Nissan's other sports coupe

Ian Patmore

Well-Known Forum User
Some those on here that been around for years know me, and over the last 6 odd years my S30 focus and participation on this forum has drastically dropped.

Why, well my sole focus is on the project car I brought in 2008, and have been slowly sourcing parts, restoring the parts and thinking what route to take. EVERYTHING is being restored to a high detail, even the glass needs work. I have made parts and even sell them back to Japan.

And what took a huge chunk of time was creating my website. It took months and months of transcribing Japanese Kanji one by one into text I could translate, probably looked at 60-70 thousand Kanji to help with the site.

That seems a lot of work doesn't it, well when your project was only the second car in Europe at the time, and now one of two cars in the UK, its a bit special, and since there was no website covering the period history of the car, lets do that too, and become a source of info. Production was only 554 of the model, so only about 120ish more than a Z432.

Still a Nissan, but Nissan's production sports coupe before the S30. It's the first generation Nissan Silvia, with model code CSP311.

My site;

https://csp311.net/

Yes, I have also done it in Japanese also, as it is where most of the cars still exist. Covers history, design, motorsport and my work.

Enjoy.
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
I have an inkling of how much work Ian has put into his site, and have also seen some of the parts he has refurbed (beautiful!) and reproduced (amazing!).

Commended, and heartily recommended.
 

Mr Tenno

Digital Officer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Took me a while to figure out the navigation but wow - that's some impressive attention to detail!
 

AD240Z

Club Member
Amazing all round - top job.

There’s nothing like a good ( and in this case amazing ) build thread or article to make me:

A) realise what a lazy arse I am
B) inspire me


Thanks.
 

Ian Patmore

Well-Known Forum User
Thanks all.
My CSP311 will be modified, but using period parts and will be subtle, as I have the chance to incorporate what I want to from the start, as the car is a bare canvas. But it won't look modified, keeping the classic look.
 

Ian Patmore

Well-Known Forum User
Yes Sean. E.G., here are my instrument gauges, before and after. They had to be sent off to a vintage aircraft guage restorer in the USA. They have been re-screen painted/printed.

dscf0901.jpgThe subtle mod is the temp gauge is now in degrees c and the fuel gauge now reads 57 liter rather than the stock 43 liter. Why, as I plan have a larger fuel tank made based on the Nissan Sport Option tank from a SP311 (the tank is the same between the SP and the CSP except filler neck location).

dscf1612.jpg


Those are the sorts of subtle mods I am trying to do. Built in rather than add ons.
 

SeanDezart

Well-Known Forum User
Yes Sean. E.G., here are my instrument gauges, before and after. They had to be sent off to a vintage aircraft guage restorer in the USA. They have been re-screen painted/printed.

The subtle mod is the temp gauge is now in degrees c and the fuel gauge now reads 57 liter rather than the stock 43 liter. Why, as I plan have a larger fuel tank made based on the Nissan Sport Option tank from a SP311 (the tank is the same between the SP and the CSP except filler neck location).

Those are the sorts of subtle mods I am trying to do. Built in rather than add ons.
So this was a US market car (LHD ?) rather than a JDM version...which might have been expected to have metric dials already ?

Loving your project :bow: - more photos please BUT less shakyEXTRA:D
 

Ian Patmore

Well-Known Forum User
No LHD market cars made, except 1 LHD prototype. All cars sold to RHD countries (that we know of), Japan (of course), Australia, South Africa, Papa New Guinea and maybe New Zealand. The two South African cars didn't surface until about 4/5years ago. Though we think it was a special order in the Netherlands, but still would be RHD. One Silvia exhibited in the 1967 Amsterdam car show, and I hear it then went onto be exhibited at the Turin Motor show (but as yet to see image/proof). Even seen an advert (period) for the Silvia for sale in the UK, but I never got to see the advert in context (but the price was extortionate).

