Neith's JDM Nissan S15 Silvia Spec-R

[Neith]

Figured I'd make a start here since I'm picking the car up 1st June

The car is a 1999 model Spec-R, with Aero skirts and wing. It's covered 57,000 miles. It was sourced by DCY Europe (based near York and have been top guys since I started the import process) after 7 failed auction bids.

So far the car is completely standard aside from a rather tacky looking headunit that I'll probably change. So far all I'm waiting for is DVLA to give me a registration and then I can go collect her!

Pictures:
Yes, bonnet is open- it isn't a terrible fit





This is one of the only bad parts of the car- the mirror looks like it's been repainted at some point and the colour match isn't great.


Underneath (this is being undersealed tomorrow)


Headlights look pretty cloudy, but judging from what I've seen it seems to be a common thing for S15s. Should hopefully be easy enough to sort out.



Plans for the car:
Firstly get some money back as it wasn't cheap getting this one. Once I feel less poor, I'd like to switch alloys (TE37s would be great but good luck finding those cheap, so Rota Grid Drifts might be another option). I also want to switch the exhaust but I need to do some research on these before I decide what to go for. After that I'd like to lower it slightly and get an induction kit but aside from that I'm happy with how the car is (until the inevitable mod bug kicks in, that is).

Hopefully this'll be a good few years; never owned an import before so it's all new to me. (Previous cars were a Gen 7 Celica 140 and a EP3 Civic Type-R).

1st June cannot come quick enough.

[Neith]

problemchild1976 said:

yummy - i love these jap import cars!

my inlaws live in cyprus and there are loads there and they are superb

how much are we talking for an import like these??

what sort of warranty do you get....

JJ

This one worked out at around £11k, but it was bought when the Yen was a bit stronger so you could probably get a decent Spec-R for about £10k now. Spec-S (the 165bhp NA engined one) are around £4-6k I believe. This one took me a couple of months to get, I'd been outbid on a lot of S15s before this one (which oddly enough weren't in as good condition) and a lot as you'd expect are either heavily modified, drift slags or accident damaged. It can take a while to get the car you want, but the exclusivity and the feeling of owning one of your favourite cars from your school years is totally worth it. At the moment the only car I'd prefer is a well sorted R32 or R33 GT-R, but the insurance costs scare the hell out of me. This is fairly expensive to insure but still in the realms of justifiable.

Comes with a basic warranty for everything barring the clutch (not sure of the exact reason but I imagine all the enthusiastic driving is part of it).

Few basic things about the car since they were never sold here:
- RWD, ~250bhp, weighs about 1200kg. Comes with a limited-slip differential as standard and powered by a SR20DET turbocharged motor. Has plenty of body bracing (much more than the Spec-S, which seems to be more of a tourer).

[Neith]

On the subject of the exhaust:

I do a regular (well, once every 2-3 months) trip from Middlesbrough to Norwich to see relatives down there. Works out about 220 miles each way. Because of that, I really can't bring myself to get a loud exhaust- this will be my daily driver (not a weekend toy) and having owned a EP3 Civic Type-R I know that loud cars become nothing more than a huge headache by the time I'm at Norwich. It was mainly induction noise with the Civic rather than the exhaust but it was still horrendous.

I also don't want to get pulled over for having a noisy car (and Norfolk Constabulary are well known for cracking down on loud exhausts by all accounts). At the same time, I want an exhaust that gives a decent burble on tick-over and sounds decent on the move without being too loud. If anyone does have any suggestions for quieter exhausts I'd appreciate it. I know there's the HKS 'Silent' Hi-Power, but no idea how loud/quiet that actually is.

Really excited to pick up the car; I am firmly one of the so-called 'Gran Turismo generation' and went through school being obsessed with Skylines, RX-7s and so on. To actually own a car like this is pretty special to me and is something I honestly never thought I'd go ahead with.

My only concern at the moment is the small matter of RWD. My 2 previous cars were front-driven and I'm well aware that I have a pretty responsive turbo engine and no traction control. With that in mind, I really don't fancy pranging it so any advice for learning to drive a RWD would be really helpful as well. I'm guessing it won't be an issue 99% of the time on the road but figured I'd mention it.

