(engine revs)
(tires screech)
- If you're into drifting, and ya should be,
you've probably heard of the 240SX from Nissan.
Maybe you've even heard specifics, like mentions of the S13,
S14, and the beautiful strawberry faced
S15 models.
So you're probably thinking "what the heck are they
even mean, James?"
The S-chassi started out in life as the underpinnings
of affordable alternatives to larger and more powerful
rear wheel drive sports cards.
Not only have countless stories been made with these cars,
entire careers have been launched
using the humble S-chassi.
This is everything you need to know to get up to speed
on the Nissan Silvia
240SX,
200SX,
180SX,
S-chassi.
(video game music)
If somehow you live inside of a rock and you haven't
heard of these cars, the formula was pretty simple.
The company used these S abbreviations to signify the
development of their small rear wheeled drive car line
with S being derived from the name of the model in Japan,
Silvia. The numbers represent which generation it was.
240SX and the S-chassi story begins in 1976
with a car that nobody really remembers.
While Nissan had a small-ish sports car in their Z car,
that car was becoming more expensive each year.
So they made just what the needed, the S10, created to
be the cheaper lighter car that Nissan wanted
and the rest of the world needed.
The first S-chassi was born, equipped with a 1.8 liter
engine everywhere else and sold as Silvias,
American S10's were sold as a larger two liter engine
and badged as just 200SX's.
While Paul Newman had raced the earlier S10,
the S110 received much more factory attention, gaining fame
in a number of racing leagues. The two most famous of these
racing S110's couldn't really have been more different
from each other, the group B 240RS and the Japan only
super silhouette racers. We all know how crazy group B was
while it existed, all wheel drive and spectators risking
everything just to get closer to the cars.
Nissan's entry into the series, the 240RS, was not really
any of these.
Still they had to make 200 road going versions of the 240RS
for homologation rules, and thus grace the worlds
roads with a badass, rally bred, box flared creation.
The other racing S10, the super silhouette racers built for
the Japanese only racing series, was insanely powerful.
(engine revs)
They made more power from their tuned, turbo charged, two
liter, four cylinder than the formula one cars of the day.
To handle this power, the company utilized some
pretty extreme arrow.
Surprisingly, this car and others like it, which only raced
for four years, spawned an entire subculture of its own,
the insane bosozoku culture in Japan.
Nissan got rid of their S110 platform in 1984 and released
the new S12 chassi. The S12 introduced the most important
development in S-chassi history, pop-up headlights.
(engine revving)
In all seriousness, the S12 generation was when Nissan
started getting their act together and started to focus
on the sport part of their affordable sport coupe.
The S12 was available from the very first day
with a turbo charged engine, even in North America,
that's right.
Nissan sold...
a turbo...
S-chassi car here,
and you little idiots forgot about it.
(bell rings)
Nissan pulled the plug on turbo chargers in 1987 for the US
and instead introduced the new 200SX sports edition.
This car featured a unique trait among
factory S-chessi cars, a V6.
Nissan killed the S12 in 1989 and introduced the car
that cemented the S-chassi into history,
the S13, ya ever heard of it?
(tires screech)
America received both a coupe and lift-back version
of the S13 and gained its name from the 2.4 liter,
four cylinder, KA24 engine used in US cars,
producing a whopping 140 horsepower, and coming from a truck
this engine would weigh down the S13 in America
from day one.
- I mean was it heavy? Did it achieve total heavy-acity?
- Despite this lack of motivation from the power plant,
this engine in one form or another, would be the only engine
on offer for the rest of S-chassi's life in the US.
Meanwhile,
over in the rest...
of the entire freakin' world,
the SR20 would soon be hitting the roads and the S13
with over 200 turbo charged horsepowers.
This engine would turn out to be a tuners wet dream,
easily capable of handling 350 horsepower
with only minor modifiocations. This power combined with the
classic S-chassi formula: three wheel drive, lightweight
and affordable, would turn the S13 into a star in the new
and growing sport of drifting.
(tires screeching)
(engine revs)
Pretty soon, Japanese underground drift stars were
customizing their S13s in ways never before thought of.
This would lay the foundation of drift culture
as we know it.
(engine revs)
Late 1993 would see the introduction of the S14 Silvia
in Japan, with the rest of the world receiving it in 1994.
The car became wider, lower and had a longer wheel base,
making drifitng even easier. Styling can be divided between
two distinct non pop-up headlight periods.
The earlier Zenki cards produced from 1994 to '96
and the more aggressive Kouki cars from '96 until the S15
was introduced in '99. America's S14 still had to soldier
on with a mildly updated K24 engine, while the rest of the
freakin' world still got the SR20DET.
Nissan reported 75% of 240SX customers
in America were women.
(country accent) I wouldn't mind meeting the type o' gal
that bought a 240 SX new.
(normal) The final generation of the S-chassi, the S15,
was introudced in 1999 and only lasted three short years.
Sold only in Japan, Australia and New Zealand,
this car was slightly smaller than the S14, and was powered
by the last and greasted SR20 offered from the factory.
The S15 is the forbidden fruit of the model line
to Americans, as they will be illegal to import and drive
on the streets until 2024. Popular S-chassi models carry
a sizeable increase over their market value, a phenomenon
better known as the Drift Tax. Despite this increased cost,
Nissan's S-chassi has become a culture of its own.
This same fan base has been clamoring for Nissan to build
an S16 Silvia. Nissan was said repeatedly that the market
just doesn't exist, and a better way to reach enthusiasts
was through trendy and hip vehicles like the...
(pop music)
- (foreign language) Juke.
- (beeps) you
Ya know and Nissan owns Mitsubishi now, so they're the guys
who made the Eclipse. However, recent rumors are that Nissan
may have changed their little minds. With Toyota bringing
back the Supra, as well as already making the 8-6,
the competition is ready and awaiting.
(gong buzzes)
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