acc0510_nissan silvia-1

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Ray Fairfield was the first Australian to drift a Nissan Silvia long beforthe current crop of young rev-heads was born. Lets find out more

Words Ben Don

Phoos Nthn Duff

Let it slideA life less ordinAry

Rays drug-running, Yakuza-chasing Silvia has retired to aquieter life in rural Queensland.

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1965 NissaN silviA CsP311

F

or those under 35, the name

Silvia conjures up images of

boy racers drifting sideways

in cars with mismatched

panels and tyres smoking to

the blasting beat of techno.

For those not in this age

demographic, Silvia might be

the old duck down the street

you say hello to of a morning.

That is unless you are Ray Fairfield.

Thanks to the popularity of drifting as a sport

and movies like The Fast and the Furious, the

Silvia is one of the best-known modern examples

of a turbo-charged, rear-wheel drive sports car,

alongside the Nissan Skyline and Mazda RX-7

in terms of street-cred for generations X and Y.

Show any of these cars to your average

backward-cap-wearing, 15-year-old pimple-

popper and they will wet their pants. Conversely,

if you showed Ray Fairfields 1965 CSP311

Nissan Silvia to the same test audience the

response would probably be chirping crickets

and a flippant whatever spat out betweenwire-braced teeth.

When the car went on sale in 1964, no one

from Gen X and Y was alive. This goes a long

way to explaining the dislocation of the original

CSP311 and todays Silvia worship among

younger generations.

A true dAily clAssicThe amazing thing about Ray Fairfields car is

that it is a daily driver. This Silvia is not a car

used occasionally or on weekends, but Monday

through Sunday. This is especially signif icant

given the Silvia is 45 years old and there were

only ever 49 brought into Australia. Its a very

rare bird indeed.Ray might borrow his wifes car from time to

time, but the Silvia is constantly away from the

safety of the garage, mixing it with Hyundais

and other such blandness out on the road.

The Silvia is on full registration (not the

cheaper club rego for cars 30+ years old) and it

even has a towbar fitted, which Ray uses to cart

half a ton of whatever to wherever, whenever

the mood strikes him. Really, is there any other

enthusiast out there who has the guts to rely on

a rare 45-year-old piece of engineering to get

where they are going each day?

mAn with the golden pen

Design genius Albrecht Goertz (BMW 503, 507)had a hand in styling the Silvia, although the

original design is credited to Kazuo Kimura, who

also penned the Fairlady convertible.

How big a hand Goertz had in the Silvia can

be seen in his other designs of the era, including

various Studebakers, the Toyota 2000 GT and,

most controversially, the Nissan 240Z.

Goertz was also responsible for modernising

the design process at Nissan, insisting on full-

size clay modelling when he first started as a

consultant. He was also singular in his desire

for all designs to be cohesive rather than have

one designer work on each part of the vehicle

separately as had been the case. This continued

after Goertz departed Nissan.

rUsT no More

Everything below theSilvias swage line isnew metal, barringthe floor.

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MAsTer

CrAfTsMAnRay has re-fabricatedplenty of parts on theSilvia, such as thechrome trim aroundthe headlights.

1965 NissaN silviA CsP311

Ray sa ha gangtrconncton urkng

bnath t frny faa

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1965 NissaN silvia

CsP311

EnginE: 2000cc four-cylinder OHV twin SUcarburettors (original1600cc)

Transmission: Modified Skyline five-speed (original four-speed)

PowEr: 71.5kW (96bhp)@ 6000rpm

TorquE: 135.5Nm(103lb/ft) @ 4000rpm

LEngTh: 3985mm (157)

widTh: 1510mm (59)

hEighT: 1275mm (50.2)

wEighT: 980kg (2160lbs)

0-100km/h: N/A

ToP sPEEd:165km/h

sPECsThe

slightly sinister appearance but

only from certain angles.

Over 15 years and 85,000 miles

have passed since Ray first restored

his Silvia to a road-going state, but

a lot of work went into getting it

ready. Re-fabrication of parts is

Rays specialty and he formed

many items of trim, lenses and

badges himself. When Ray first

acquired the Silvia, many bits and

pieces were missing or damaged.

The bumper is a cut-and-shut

Mazda 1500 item, which is nearly

as faithful to the shape of the front

end as the original. Ray also crafted

little things like the chrome trim

around the front and rear lights.

Moreover, he rectified the poorly

constructed brake lines and the

bolts that held the steering arms

on the stub axle.

Ray relates a tale of anotherSilvia owner who had these bolts

fail while driving, resulting in a

total loss of steering. Luckily the

driver was able to stop without

damaging anything (except

perhaps his underwear).