Thanks for all the comments so far, will keep this updated as things progress (though saving for TE37s might take a while )

[Neith]

DanielSan said:

Meguiars PlastX is your friend for the headlights dude, I've done my DC5 a couple of times now with it. They'll ways cloud back over so it's just a case of keeping on top of it.

Thanks for the tip; I know this problem affects S15s very commonly so it's something I'll have to keep an eye on. Would much rather keep on top of it than fork out for new lights (seriously, S15 headlights are ridiculously expensive to get).

To the people who mentioned about why Nissan didn't sell it here; I remember hearing that towards the end of S14 production Nissan had loads of cars sat on lots that weren't selling. People didn't want to pay £25k for a Nissan and the coupe market in general has never seemed that great over here from what I can see. America didn't get the S15 either (was only Japan, New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan (but Taiwanese ones were sold under a different brand/model name altogether).

Ultimately I think another reason it wasn't sold here is emissions. By this time Nissan and other Japanese car manufacturers were already struggling to meet emissions regulations for new cars and that's what killed off so many sports cars of that era. The S15 was only around for about 3 years before it was discontinued.

[Neith]

LiamM45 said:

If you are from Middlesbrough you will have no doubt seen my friends old white S15 that used to knock about, unfortunately a woman driver didn't understand the concept of a roundabout and wrote it off It was a cracking car though, great fun, you'll enjoy it!

Never saw it but I've heard of a white S15 that went to a few North East meets so I assume it was the same one possibly. Seen a few JDM cars here (mainly a couple of DC2 Integras) but never the S15. Only S15 I've seen was at a car show!

[Neith]

It's here!

Well, after waiting since late January, I can now say that my S15 is officially mine!

I was worried I wasn't going to as the car developed a hesitation yesterday before I was due to pick her up. Well, the mechanics at DCY worked on it yesterday and fitted another timing chain. It had just had one recently but DCY found it to be defective and as a result I was able to pick her up this morning! Lovely drive back 50 miles and the car didn't miss a beat (well, aside from me stalling it coming out of DCY...).

Everything seems to work fine and the only work I can see that needs doing at some point is the mirror that was painted badly. Aside from that, the leather round the steering wheel and the gear knob is a bit worn so might get a new gear knob and retrimmed wheel at some point. Certainly not urgent though!

Absolutely in love with the car at the moment, I was like a big kid picking it up The power delivery is so much different to my previous cars, in this it just feels completely effortless. Awesome car and I've already had a couple of waves (WRX STi and a Lotus Elan S2). Looking forward to the next few years!

Pictures:






Only things I've noticed so far are: 1) I need to watch my head getting out (way less headroom than my EP3, haha) and 2) trying to figure out the correct tyre pressures was fun (was all in Kg/Cm2 rather than PSI). Thankfully, I've now figured that out.

I'd really recommend DCY to anyone looking for an import, the service has been brilliant. Barrie and George are top guys. I know a lot of people use either Torque GT or JM-Imports, but I'd throw DCY in as another option.

Plans (once I'm not skint ) are Volk TE37 wheels (or an alternative if needed), new headunit and maybe a new exhaust at some point. Maintenance-wise, I need to clean the headlight covers (they're quite faded) and get a replacement gear knob/retrimmed wheel at some point as the leather is quite worn. That's all...

[Neith]

Honestherbert said:

Lovely car OP, but 11k is a LOT of money!! what sort of mileage has it got? I agree a set of white TE37's would look sweet just make sure you get 9.5j all round as the thinner ones have no concave on the spokes

58,000 miles. It would be cheaper to get one now, but when I won the auction the Japanese Yen was stronger than it is now, so the car cost more. You'd still be looking at £9-10k to import one though, so I don't feel it's too bad. Worth noting that this is the Spec-R (the turbo model), there is a non-turbo'd Spec-S which would be significantly cheaper to buy.

I don't feel bad about the price because these hold their value extremely well. In the event I ever sell it, I could get back a good proportion of the money I paid for it.

[Neith]

Andy616 said:

Lovely car, looks in great shape. Nice to see one standard, though I'd have probably fitted a square plate to the front.

I'm still trying to get my head round the price though. Did you get a hefty warranty with it as well?

