it still exists. It seems to be as valuable as the Toyota 2000GT bond car specification.
* The author information of the images used in this article is as of the publication date.
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