No real different market for the CSP's, all the same, except that Japanese got KM/H and metric temps and fuel gauges. (There are production differences, through it's production). Aust. cars got MPH gauges, but degree's F temp and metric fuel gauges. Why, I think is that the fuel are the same as the SP(L)311 ones, it wasn't worth changing. Even the North American market got metric fuel gauges for all their imported SPL311's. Though got imperial temp guages. The SP(L) and CSP have the same temp. fuel gauges. Also, Australia was imperial then, but wasn't long before it went metric as its standard measurement.

Mine is an Australian imported car. The other CSP in the UK is a Japanese imported car. There was another Japanese imported CSP to the UK, which is now exported.
 

Ian Patmore

Well-Known Forum User
No USA cars, all imported privately. That includes the Silvia imported to Hawaii in 1965 by racing driver Elroy Goto who was Nissan sponsored. That car went on to be in the film the Karate Kid.

There was a Silvia shown at the New York Motor show in March 1965, which eventually went back to Japan. Again RHD.
 

SeanDezart

Well-Known Forum User
Only marketed as RHD : was that due to limited numbers (read expensive) OR techinical/conception issues making it complictaed (read expensive again) to produce in LHD ?
Hard the believe the latter when the chassis was based on the roadsters !
 

Ian Patmore

Well-Known Forum User
Nissan in the early 1960's was already producing and selling the likes of the P410, P411 and SP310 models in LHD, without any real technical differences to their RHD models. So, doing a LHD Silvia as a production model would have been feasible. It was afterall based on the SP310. The SP310 and subsequent SP311 aren't very complicated cars. Obviously all initially designed for the domestic RHD market in the first instance.

I think the Silvia shown at the New York Motor Show was more of a way of showing what Nissan could do. I am unsure what was completely in Nissan's mind of what they intended. I have a Silvia brochure with dealers in the US listed... Though i understand the Silvia at the Motor show was warmly received.

The stumbling block I think was price. Remember, Nissan hadn't done a metal hand assembled body for a production car before, its complicated, and aiming for that crisp look was hard. The body doesn't have many body seams, so it takes skill and time to get this right. Panels exterior and interior fit that body only, e.g. they are stamped/chalk marked with their body number. But they were learning from it. Nissan also had cracking issues in the top of the c pillar once the car was finished on some cars, so these would have to sorted and repainted to fix. And the car was their prestige model, it's meant to be expensive and exclusive. Even in Japan it was expensive, costing 1.2 million Yen, whilst the Nissan Bluebird DX (deluxe) P411 was 674,000 Yen, and a Toyota Corolla about 400,000 yen. And in Australia the Silvia was $4390, compared to a SP311 at $2690 or a MGB at $2840. There is no way buyers in the US would pay anywhere near what the car was asked for in other countries, Land of the Cheap as Possible.

No, not limited to limited Silvia's made. The vast majority of Silvia's were made in 1965, off the top of my head, 422... The body of my Silvia is 279, and Australian Silvia's weren't sold until about May 1966, so just over a year since production started. So, it suggests the body of my Silvia (and car) was sitting around. So, cars were available for sale.
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
White elephant as per the 2000GT sales.....

Why always this constant nonsense about such cars? Do people who talk about the Toyota 2000GT, Nissan Fairlady Z432/Z432-R and CSP311 Silvia and their ilk as being "failures" and "white elephants" honestly not understand what cars like that were for?

Nobody involved in such projects expected the cars to be produced and sold in volume. It is like comparing a Savile Row suit to something from Primark. These were statement cars. 'This is what we can do'. As useful internally as externally within a company workforce. Image builders. Something to be proud of. The CSP311 Silvia was an important car for Nissan. The people who didn't take it, and the company which made it, seriously were the same people who found themselves going out of business less than ten years later.

Most of the serious and growing automotive manufacturers of the period indulged in the same exercises. Anybody who sees them as some kind of commercial failure simply isn't understanding the reason they were made in the first place.
 
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