Yeah, I'm not sure why they fitted a standard UK plate to the front, looks a little odd. That might be something I change in the future. Warranty is fairly basic (doesn't cover clutch for example). Believe me though, I started looking at Japanese auctions for these in January. Consider what I paid for this, but I was still unsuccessful bidding on about 7 other cars prior to this (most of which were higher mileage examples). Not totally sure why, but S15s carry a hell of a price tag and this is pretty much what you'd expect to pay- possibly £1-2k less if the Yen isn't strong.

It's odd really; you can get a R33 GT-R for less money than a S15 Spec-R. Main reason I didn't is the insurance difference is crazy. Most places wouldn't even quote me (due to no NCB from an accident in my last car) and the ones that did weren't specialist insurers and quoted me £300 a month for a R33

Edited by Neith on Sunday 2nd June 14:46

[Neith]

I think it was around 140-145 when I got this. Really wasn't the best time to import but man maths ended up winning over sense

[Neith]

Not had much chance to work on the car lately for two reasons. Firstly, I'm in the process of getting together money for better security and a set of alloys. At this point, I'm starting to think that spending £2k on some Rays TE37s is a bad idea. I work in a place with a very badly looked after car park and I honestly think the alloys would get wrecked really quickly. Because of this, I think I'll look at getting some Rota Grid Drifts as they look similar but are much cheaper.

The second reason is I've been far too busy driving the damn thing Took it down to Norwich (from North East) recently to see relatives and it performed flawlessly, if a little thirsty. So far I haven't had any issues with the back end kicking out, but the weather's been nice and the few times it has been wet I haven't been driving quick enough to risk it.

I'm considering taking it on a track day at some point (once my bank account recovers a bit!); having never done one before though I'd probably look into some tuition first. It just seems a shame to own a car like this if it's going to spend its life at 30mph.

Anyway, with the weather being glorious today, I gave the car a good wash before the weather got too warm. I also decided to try and tackle the problem of the faded/discoloured headlight covers. I decided to try giving them a rub over with polish (I used Autoglym initially). It took a while to notice any difference, but it does genuinely seem like the plastic covers are clearer now. The driver's side one is still slightly cloudy so I'll go over that again and see if it improves.

Silvia badge inside the light is unnecessary but cool Cover looks clearer to me, so I guess it worked!


After a wash


Thoughts on the car so far: Very easy to live with. It is thirsty (I get maybe 24mpg at best, not sure if car needs mapping to improve this) but the ride is comfortable enough- hard but not crashy. Performance is hilarious; once the turbo spools up it takes off like nothing I've driven previously, but there is a noticable turbo lag. Handles very well and seemed to stick to the road very well when I showed it some decent B-Roads.

The best part of owning it is other people's perception of it. In one month it's been mistaken for a Skyline by numerous people. I've heard people walk past it and have no idea what it is (despite the huge Nissan and Silvia badges on the back ). It's certainly getting attention and surprisingly it's all been positive so far which is really appreciated.

I have to say, it's one of those cars where you have to look back at it when you've parked. Makes me grin like an idiot every time I drive it!

Plans for anyone who wants a quick overview (in no particular order)
- Upgrade security
- New alloys (probably Rota Grid Drifts, painted either gunmetal or bronze)
- New exhaust (maybe HKS Hi-Power, but still looking into this)
- Upgrade the headunit, ideally to a double din with sat nav integrated
- Get the steering wheel leather retrimmed
- Possibly Aero front bumper? Not sure on this yet as they're very expensive but do look incredible.
- Air Filter upgrade (again, looking into this).
- Switch front number plate to a square 'import' one

[Neith]

aww999 said:

That is such a great looking car, and a rare sight on our roads! Is there much room in the back? I am wondering if it might be OK for carrying a nipper in. You make a good point regarding driver training and trackdays; after driving fast RWD cars for ten years, and thinking I knew it all, I went on my first trackday (at Bedford - nothing to hit if you cock it up!) and was fairly hopeless. I then did a car limits day at North Weald airfield which was pretty helpful. You can choose between having 2, 4 or ~30 people on the day (and obviously this has a big impact on the cost!) - I went on a four person day so had plenty of tuition and track time. It's a good starting point, and you can throw the car around in perfect safety, but the main thing I learnt was how little I knew I then managed to get a good deal booking an instructor for a whole day at Bedford which was extremely helpful and built my confidence a lot.

