Continuing on from Part 1, Tomei’s involvement with the Nissan Silvia S110 race car in the early ’80s.
This was the point when Nissan changed the look of the car. As the next model change was coming, Nissan wanted to give the Silvia the new model look, before the release of the production models (released in 1984). Here is the Silvia S12 look.
EVOLUTION: The first S110 in 1981 looked like this.
Then in 1982, the rear wing spoiler was added, along with some other changes.
This was when the car started to gain a following. With the nickname of “White Lightning”.
Then in 1983, came the S12 look. This car was still driven by Kazuyoshi Hoshino. Even though the cars look was changed to the newer model, truth be told, Nissan was actually on a budget. They weren’t going to dump a lot of funds into the car to build a whole new complete chassis. What they did was they kept using the same chassis, then made new front cowling and rear end parts. So cosmetically & aerodynamically, it was upgraded to suit the new look. With the front cowl removed, you can see how it was made possible.
This race series ended at the end of 1983. In 1984, there were a few exhibition rounds which saw the return of these cars, on track. During the race seasons, these cars were competing in around 4-5 rounds a season. The 2 exhibition rounds in ’84 were at Nishi Nihon Circuit (which later changed names to Mines Circuit, which is now owned by Mazda and used as their own private test track.), then SUGO in Miyagi-ken, then the final race at Tsukuba Circuit on Dec. 9th 1984.
The Super Silhouette Championship race series were one of the supporting races of the Fuji Grand Champion Series. The Fuji Grand Champion Series race cars were Formula 2 Chassis race cars. These were the pinnacle of motorsports in Japan at the time. One of the family members of the Suzuki family (the family who founded this company) Seiichi Suzuki, was racing our team car in that category.
This Nissan Silvia (S12) “White Lightning” Group 5, Super Silhouette race car belonged to the team, HEROS RACING in 1981-1982, which the race driver Kazuyoshi Hoshino-san was the driver of. Then the car went to Hoshino Racing. Kazuyoshi Hoshino established his own company in 1980 as Hoshino Racing, which is now Hoshino Impul Co., Ltd (known as IMPUL)
Tomei was responsible only for the race engine. Powered by an LZ20BT, a Turbocharged DOHC race engine. A famous special race engine that was supplied by Nissan at the time. The turbo was a T05B Turbo by Garrett AiResearch. The engine specifications would always change with each round, due to various testing and tuning methods. It produced around 500 PS at 8,000 rpm in the early days, then later around 570 PS at 7,600 rpm and 539 Nm at 6,400 rpm with Lucas mechanical fuel injection.
It sometimes comes out to be displayed, or run at events in Japan. Usually the NISMO Festival in December each year. (This year NISMO is relocating HQ so the event will not be held this year.)
The Super Silhouette is Group 5 car race which was the most popular GT car race early in 80’s, is still popular today. So the car is owned and kept by Nissan. Usually stored at the private Nissan storage facility in Zama. It does sometimes come out to be shown to the public.
Kazuyoshi Hoshino
Here’s a video from 1982, for those vintage fans. Time warp.
Here is a more recent video of a reunion of a few cars at Tsukuba Circuit. Listen to those engines!
COLLECTABLES
Japan is well known for having a lot of merchandise and collectables available. So for those of you who are into the diecast cars, EBBRO has this car available in 1/43 scale.
NISSAN SILVIA TURBO SUPER SILHOUETTE 1983
EBBRO MODEL NUMBER 44292
TOMEI HISTORY
– Introduction
– 1968 – No. 84 Cedric
– 1970 – No. 84 Cedric 130
– 1971 – No. 84 Tomei Maruzen-Technica Cedric 230
– 1974 – All Japan Formula Junior 1300 Championship
– 1981-1982 – Nissan Silvia S110 S12 Part 1
– 1981-1984 – Nissan Silvia S110 S12 Part 2
– 1982 – Nissan Silvia Turbo Gr.5 Model
– 2001 – Tomei BNR34 GTR Drag Car in Sendai