Start with what the Nissan Silvia is: a 2-door coupé with 1.6 , built from 1965 to 2002, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Kazuo Kimura, Fumio Yoshida.
Where it came from
The Nissan Silvia (Japanese: 日産・シルビア, Hepburn: Nissan Shirubia) is the series of small sports cars produced by Nissan. Versions of the Silvia have been marketed as the 200SX or 240SX for export, with some export versions being sold under the Datsun brand.
The Gazelle was the twin-model of Silvia sold in Japan at different dealerships for the S110 and S12 generations; the Gazelle name was also used in Australia for the S12 generation. For the S13 generation in Japan, the Gazelle was replaced with the 180SX, which was a hatchback model of the Silvia with pop-up headlights that was also sold as the 200SX and 240SX for export purposes.
Under the skin
The engine is 1.6 . On the scales it comes to 978 kg. Drive goes through a 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2280 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
In the Nissan line-up the Nissan Silvia has a clear place: the factory was Hiratsuka, Kanagawa (Nissan Shatai Plant), Japan. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Ford Transit, the Ford Bronco, the Lamborghini Miura. Nearby in the Nissan catalogue sit the Nissan N6 and the Nissan N7.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Nissan Silvia has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.