Unfortunately I have had about three years off from trackdays due to having a kid around, so I have forgotten eveything I learnt, but I would still recommend it to anyone! (Trackdays, not kids!)

Thanks, the only other S15 I've seen here so far was at a car show (JAE in 2011).

The back seats are very cramped, headroom is fairly decent (comparing this to a Gen 7 Celica) but the legroom is almost non-existent. I reckon a child should be ok in the back, but adults will really struggle I think.

And yeah, main reason I'd go for some instruction is to learn about oversteer and correctly safely at speed. Although, I'll probably learn that forcefully once winter sets in (This is my daily, so not sure what'll happen come winter yet).

[Neith]

Cheers for the advice on the low MPG. I'll get it checked over soon. I will say though that as I use this as a daily, it does spend a lot of time in start-stop traffic (I work in a hospital and finish work as visiting hours start so the traffic is always horrendous). I'd imagine that contributes to the low MPG, but will still get it checked over. The 'lag' I'm experiencing could just be that I'm not used to the power delivery on a turbo (all my previous cars have been NA) but combined with the lowish MPG it's worth checking over.

[Neith]

Quick update. Owned the car for about 4 months now and not a single issue (low MPG turned out to be me just being too lead footed, I've seen an increase in MPG since then).

I've finally got the security aspect of the car sorted; Cat 1 Alarm/Immobilizer was fitted recently. I used Duncan from Mobile Installation Services (based in Middlesbrough) and can't recommend him enough.

Now that I finally have the car fully secured, I can move on to the more fun stuff

Alloys are still a while off as I can't decide what will suit the car. It sits as standard on 16s but I think I want to slightly increase it to 17s. I'll hold off on wheels until I'm absolutely sure what I want. With this in mind, I think my next change will be an induction kit and exhaust. Probably going for a HKS Silent Hi-Power exhaust within the next couple of months.

I've also managed to restore the headlights with a Meguiar's Plast-X kit. Unfortunately the driver's side light is still slightly discoloured on what I assume is the inside. Not enough to be a problem but I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Sorry the updates as yet haven't been very interesting; I wanted to get all the security sorted first before I make a start on other changes. I'm in no rush to make extensive changes to the car anyway, and far too busy enjoying driving it.

Quick shot from a recent SXOC meet. I was first to arrive so I figured I'd get a shot of the car with the Nissan garage in the background. You can see the difference in the headlights, passenger side is much clearer.

[Neith]

Well, I've now had the car since June and had a good chance to live with it on a day to day basis. Still loving it, and it's been relatively kind to my wallet (that will change around April when the service, tax, MOT and insurance are all needing renewing )

In the last few months:

The front plate was changed to a square one, mainly because the old one kept catching my leg whenever I went round the front of the car


Air Filter needed changing, so I JDM'd it up and got an A'PEXi 'Power' Filter.


Been to a few local meets...


Unfortunately my time recently has been distracted by a problem. The dreaded rust has started making an appearance in a couple of places. It's still very early (slight surface rust) but I've jumped on it as soon as it was noticed. There's a little under the rear passenger wheel arch, a small spot under the boot lid and a small bit on the tray the battery sits on. I've rubbed the affected areas back and used some Hammerite Rust Remover and will keep an eye on things. I'm really hoping it doesn't get to a point where the arch will need grinding out.

More to follow, next on list is continued rust protection/removal and then I'd like to get the steering wheel retrimmed before I bankrupt myself in April

[Neith]

Andy616 said:

Looks much better with the square plate. My main job this year is going to be rust proofing as well. How bad is the insurance if you don't mind me asking?

I pay around £1500ish a year but I'm not an ideal comparison (live in a 'bad' postcode, had an accident in 2012 that nullified my NCB). That's only with Elephant as well as most specialists wouldn't insure me until I had more experience with rear-wheel drive performance cars. Once renewal comes in I'll start looking elsewhere.

Have you had any rust show up on the R32 yet? Hope not, it's a brilliant car.

[Neith]

Well, according to the documentation I have, this month is the car's 15th birthday!

I've marked the occasion with a few things:

First, the worn out steering wheel leather is being restored this week which should more-or-less bring the interior back up to a nice quality (aside from replacing the gearstick gaiter which I can do any time).

