Nissan Silvia S15 - Enough Already!

In 2005, the car underwent a rebirth. Kazu Fujioka, a renowned tuner in the JDM industry, and his company, Auto Produce Boss, joined the effort, helping to build the car from the ground up. Sometimes, people try to call a rebuilt engine and a new coat of paint "a rebuild," but this project involved much more than that. This car was stripped to the core, stuffed with new internals, and covered with a fresh layer of skin.

Torn down to a bare unibody, the team went about lightening it as much as possible. A new C-West hood, bumper skirts and wing went on, as well as Auto Produce Boss custom doors and Okuyama wide-body fenders. Every panel on the S15 was replaced in an effort to lose the most weight. This serious lightening effort was necessary to help offset the additional weight of the added suspension and engine parts, not to mention the weight of the much-needed safety equipment.

With all the individual components overhauled and updated, the job of reassembly could begin. They chose all the components with balance and optimal performance in mind.

Three careful months of planning and assembly went into the production of this car. That's not very long when you consider this car is built to the nth degree. Once it was put together, the testing and tuning could begin in earnest. Not surprisingly, all the suspension components are RS-R pieces, including prototype control arms and tie rods. The remainder of the suspension and brakes are RS-R production pieces, and include front and rear strut-tower bars, 32-way adjustable coilovers, front and rear in-car adjustable anti-roll bars, and their own Dorio brake pads.

With the chassis up to snuff, it was time to move on to the engine build. The crew at RS-R left the motivation for the Silvia up to Tomei Engine in Japan. Tomei has been building SR20DET motors for quite some time, and their track record speaks for itself. Their motors have been proven to withstand the grueling abuse of real-world racing conditions. In order to build engines that can accomplish such feats, Tomei has invested a great deal of time on research. Every component has been specially selected, inspected and prepped by Tomei to ensure the utmost quality and performance. Tomei even assigns each engine a serial number and provides a booklet that explains to the operator what must be done to ensure the longevity of the venerable Nissan mill. A bastion of accountability, Tomei even provides the name of the person who built each engine. Now RS-R knows whose door to kick down in the unlikely event their engine should grenade. And the kicker is that their engines are shipped already broken in and ready to go. They even come with Raytech ECUs, tuned specifically for that particular engine's characteristics. The turbo is a Tomei ARMS B8446 and the manifold is a SARDS Sports EX unit, and a custom RS-R intercooler cools the compressed air. Outfitted with an additional 200cc of displacement, the Nissan 4-banger is good for 500hp. Aft of the engine, power is transferred to an Ogura Racing clutch and RS-R 2-way LSD. Exhaust gasses are extracted and expelled by a RS-R GT-Ti 80mm titanium downpipe and custom exhaust.

The Silvia rolls on a set of Enkei RPF-1 wheels wrapped in Advan Neova rubber. The fronts measure 17x9 and sport 245/40R/17 tires, while the rears measure 18x10 and ride on 255/35R/18 meats.

With the weight down, power up, and a sorted suspension, they hit the track. As the 2005 season progressed, the S15 began competing in more than just D1GP events. As part of its rebirth, the Silva was entered in Japanese time attacks, and has made appearances at events like Carboys's own Battle Dori, Advan Drift meets and other time attacks.

Now wouldn't you like to see a car like this in action on the tube from time to time? The time has come to stick it to the man! So, what can you as an individual do to stop the NASCAR/NEXTEL monster from smothering all other forms of racing? Attend drift events and get up close and personal with the beauties like this S15!

Behind The BuildHead to the message boards at www.importtuner.com to chat about this feature Vehicle

Quote."We built the car to showcase what we can do with suspension and performance tuning"

Name. RS*RAge. ThirtyHometown. Osaka, JapanOccupation. ManufacturerHobbies RacingBuild Time. Three MonthsFeedback. Info@Rs-R.Com