While all these jobs were fiddly,

they were nothing compared to the

rust issues this Silvia harboured.

Ray says basically everything from

the swage line down (excluding

the floor) is new metal and that he

was lucky to have a panel beater

from the old school who could

work magic with flat metal.This Silvias engine is a little

different to standard, with an H20

2.0-litre four-cylinder motor sitting

where the original Fairlady 1600

unit used to. It has been modif ied

with twin SU carburettors, bigger

valves, a revised exhaust and a

lumpier camshaft, but it still idles

evenly. Ray has even put it on a

dyno, the result being a flat torque

curve from 2000 to 5000rpm.

Ray keeps his Silvia going well

by driving it regularly. No point in

having a car if you cant drive it all

the time, he says.

whAtll she do?Getting in and out of the car is an

exercise in flexibility, especially for

tall drivers. Sitting in the car, the

first thing you notice is the flat floor

and that your legs are straight out

in front of you.

The next point of contact is the

thin-rimmed wheel, which is a

delight to hold, giving excellent

road feel. The controls and cabin

are definitely designed for those

under six feet tall, though. There is

enough leg and head room, but the

in fine forM Agehasnt wearied the Silvia,which is quick to reachthe legal speed limit.

extra inch I want to put the seat

back isnt there and I subsequently

find my hands and legs meet when

trying to turn the wheel.There are no foot wells in the

Silvia, which makes it a practical

car in the country and one Ray had

no problems driving on rutted PNG

roads everything vulnerable is

threaded up through the chassis,

giving it excellent ground clearance.

Ray gave up on fixing his MG

Midgets exhaust af ter it bottomed

out one too many times.

The Silvias gearbox has a

slick and positive action, which

encourages unnecessary gear

changes just for fun. Ray remarks

that the original four-speed is evensweeter to use. The pedals are

close together, so forget about

driving in boots or sneakers! The

unassisted braking takes a bit of

getting used to, but the range of

modulation is greater, as is feel.

Out on the road we cruise to

the speed limit with an ease that

belies the cars age. There is a bit

of weaving, though, which Ray

explains is due to less than

spectacular shock absorbers that

will soon be replaced. With twin

wishbone front and leaf springs

rear, the handling is quite tidy,despite the heavy wire wheels and

shock absorber issues.

The Silvias power is something

to enjoy, with the exhaust and

intake making all the right noises

as speed builds. Not surprisingly,

the Japanese police used the Silvia

as a pursuit car it was the fastest

thing available at the time.

It will still get you into trouble

if you put your foot down, says

Ray. As we turn onto the highway

and do just that, I realise that

while this is a dai ly driver, it is

anything but boring.

Based on the Fairlady chassis,

the Silvia was hand-built at

Yamaha and was first displayed at

the 1964 Tokyo Motor Show, badged

as the Datsun Coupe 1500. When

it was released in 1964 the Silvia

featured the updated 1595cc engine

from the revamped Fairlady 1600

and was badged the Nissan Silvia.

Sales were slow, mainly due to

the price a 50 per cent premium

over a Fairlady and closer to Jaguar

and Mercedes money than to other

Japanese cars. The Silvias hand-

built element was the major reason

for this high price, as panels were

not interchangeable between cars.

This now makes restoration that

bit harder.

drifting thefirst silviA

Production fin ished in 1968. Intotal, 554 Silvias were made with

Australia the only official export

market, though some were off-

loaded in Papua New Guinea along

the way one of which was Rays

first Silvia.

Ray enjoyed this first Silvia so

much that 15 years ago, when the

opportunity came to purchase his

current CSP311, he jumped at it.

The PNG Silvia came with skinny

rims and narrow cross-ply rubber,

which according to Ray made the

handling interesting. He describes

his first test drive (the exuberancewith which the throttle was pinned

and opposite lock applied through

a corner) and how it was the

catalyst for purchase, but Ray

stipulated to the ashen-faced

salesman that the Silvia needed

better rubber. Little did Ray realise

he was the first in a long line of

drifters to use the Nissan Si lvia.

the silviAsunderbellyRays Silvia CSP311 has gangster

connections lurking beneath its

friendly faade. The story goes thatthe owner previous to Ray bought

the car after it was seized from a

convicted drug dealer. The owner

found several syringes and other

drug paraphernalia during a

strip down to ready the car for

restoration. This owner, though,

became disillusioned with the

restoration process and sold the

Silvia to Ray.

Ray, too, found evidence of the

Silvias shady dealings in the form

of an expended 0.32 automatic

bullet casing. Looking closely at

the front of the car, it does have a

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