Secondly I gave the poor thing a good wash! I've been meaning to for weeks but with the terrible weather we've had I haven't had chance. Also took the opportunity to check up on the rust I mentioned earlier. Most of it seems to have been held back, the wheelarch was rubbed down a few weeks back. The surface rust there has just started to re-appear so I'll be re-treating it again this week. I also had to remove some club stickers from the windows which had (for some reason) began tearing off. Amusingly, the PH smiley remains perfectly fine

Finally I'm attending a big club meetup in August, which happens to involve track time..at Snetterton, so I'll be finally taking it on a track day. Excited and nervous in equal measure, the last thing I need is to prang it but provided I don't drive like an idiot I should be ok. Bit of a trek down, but I have family in Norwich so it works out quite well.

The car's been absolutely flawless, haven't even had to change a bulb in almost a year of ownership. It was always intended as a stop-gap car to tide me over until I could afford to run a R32 GTR but at this rate, I see no reason to change car any time in the near future! (which is more than I could say about my previous cars).

Looking good for a 15 year-old car if I do say so myself (Also rare evidence of British sunshine)




If updates seem slow on this, its because I'm working on the car in less obvious ways (refreshing the leather inside and so on). Performance upgrades aren't high on my list, and I simply haven't had the money to blow on new alloys yet (This won't change either, considering tax, MOT and service are all due in a couple months!).

Plans after service etc:
- May need new tyres after Snetterton
- Change exhaust (still on lookout for the Nismo S15 exhaust but it's so rare)
- Alloys (currently thinking Rota Torques, or Work Emotion CR-Kai if I get rich all of a sudden)
- Switch side indicators to clear ones as I feel this dates the car quite badly
- New headunit to replace the hilariously 90's Japanese one

Still undecided if I want to lower it at all, even the stock exhaust hangs quite low. Will have to see how it looks on new alloys first.

[Neith]

C.A.R. said:

Looks ace, still!

I saw a white one of these yesterday on the A602, had no spoiler though which totally messes up the lines of these IMO.

Thanks, there's a few coming into the country lately- I think its due to the better exchange rates with the Yen vs Pound. I agree on the spoiler; the standard Aero spoiler looks hilariously overdesigned but I really like it. Without a spoiler I always think they look pretty odd, maybe because of the fairly long boot.

danjama said:

Sounds like you're being smart to me, maintaining and improving areas that will help hold the value when you do decide to move on

I stand by what I said before, lovely car, keep it up!

Thanks, the last thing I want to do is kit this out in a tacky bodykit, I've always liked the stock look better. In fact the only reason I want to change the wheels is because I don't like the design and they're a little small (kind of amusing having 16" wheels on a sportscar when we're now seeing 19"+ on modern cars). I think the only Aero change I would ever consider would be getting OEM rear spats and Aero front bumper to complete the kit. Talking megabucks for the front bumper though, so whether that'll happen is yet to be decided.

I do love the Yashio Factory Gulf kit, but again it's really expensive and I honestly think it'd just get ruined on our roads so I don't see the point.

I also plan on keeping the original alloys stored so if I do ever come to sell I can revert it back to standard.

[Neith]

Bump for some (limited) work on the car.

Since February I've worked on a couple of things:

- Rust treatment. The car was undersealed on arrival into the UK but some rust patches had been starting to appear on the body work in the usual places (rear wheel arches, under bootlid and sills). Thankfully it was all caught very early while it was still surface rust. I've sanded back the affected areas and managed to remove most of it. This'll be a constant thing I need to do as it seems very susceptible to rust (a 90s Japanese car rusting? Never! ). Thankfully there's no visible damage to the car and if the bootlid rust gets too bad I can always track down another. The sills are another thing altogether but provided I keep on top of it the car should be ok.

- Servicing. Having had a large service when it arrived in the UK, I decided to get the car checked over by another importer before another service. Used Jurgen and the guys up at JM-Imports and can't fault them. Very reasonable rates and they work on the car right in front of a viewing area so you can see what's being done. The service did flag up a couple of issues though. Firstly, the car seems to have a very minor oil leak (I say very minor as the oil level hasn't dropped noticably at all). It's so small that they couldn't actually work out where it came from without more time. I plan on taking it back to JM soon so they can find it and sort it out. Secondly, the throttle cable has developed a lot of slack in it. I've tried adjusting it but it doesn't seem to change much so I need to try and figure out what's up with it. During the service I also got some new Pagid brake pads as the existing ones were pretty bad.

