SilEighty

The Sileighty (also written as Sil80) first surfaced in early street racing scene in Japan who owned Nissan 180SXs with damaged front ends. Because the Silvia’s front panels and lights were lighter and cheaper than the 180SX replacement parts, many drifters used these parts instead. Unknown to the public until the release date, these front end modifications inspired a Japanese auto shop, Kids Heart to produce a small number of so called “official” or “real” Nissan Sileighties. It is on record that 500 cars were made by this shop, and were only sold in 1998, possibly through Nissan dealerships.

Standard looking Sil80

Essentially the kouki (late model) 180SX Type-X model was tuned for drifting, the cars are distinguished from their home-built brethren by the distinctive “Sileighty” name on the rear dress plate and quarter windows. The Sileighty includes performance-oriented modifications such as a new ECU, a stiffer suspension system, an improved limited slip differential, and an increase in turbocharger boost from 7 psi to about 13 psi, resulting in approximately 172 kW, which was a lil more the the factory built Silvia’s and 180sx.

The Sileighty is not recognized by any government as a Nissan manufactured model; instead it is generally treated as the model of the original car before modification.

Another variation of the Sileighty is sometimes called the Onevia, which consists of 180SX parts on the front end of an S13 Silvia. Nissan sold similar configurations in the USA as the S13 240SX coupe and convertible models.

Onevia

While technically a ‘Sil80′, the combination of the 180SX body with an S15 Silvia front end can be referred to as an ‘S13.5′ for clarity, the ‘.5′ denoting the front end conversion, similarly an S14 front end would be ‘.4′ (Or ‘4a’ for an S14a front) and an S13 front end would be ‘.3′. This naming scheme can be referred to for all models S13-S15, e.g. S13.5 S14.5

S13.4

Occasionally the S15 front end conversion is referred to as the ’strawberry face conversion’ due to the word Japanese words for 1 and 5 which are ichi and go and when put together (ichigo) they make the word ’strawberry,’ hence Nissan S platform vehicles with the S15 front end conversion occasionally being referred to as strawberry faces.

Strawberry Face

Edit:

Here are some orginal brochures sent to me by Locky.