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As a Nissan enthusiast I'm not overly impressed with the options they have on offer at the moment.
The very last 'boy racer' examples were the Sentra 200STI and Sabre GXI each coming out of the factory with the SR20DE engine that produced 105kW. That was in the early to late 90's and no other model has emerged since.
Would it be feasible?
In terms of performance the only models on the table is the GT-R and 370Z which is pretty much unattainable for the average Joe with price tags starting from R700 000 and easily exceeding the R1 million mark.
READ: Silvia, Sunny, Skyline: Here are some of Nissan's best turbocharged engines ever made
Newer versions of the Sentra and Almera were launched a few years ago but they were eerily identical in terms of design, and with no performance derivative, it became a more frequent Uber taxi. Previous generations of the Almera weren't popular locally either but at least they had those punchy 1.8-litre QG engines just to have a bit of fun.
Do you think Nissan should revive the Silvia? Email us
It also came in turbocharged aspiration making as much as 184kW in certain Silvia models until production finally ceased in the early 2000's. Since then numerous versions of the Micra has been released and the Datsun brand given a revival with its popular GO city car.
I've been fortunate enough to have experienced five different variations of the SR20 engine, albeit in different cars, and its performance is something that would be beneficial to the current brood on the market. Greener driving and pint-sized engines with a turbo slapped on seems to be the way forward for all manufacturers.
Reviving the S-chassis
Nissan currently has nothing that can rival the likes of the GTI and ST - in actual fact they haven't had one for some time so I don't think it would be a bad idea to deliver a 'no-holds barred', robust performance engine in future models (read: revive the Silvia).
What better way to introduce a new car to the market than bringing back an icon of the past - the S-chassis. There have been concept sketches scattered across the internet but it remains to be seen whether Nissan will ever bring it back into production.
Image: YouTube
You can still pick up low mileage second-hand SR's at a number of engine importers around Cape Town for about R7 000, with the more expensive ones costing as much as R26 000.
Toyota gave us a taste of what future Gazoo Racing models will be like when they brought a limited number of Yaris hatches to SA, albeit not for sale to the public.
Fans are still buying older Sentra's and doing conversions of their own. I've even seen a few in VW Golf MK1, such is the fanaticism about these four potters. An esteemed quality of these engines is their robustness, reliability and wide tuning capabilities without having to break the bank.
Maybe its just a distant dream of mine to have Nissan recreate one of its best performance engines. Seeing that cars are going to be driving themselves in the future, there probably is no place for anything else besides the legendary Godzilla.