- Taken it a few places. I went to Hartside Cafe with a few guys in March, stopping at High Force on the way.

Hartside Cafe (was a bit foggy! Roads on the way up were mostly clear though and were amazing drives)

Road to Hartside


High Force


Extreme Torque Show at Sunderland's Nissan plant (cars were in a separate car park that visitors walked past on the way in) :


Also took it to the British Drift Championship round at Teesside where it got some attention (not drifting I hasten to add )

Newest purchase on the 'refresh the car' plan (and because I'm pathetic and wanted something Nismo on the car ) :

These should freshen up the side of the car as it looks old with orange indicator lenses.

Next plan is a track day at Snetterton in August. Will be taking it easy as its my daily driver but should hopefully be fun (first track day!). Some new wheels at some point (although mine is kind of unique by being standard!). Won't be much progress though as my money will be going on saving up towards a trip to Japan which is something I've always wanted to do.

[Neith]

Bump time!

I've owned the car now for just over 2 years. I'd had it on sale for a few months because a R32 GT-R is an itch I'd like to scratch. Unfortunately a combination of time wasting buyers and the skyrocketing prices on R32s means that isn't going to happen any time soon. Disappointing but I do like the S15 anyway so it's not a huge loss. So, onto the S15...

I mentioned that I had a trackday planned at Snetterton last year. The day went well but I only did a few laps, being so far from home in my daily I didn't fancy binning it. (For anyone wondering why I went all that way only to do a few laps, it was a yearly club event). The car performed reasonably well aside from the brakes which were fading after a few laps. Will definitely be more track days on the agenda at some point!

Anyway, over the last few months:

- New headunit (Pioneer FH-X700BT). So nice to have an MP3 player seeing as the original stereo was CD and Minidisc!
Not a great picture but you can sort of see it:

Great headunit, my only criticism is that the coloured lights on it are very bright, even with the dimmer on.

- MOT came and went with only a couple of advisories but one was the oil leak which I'd previously noticed. I've had it looked at and it seems to be an extremely minor leak coming from the front crank seal. The car is booked in to get this looked at again soon.

- While the car was getting the oil leak looked at, the garage noticed it was down on power too. After changing fuel filter (in case it was due to starvation) we think one cause might be a collapsed catalytic converter as the exhaust flow seemed like it was restricted. To rule it out I've bought a sports cat which should be getting fitted soon.

Unfortunately at this point I began thinking 'well if I'm taking off the exhaust to fit a new cat I should probably just upgrade the exhaust while I'm there'.

Enter this

HKS Silent Hi-Power exhaust. I'd been wanting a new exhaust for a while as the S15 sounds very quiet as standard. At the same time I didn't want an exhaust that'd disturb other people on the road. Whether it is quiet enough at low revs I don't know but I'll find out once it's fitted...

I've also done a few miscellaneous jobs like restoring the headlights (again), sanding back rust (again) and fixing a few bits (centre air vent fin connector had came loose). Complete pain of a job prising the vent out but the only other way is to remove the dash!.

Next plans are to finally get to the bottom of this oil leak/decreased performance and then get saving for some new wheels. After that maybe bite the bullet and go for an Aero front bumper...

[Neith]

Finally got the HKS Silent Hi-Power fitted, along with a sports cat. The car doesn't 'bog down' on acceleration anywhere near as much now and it almost feels like a completely different car (so must've been mainly the collapsed original cat), especially with the new exhaust note. Around town it's only marginally louder than standard, which genuinely surprised me. I know it's marketed as a 'Silent Hi-Power' but I didn't really believe it much. It's only under hard acceleration that the noise starts to build, and I think it genuinely sounds good now. I now have a new worst enemy in the speedbump at the end of my road





Quick video comparison of the standard Nissan exhaust and the HKS:
Standard Nissan exhaust with fairly knackered cat: https://youtu.be/nBEnG-f9GhA
HKS Silent Hi-Power: https://youtu.be/R25TFUUpclc

Next on the list of major purchases will be some wheels, but I need a few months to recoup some money Can't wait to drive it more now that it doesn't sound like a tractor...