It’s exasperation I was voicing over Nissan’s decision making. I *have* been wanting them to produce this car for ten years and two times so far they have been on the verge of doing a new 2+2 Silvia. The 370Z has only two seats and a hatch trunk– not my thing. Few new cars are near 3000lbs and RWD and also offer back seats.

I absolutely want them to make this car the *correct* way. A lot of people do. It’s just frustrating when every other manufacturer gets into the game with their small RWD car and the one manufacturer that has done a version in the past that is exactly your own personal preference decides not to. And they do this several times. It’s like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit and yanking it away.

I am very annoyed with Nissan. I am very hopeful about the future of the 240SX/Silvia.

If they offer anything less, then the Hyundai Genesis Coupe V6 GT, 2.0T R-spec, Toyota FT-86 & the Subie variant will be the only ones I’ll be test driving when I look for my next car in a few years…

I’ve been waiting for this since 2000. They need a 2+2 RWD in their lineup. And they will offer the turbo version with 240-280HP with 6-speed manual and LSD options to compete in this segment. For max $26k MSRP.

I hope this isn’t just a blind rumor. What a frustrating car company. At least they’re going to build it, finally.

That won’t happen. Horsepower costs money. You buff the engine to that point and it costs money. You buff the frame the tranny to handle that power and it costs money. Also the car would suddenly be way too close to the 370Z even if separated by 50-80hp.

If the SX is going to cost about $20K it is not going to be very powerful. 220hp tops and, to be honest, I don’t think NISSAN has a better than 200hp to throw at this car. and to keep dev costs down they aren’t going to make one. The SENTRA SE-R’s motor would do but that is only about 200hp.

Now if MITSUBISHI would make a new AWD Eclipse…

Very hard.

How many cool concepts that were apparently ready for production got killed at the 11th hour or were just “Engineering exercises”? Their are so many cars and trucks and whatnot that could have and should have been built. If they were the automotive landscape would look some much better and so much more desirable and a LOT of car makers would not be in trouble or as much trouble as they are now.

But I think the appearance of dithering and hemming and hawing on NISSAN’s comes from the general openness and honesty of the Japanese autopress. Unfortunately, they may sometimes get too much information and don’t parse their words ahead of time or print and post the story before it’s done. Next week we may come back and find NISSAN kills the car for good or gives it a green light plus some prototypes getting a once over by technicians.

“The tuner market is just itching for a small RWD coupe with about 200hp.”

And thus the reason the Genesis Coupe 2.0T was all over SEMA.

I hope there’s a naturally aspirated, direct injected, variable valve timing 2.4L as the “Optional” engine, otherwise Nissan will have broken the rules. Oh, and don’t forget the DCT.

What I would curious to see is if NISSAN kills off the SENTRA for this car and makes a sedan version. In which case, a more conservative style would be expected and warranted to keep from scaring off small car buyers who maybe are not looking for flash just carry.

After all, the VERSA is just about as big as the SENTRA.

That aside, NISSAN probably really needs to build this car if for no other reason that the 370Z is a bit too pointed and is getting a bit pricey (Starting at about $30K) for early fans of the car and steps away from buyers who who otherwise like to have a back seat with their speed wagon. Which is actually a rather large number of people.

Otherwise we are going to see some kind of ricer garbage like the “250SX SE-R Spec V” for the top trim level.

If it’s the 250Z it comes in either manual or auto… and we are done.

But I’m stoked about the car, hopefully we’ll see some competition between the FT 86 and get 2 great RWD (Thank God) low-mid powered fun little coupes. Very exciting, thank you Nissan and don’t effing cancel it again!

Nice conservative 200hp to keep insurance rates low, plenty of room for tuners to get in there and play, offer a lot of Nismo parts for it. Could be quite the little cash-cow.

Call it the 250Z… done deal.

I don’t know what’s up in the picture but the concept they had about a year ago seemed pretty cool

WTF is that?

-Sarge

The tuner market is just itching for a small RWD coupe with about 200hp. All these FWD sport-compacts are crap.

-Sarge