1988 Autech Zagato Stelvio

CRAZY JDM #17

This is the Autech Stelvio. It used to be a Nissan Leopard coupe but Nissan's slightly mad in-house tuner, Autech transformed it into this... thing. It's an exotic 'thing' nevertheless, styled by Zagato (when Zagato was drunk) and sold in limited numbers at interesting prices. A little over £100,000 (or $160,000) when adjusted for inflation! So this car was bought by those with more money than sense. And maybe no eyes.



WHY WOULD PEOPLE WITH NO EYES WANT THIS?
Okay, let me elaborate here. It's not the styling that turns away the 'people-with-eyes' demographic - as that's entirely subjective. It's rather something else. That something else is... the door-mirrors, or to be precise - the lack of them. So how can such a car be legal? Well, they're not quite door-mirrors anymore. Not even fender-mirrors. They're mirrors mounted on the bonnet (or hood)! Visibility ends up so poor you might as well not bother looking.
Furthermore, the people who bought this could potentially never drive it. It's just another way to say,
"Look at me, I'm rich!". Although to be fair, it would be best to look away to avoid getting conjunctivitis.
This car does at least have a legacy though. After Zagato 'styled' this, they copied the design and removed all the awkward bits. The result was the quirky but elegant Aston Martin V8 Zagato, and a presumably an enraged Nissan.

HOW FAST?
As fast as a Nissan Leopard V6 with slightly more horsepower attached...
316bhp (rounded from 315.622...)
0-60 in something slightly under the Leopard's 10.6 time
152mph

MORE PHOTOS PLEASE!

WARNING: View at your own discretion.

Behold, broken dinner plates minimalism within art.

Exhibit A: The mirrors! (Annotated by me).

Exhibit B: The same design but actually pretty! (The Aston Martin V8 Zagato).

Finally, I present to you - one of many proposed replacements to the Stelvio. Sadly, the economy's collapse coupled with the end of the Autech-Zagato partnership killed them off. Except to see an article on these soon!

CAN I BUY ONE?
If you're willing to import - I guess you can. It's even past the USA import cap - but would you want to? Also it's very hard to find these in the first place because 'limited production'. Despite that, I did find one on Goo net. And it had depreciated to less than an 8th of its original value. So... Bargain?

CRAZY JDM RATING!

Silly styling? YES

Silly engineering? YES YES (Handbuilt with bonnet-mirrors)

Silly idea behind it? YES YES YES

●●●3/3 A very silly car that also manages to be something really cool and unique.

1991 Nissan Cedric & 1991 Nissan Gloria

CRAZY JDM #8 & #9

This is the Nissan Cedric. It happens to be the same as the car pictured below, the Nissan Gloria. Succeeding the '87 Cedric that is still being used a taxi today & preceding the modified from the factory drift-missile, the '95 Gloria, these cars sit awkwardly in between like raisins at a sweet shop. And they have silly names too.



THESE CARS LOOK FAMILIAR, WHY?
Quite simple really. In the 1990s when Nissan had more 4 door cars than there are people living on the world right now, they just had to design something for that guy. You know that guy, the person who dreams of owning a big German luxury car but is forced to use boxes for furniture and has to seal his leaky house using noisy putty so he doesn't run out of money. Yeah, that guy. Nissan's answer to that guy's wishes was to create what is essentially a Nissan Cima in a fat suit and make it 'look' like a German luxury car. Nissan advertised the Cedric as the upmarket version & the Gloria as the sporty version? Don't give me those lies Nissan! It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the Cedric is aping Mercedes and that the Gloria is wearing a BMW mask. Just look at the image gallery.

HOW FAST?
From the top of the range V30 Twin Cam Gran Turismo Altima model...
251bhp
That's all the data I have sadly.
Imagine an old Cima that's a bit lighter and you're close.

MORE PICTURES PLEASE!

Well, you asked for more!

Just for reference, here is a 1991 Gloria

And here is a 1991 BMW 5 Series

And here's the rear of a 1991 S-Class, see the resemblance?

CAN I BUY ONE?

Nope, it's painfully rare in countries it's not sold in and too new to be imported to the US. It's not even sold as an Infiniti as far as I'm aware of. However if you encounter a slightly more common Y32 Cima, just put headlight covers/a fancy grille on it and it looks exactly like a Gloria/Cedric. Or just import one from £2,000 to £7,000.

CRAZY JDM RATING!

Silly styling? NO

Silly engineering? NO

Silly idea behind it? YES

●◦◦1/3 A mostly sober car with a couple of cool and different features.

1998 Nissan Sileighty

CRAZY JDM #2

This is the Nissan Sileighty. While Nissan is known for their legendary Skyline GTR & Z cars. They also made 2 coupes, the Silvia & the 180SX. These were popular with the youth; who were more likely to crash, especially if they were drifters. 180SXs With damaged front ends would use parts from the '89 Silvia as they fitted perfectly and were cheaper. Thus the Sil(Silvia)eighty(180SX) was born.


SO IT'S NOT AN OFFICIAL MODEL?
Wrong, the Sileighty fad grew so popular that Nissan even made a few models from their factories. Some tuners would even made an Onevia. The One(180SX)via(Silvia) was the same thing in reverse (a Silvia with a 180SX front end) but this was not as popular as the car and front end parts were more expensive.

HOW FAST?
Same stats as 180SX.
205bhp
0-62 in 7.1 seconds
145mph

MORE PHOTOS PLEASE!

Modified

180SX

1989 Silvia

Sileighty Front

Sileighty Rear

CAN I BUY ONE?

Well the Silvia and 240SX were both made in 1989 so an early one is past the US import cap. In other areas they are relatively hard to find but not that expensive. Alternatively you could just get a 180/200/240SX and crash it then replace the front though I wouldn't recommend that. :)

CRAZY JDM RATING!

Silly styling? NO

Silly engineering? NO

Silly idea behind it? YES

●◦◦1/3 A mostly sober car with a couple of cool and different features.