Secret S15 Nissan Silvia

June 3, 2008 by Justin Karow
Filed under JDM Feature Cars

We’ve featured a few beaten up old drift cars before at 7tune, but this S15 Silvia drift car bucks the trend just a little… being in such good shape and all.

“This is my everyday car…” said Taichi while wiping sweat from his face, “It’s not for competition. I have an S14 Silvia for that.” I felt bad. Not just because I happened upon this car by chance and didn’t have an appointment, but because he genuinely thinks this car isn’t worthy of any in depth discussion, despite my obvious interest. It was this apprehensive feeling I got from Taichi that eventually saw me walk away from this chance meeting with less information than I had hoped.

Only 15 minutes prior I had just walked back from the (relatively new) Kobe Domestic Airport having decided not to take the train. It’s a fairly long walk across the bridge from Port Island to the Airport island but it does afford a nice view of Osaka bay so is definitely worth it. I didn’t realize how much until I made it to the other side of the bridge back on Port Island. There’s just the usual semi-port area scenery around here, Auction car lot… Yanase dealership… Sunkusu convenience store… bright glowing yellow S15 Silvia… truck depot… hang on, back up a little! Sure enough, amongst a small fleet of delivery trucks and vans stood a very brightly painted S15 Silvia with all the signs of well used drift car. Maybe I should take a closer look…

Without wasting any time I asked who the owner of the Silvia was and Taichi Hisano raised his hand and walked over. Straight away it was apparent that he was quite busy and that any long discussions were out of the question. After asking him if it was ok to take a closer look at the car and photograph it, he straight away walked over to the car and disarmed the alarm. No sooner had he done that he then quickly resumed his work leaving me to take photos at my own pace. As it turns out the car isn’t modified too much in any one area save for the attention grabbing paint work (which will eventually cover the whole car), but we’ll go into more detail later.

After a while Taichi comes back over and asks if I want to have a look under the hood. Sure do! He tells me his S14 competition car is a lot more modified than this and that the S15 is merely an “everyday car” for commuting to work and the odd sliding session here and there. Little did I know at the time but Taichi is actually an occasional D1 Street Legal competitor and has won many events in various categories over the years. His most recent victory was in April at the 2008 G Run 3rd Battle held by G Corporation at Mobara Twin Circuit in Chiba prefecture. His drift team “Secret” was formed way back in 1995 and goes under the moniker “Kansai Drift Performance” which has more to do with driving ability than any modifications done to the members’ cars.

With very little time to spare Taichi quickly runs through the car’s modifications starting with a stock SR20DET with unknown brand exhaust manifold supporting a stock turbocharger running 1.2 bar boost and controlled by a KS-Rom ECU. Power makes its way to the Cusco 2-way differential via a single plate clutch. A Blitz LM intercooler kit with welded shut blow-off valve return pipe and SUS air cleaner round off mods in the engine bay. Inside the wheelarches there’s a set of Cusco Zero2 coil overs and underneath there’s a ZRS stainless steel exhaust with front pipe. Inside the cabin there’s a Blitz Dual SBC boost controller, D1 Spec leather steering wheel, Nismo shift knob and a well used Bride fixed bucket seat. A CB radio is also jammed between the passenger seat and the center console to make communication just that little bit easier. The body kit is a bit of a mixture with the front bumper from TCP Magic and the side skirts from M Sports with an East Bear carbon hood and an unpainted genuine Nissan trunk lid. It was then that Taichi had to get back to work so I didn’t get the reason why quite thin 215/40R18 tires are used on the rear. I did consult a friend who drifts regularly and he pointed out that it’s probably to do with a combination of more responsive feel and because “it looks good”. I’ll be sure to ask Taichi the next time I see him.

So what we see here is a very basic level of modification which probably raises more eyebrows because of how close to stock the car is. Then again, seeing as Taichi drives this car on a daily basis it would make sense to keep the modifications simple and not go overboard. There was a sense of pride coming from Taichi about how, to him at least, it’s all about driver skill and not so much about what’s under the hood. At any rate I was very fortunate to catch Taichi when I did and I appreciate the time he took to show me his car.

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