The history of Silvia coupe started from as far back as in the mid 1960's with the entrance of CSP311 Model. It all begun then when German designer Count Albrecht Graf Goertz signed on as a consultant with Nissan in 1963, staying till 1965. Goertz was trained in Germany and in the 1950s traveled to the United States where he worked for Studebaker, designing the Studebaker Starliner. He then returned to Germany, where he was employed by BMW. His work at BMW included the gorgeous 507 Convertible. Later he moved to Porsche, where he was part of the design team working on the famous 911 turbo.
Albrecht Goertz was engaged primarily to help develop a 2000gt sports car in a joint venture between Nissan and Yamaha. The project was scrapped after Yamaha's engine didn't live up to its billing . Before he left, he did a couple of important things. The first was getting Nissan designers to build their cars using full scale clay mock ups, and to get them to think about design in an international context and not just for Japanese buyers. The second thing that started the long line of the Silvia history was to help provide guidance on the design the Nissan Silvia Coupe CSP311 1600 of 1964.
According to Goertz, the Japanese designers saw the design process as being an amalgamation of seperate ideas. Goertz designed the car as a single entity that included many of his trademark features seen previously on cars like the BMW 507, such as a long bonnet line that lunges forward of an open grille, large wheels and wheel arches and small, delicate bumper bars. The Silvia was the first Japanese car designed using a full scale clay mock-up and was the showpiece of the Tokyo Auto show that year.
According to the Chief Designer, Mr. Ootake, the name "Silvia" comes from Greek Mythology and was the name of a beautiful Nymph. According to Roman Mythology (which borrows from the Greek) Silvia was the mother of Romulus and Remus (By Mars) and was the daughter of King Numitor. Her uncle gave her to to the goddess Vesta
CSP311 SILVIA (1964 ~ 1968 )
The Nissan Silvia CSP311, a very roadster-like designation, made it's public debut at the Tokyo Motor Show in September of 1964 and the design won great acclaim. It went into production in March of 1965. Nissan CSP311 Silvia was a hand built limited edition 2-seater coupé built on the Datsun FairLady 1500 (SP310) chassis.
Designed by Kazuo Kimura, with assistance from Albrecht Goertz, the prototypes engine at the Tokyo Motor Show featured the Fairlady's 1500 engine. The actual production Silvia however, benefited from the 1595cc unit later used in the Fairlady 1600 (SP311), released in 1965. The bore size was 87.2mm and the stroke 66.8mm. It was fitted with two 38mm Hitachi SU carbs and a lightweight pressed steel exhaust manifold. It produced 96hp at 6000rpm and 103ft-lb of torque at 4000rpm. It was said to have a top speed of 165km\h.
However the CSP311 was only built in small numbers (554 cars). Since all but one prototype were right hand drive and about 90% of the Silvia's were sold in Japan, none in USA or Europe, it's existence is unknown to almost everyone. The left hand drive version tested in the USA by Bob Sharp, described her as a 'nifty car', however the Silvia was not sold in the USA because her interior was considered too small.
A small number of Silvia's were used as Highway Patrol cars in Japan as it was their fastest production car. The method of hand forming each body panel against a wooden jig and welding it to a FairLady shell was a slow and labour intensive method of building these cars and definitely not the ideal way for mass production. The part from any of two CSP311 was not interchangeable as they were each unique to each car. It was also one the most expensive cars ever built by a Japanese manufacturer in 1965 at 1,200,000 Yen or 45% more than the FairLady Roadster it was based on. This was at a time when very few in the rest of the world knew anything about a Japanese car industry. After the production ended in 1968, the model name Silvia wasn't used until 1974 when another Silvia was introduced.
.S10 SILVIA ( 1974 ~ 1979 )
Introduced 1974, the S10 was introduced as the original “Silvia” version sports car in Japan. The S10 in Japan has a L18B engine rated 90BHP. Back then, Nissan US (then Datsun) decided it needed a change up in it's current line up of sports cars. The 280Z was their only sports coupe in America, it grew heavy over the years and had a tough time meeting emissions standards with their OHC Inline 6 L28 engine. Something had to be done in order to save their market share. Lucky in 1974, Japan had a sports coupe that was not only fuel efficient, , but also cheap to produce and fun to drive. This coupe was known as the Silvia. The Silvia in production at that time was called the S10 Silvia, and was powered by a small version of the 280Z engine. This was undesirable as they were trying to get away from this engine line as the gas crisis increased, so a new Silvia had to be created; one that would be viable for the American market. But in order to get a foothold in the American market early, the Silvia S10 was sent over in 1977. Instead of a L18B engine used for Japan, a larger L20B engine powered the S10 for the US market.
As Nissan had used engine sizes all through the Z line as their names (240Z was 2.4L, 280Z was 2.8L), they aptly named the car the 200SX. Many people actually become confused at this point and call the car the 200ZX, which it was not. The Z named cars were Nissan's "Best of the Best", recieving the 'last letter in the alphabet for the last word in performance'. The 200SX, on the other hand, was not built as a supercar, but as something cheap, fun and reliable. That's why it recieved the 'S' name, for 'sport'. If you're wondering about the 'X', that was introduced to the car naming structure in the late 70's to signify the car had luxury options. The weird Datsun Silvia S10 is a truly odd looking car, a fact that seems to have left it with few friends these days. This is particularly true in the USA where the cars were fitted with federal safety bumpers which ruined the cars original lines.
