Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: csp311

What if: the Saint would drive a Nissan Silvia CSP311?

I had an interesting thought when I watched BANKAKUEMIKO’s video on a white Nissan Silvia CSP311: what if Roger Moore would have driven a Nissan Silvia CSP311 in the original Saint TV series? The white Silvia looked so classy, elegant and exciting that the Saint certainly would have bought one if he could have.
Nissan Silvia CSP311
A little bit of background: The Saint (played by Roger Moore) drove a white Volvo P1800 coupe in the TV series where both the director and Roger Moore both owned one and used it for the TV series. They had to choose between the Jaguar E-type and the Volvo P1800 as they were brand new cars that got revealed at the Geneva Motor Show and chose for the latter. The Volvo P1800 initially was a hand built car by Jensen using a Volvo engine and suspension. Enter the Nissan Silvia CSP311: it was a hand built car using the Nissan Fairlady engine and suspension.

Now I know it could not have been the Nissan Silvia CSP311 as the original Saint TV series was aired from 1962 onwards (so filming started early 1962) and the Nissan Silvia CSP311 was revealed in September 1964 at the Tokyo Motor Show. So there was a gap of two and a half years. Also the main reason for featuring a foreign car on an English TV show was that it actually was built in the UK by Jensen so featuring an exotic car like the Silvia would have been out of the question. Still I would have loved the idea and therefore I made a terrible Photoshop of Roger Moore and the Silvia: Continue reading

Japanese Rustoseums: Nissan Silvia CSP311 (part 2)

Continuing from last weeks hunting for Nissan Silvia CSP311 rustoseums I present you the second Silvia I found:
Japanese Rustoseums: Nissan Silvia CSP311
This one is in a slightly better shape than last week and it doesn’t require a forklift to retain it from falling apart… Let’s just say it is probably still restorable… As the penguins say in Madagascar 2: With grit, spit and a whole lota of duck tape…

From the rear it looks slightly better: Continue reading

Japanese Rustoseums: Nissan Silvia CSP311 (part 1)

Last weekend I watched Daniel O’Grady’s Wasabi Cars video about the Nissan Silvia CSP311 and got inspired by it… Actually it wasn’t finding one as clean as the Silvia in the video but rather more challenge myself to find a rusty one, one that crumbles away while staring at the photos! At least I think I managed to do a proper job here:
Japanese Rustoseums: Nissan Silvia CSP311
Just imagine: only 554 of these cars were made!

It isn’t that bad from this angle, but it gets a lot worse from the other side of the car: Continue reading

Japanese rustoseums (part twentythree)

Part twenty three??? Yeah I kind of forgot to post this, so I skipped one a few weeks ago. ;)

This Nissan Silvia CPS311 project shows you that not all rustoseums end up as a piece of crumbled oxidized iron!


Amazing what they eventually did with the car. However I do wonder how much of that original CSP311 was used in the restored one!

Direct link to video: NISSAN Silvia CSP311

Oops I did it again: Datsun Coupe CSP311 catalogue

Yes, I did it again:
Datsun Coupe 1600 CSP311
Datsun Coupe 1600 CSP311

It was available for a mere very low price and I just had to buy it! If I keep up this rate the amount of Nissan books/catalogues will surpass the amount of Toyota catalogues! And that’s bad for a Toyotaku! ;) (Well, actually I think I like both just as much!)

Datsun Coupe 1600 CSP311
Datsun Coupe 1600 CSP311

I think the photography of this particular catalogue is extremely nice! It was, of course, done in the “proper” 60s fashion with older Kodachrome colors! Anyone got an idea how to reproduce such colors nowadays?

Datsun Coupe 1600 CSP311
Datsun Coupe 1600 CSP311

My best guess is that this catalogue is Australian or from New Zealand since the CSP311 never made it to the US or Europe… I wonder how it ended up in the Netherlands though. :)

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