In the late 80s and 90s all Japanese OEM’s went through a renaissance in which they produced legendary mid and high end sports cars. Nissan was arguably the most prolific during that time. They produced sports cars that hit a chord in the low, mid, and high segments with the Silvia, Z car, and Skyline GT-R respectively.

America was lucky enough to enjoy the Silvia (240SX in America) and the Z car for quite some time.

While the Z remains a global car, the Silvia eventually faded away. The S14 240SX left the American market in 1998. Nissan continued after with the legendary S15 but it was a limited market car and eventually it ended production as well.

The day that the Silvia died was a sad day indeed for sports car enthusiasts around the world. For some background, the reason why the Silvia was such a seminal car is because it was the the leader of a crop of cheap, rear wheel drive sports cars that were easily adaptable for various types of motorsport.

Sure, the Silvia is best known as a very popular and capable drift car but the truth is its lightweight, turbocharged, rear wheel drive platform can work well in various disciplines.

Since those days, it’s been hard for Japanese manufacturers to find reasons to produce mid-level sports cars that can turn a profit. As a result there are very few cars that fit into that category available today; The standout being the GT86 which Toyota had to partner with Subaru to produce.

Recently, some rumors surfaced that Nissan is considering resurrecting the Silvia. The podcast crew, joined by Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire, discussed the finer points of the rumors, if they believe it will actually happen, and if Nissan should even make the attempt. Before we get into the opinions, let’s talk about some of the rumors first.

The S16 Silvia will probably be a hybrid

According to rumors that we sourced from our Otaku Ninjas in Japan, if Nissan decides to produce a new Silvia, it will most likely have Nissan’s “ePower” drivetrain. In a nutshell, ePower is Nissan’s range extender hybrid package that is currently used in some of their Japan only front wheel drive cars. In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, a range extender hybrid drivetrain is exclusively driven by an electric motor but a gasoline engine is utilized as a generator to keep the battery charged. According to the Ninjas and Best Car Web, if Nissan moves forward with the S16 Silvia, the ePower platform would be adapted for a rear wheel drive set up and the electric motor would be tuned to produce about 200 horsepower.

This is what the Nissan S16 Silvia could look like

Best Car artists took the information obtained by their reporters and used it to create a rendering on what they believe a S16 Silvia could look like. The rendering seen above, definitely triggered thoughts of Mercedes AMG GT for us with its long nose and short rear overhang. The rendering certainly has the vibes of a luxury performance car. Though if the rumors are true and the S16 Silvia is targeting a $30k MSRP, this styling would certainly be unprecedented.

Will Nissan bring back the Silvia?

When discussing the possibility of the S16 Silvia, the Podspeed crew did what they did best: speculate and share their opinions. Only this time they were also joined by Matt Farah. Once Sam went over all of the rumored facts the panel offered up their thoughts on if they believe the rumors and if Nissan can even pull off resurrecting the Silvia at all.

James McKeone believes that these rumors are mistargeted. He believes that Nissan is probably discussing a new range extended ePower hybrid but not what these rumors indicate. Stating that this car “will not be a Silvia but probably a Sentra”. Which makes a whole lot of sense considering that the current ePower cars use a FF platform. Taking one of those JDM-only ePower cars and rebadging it as a Sentra for the global market is a much more straightforward process.

Taro Koki isn’t a believer either. He noted that cars like the S13 Silvia came during a special time in Japan’s economy which allowed the OEMs to give their designers and product managers much more freedom in the cars they produced. It goes without saying that a lot has changed since the 90s so that environment of freedom for designers and product managers is a very rare thing these days.

Matt Farah was a little more blunt. He believes that Nissan currently “doesn’t have what it takes” to bring back the Silvia in a way that enthusiasts would want. He smartly noted the fact that even the mammoth Toyota needed to partner with other OEMs to produce the GT86 and the new Supra respectively. He thinks Nissan would be hard-pressed to find another manufacturer to partner with to produce a hybrid sports car for a $30k price point.

We want to know what you think. Do you think Nissan will bring back the Silvia? Do you think Nissan should bring it back? If you had to choose another OEM for Nissan to partner with to produce the S16 Silvia, which one would you choose? Reach out to us via Twitter or Instagram at @GTChannel. We would love to know your thoughts!

Will Nissan Bring Back The Silvia?