Browse over 9,000 car reviews

Nissan Silvia may return

Nissan's new thinking is reflected in the Foria concept (pictured), displayed at the Sydney motor show last year.

A major project is underway in Japan that will produce no fewer than 52 new Nissans by 2016, including a car that will revive the idea behind the Silvia coupe, known as the 200SX in Australia.

Australians have already had an early look at Nissan's thinking, which is reflected in the Foria concept displayed at the Sydney motor show last year. The baby-blue dream machine is compact and coupe in looks, despite using a four-door body that uses similar 'suicide' rear doors to the Mazda RX-8.

But there is much more to come from Japan, including the potential for an electric powertrain. Nissan sources say there is no decision yet on either petrol or electric power for the Silvia. In fact, one insider sees the new Silvia - which might not wear that badge - re-surfacing in around 2013 as a kind of 'bridge' between the last petrol-powered Silvia of 2008 and the electric-powered, rear- drive Esflow concept car which debuted at the Geneva motor show earlier this year.

The return to a new Silvia comes as Japanese carmakers crank up development work following the Global Financial Crisis. The Silvia was chopped in 2008, at the same time as Honda binned its V10-powered NSX supercar, even though 70 per cent of the world was done and the exterior design was complete.

Three years, with its balance sheet back in order, Nissan has just announced its ambitious 'Power 88' plan intended to boost global sales and profit by eight percent within six years. It could even tap into a new deal with Daimler that will see the brands sharing a mechanical platform flexible enough to house everything from four-cylinder to V8 engines. The Mercedes-Benz platform is already expected to be the building block for the next Skyline and Infiniti G from Japan, but could have other uses including the Silvia.

Further into the future, around 2020, there is talk in Japan that Lotus Engineering could also be involved with the Nissan-Daimler deal. This new three-way collaboration could figure into the commercialization of rear-drive electric vehicles, tapping Lotus expertise in lightweight construction with a new 'bathtub' construction to replace the orthodox monocoque car body.

But that's further into the future than the Silvia, which tracks its history in Australia back to the 1960s when 49 cars in the CSP311 series made it downunder. The Silvia really got going in Australia in the 1980s, when it was known as the Gazelle with a wheezy 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, before the switch to 200SX badging in the late 1990s. The 180SX was never officially sold in Australia but has been a huge success as a 'grey import' from Japan, especially as the base for highly-power and highly-modified cars used in drift competitions.