So says Autocar.

The forthcoming Nissan 200SX replacement is the first major casualty of Carlos Ghosn’s dramatic cutbacks, a company source has confirmed.

Nissan has been developing plans for a new, compact, rear-wheel-drive sportscar for some years. The Silvia project has been most visible as the Foria (Tokyo 2005) and Urge (Detroit 2006) concepts, but work has been continuing behind the scenes.

Monday’s announcement of severe financial difficulties at the company, including a £612m third-quarter loss, also brought news of cutbacks to future model programmes, but it had been assumed until now that the 200SX was safe.

Ghosn wishes to concentrate all the company’s development efforts on small and medium-sized cars. This will include an electric Prius rival, due to make its debut next year.

Plans for a big, fast, super stylish Infiniti saloon, using the GT-R platform, to challenge the likes of the Porsche Panamera and Lagonda Rapide have been suspended, but not cancelled.

Looks like the Silvia/240sx replacement has, at best, been put on hold.  Here’s hoping for the best…or that Mazda can hurry the RX-9 into production.

Official pics of the new Z have been released.  From cnet.com - 

That looks oddly familiar, doesn’t it?

O, right.  Yeah, it looks a lot like this -

I guess we know that the new Silvia won’t look like…

However, I think the new design language really harkens back to the 280Z, which is a great thing, imo.

7Tune’s got an update, here.

A 220 – 250ps 1.6L turbo inline 4 cylinder engine gives Nissan’s new compact FR sports car a slight power edge over Toyota… let the battle begin!

Best Car continues its series of scoops on the Nissan FR sports car with some more specific information concerning body size, weight and power outputs which are rumored to be even closer to the Toyota offering that first thought. It turns out that these two cars will practically mirror each other in all but the powerplant. The Nissan is likely to use a HR16DET inline 4 cylinder turbo with VCR (Variable Compression Ratio Piston-Crank System) which will produce between 220 – 250ps, put out 30.0kg/m and mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. At 1250kg it should have quite pleasing performance.

The body size will depend on the new platform which will be used for the Nissan FR sports car, that being the “54″ type platform which at 1750mm, is likely to make it slightly wider than the S15 Silvia it will replace. The overall length will also be slightly shorter than the S15 and just a fraction taller according to Best Car. These dimensions are very close to the rumored dimension the Toyota FR sports car will have, so it will be very interesting to see just how these two cars perform alongside each other.

Although the final body styling hasn’t been decided on yet, Best Car has gone ahead and made some images along the lines of what their source pointed out as being “similar to the V36 Skyline Coupe”. Apparently Nissan is still aiming to keep the new FR sports car as close to the 2,000,000 yen mark as possible, although it is expected to break that barrier Nissan will have some stiff pricing competition from Toyota/Subaru who themselves are looking to keep costs to a minimum.

Justin Karow

Images: Best Car

If this car is as close in size/weight as the Subaru Coupe, it’ll be interesting to compare the driving dynamics of each as one will be NA, the other FI…

At least, I really hope they did.  Here’s their latest rendering of the new Silvia:

Hey Nissan, see that sleek car looming over this abomination?  We’d like that, please!

From Edmunds, “Still, the Genesis 2.0t coupe will have the distinction of being the only four-cylinder, rear-drive coupe on the market — a point not lost on Hyundai officials, who suggest the Japanese-spec Nissan 240SX is a key competitor.”

I’m not sure if Hyundai is aware of this…or knows something we don’t.  But there isn’t a new 240SX yet…it’s all rumor and innuendo at this point.

Road and Track reports, “Last month, we reported that Toyota and Subaru are joining forces to create an affordable sports car (get the scoop, here), one that embraced the spirit of the Toyota Corolla Coupe, aka AE86. We have just confirmed reports that Nissan has similar plans, intending to bring its “affordable sports car” to market a year earlier than the Toyota. Nissan’s new 2+2 rear-driver will revive the spirit of the 240SX, which has experienced renewed popularity after its discontinuation in 1998, mostly because of the popularity of drifting.

The name of the future 2-door is still unknown, but we’re fairly sure it won’t be labeled 240SX (nor “Silvia,” its Japanese moniker). Here’s what we do know: It will be about the same size as the 370Z, sharing the same wheelbase of 104.3 in. Overall length is rumored to be 171 in., and will come in 4-seat/2+2 form.

There’s a bit of mystery concerning the engine. While some at Nissan have hinted the 240SX successor will be powered by the company’s trusty 2.0-liter inline-4, we’re now getting reports of a new engine, one with about 1.5 to 1.6 liters of displacement, complete with a small turbocharger. This new 4-banger will feature Nissan’s new VCR Piston Crank System. “VCR” stands for Variable Compression Ratio, and it does just that by using a multilink connecting rod/crankshaft arrangement.”

Not much different from what 7Tune had (below).  But they did have a new pic.  Doubtful that it’s representative, at all, of what the coupe will look like – but it does look like a current Nissan.  Between this, and Iacoski’s rendering, I’ll take the latter, thanks!

From 7Tune, “Nissan have acknowledged the lack of an entry level sports car to appeal to younger buyers and this new FR based coupe is being designed with “enjoyable handling” in mind to keep them from turning to other manufacturers. The size of the car closely resembles the previous S15 Silvia, the new FR coupe’s dimensions being 4350mm in length, 1750mm in width and with a wheelbase identical to the the new Fairlady/350 Z platform of 2550mm. As with the Toyota/Subaru sports car, the new Nissan compact FR sports coupe will attempt to keep weight at a minimum, although the extent of which is unknown at present.”

I don’t really want to wait until 2010 or 2011.  Why can’t they just homologate the S15 Silvia, pictured below, to U.S. standards and start selling that here?  Surely the ramp-up/tooling costs would be less than designing an entirely new car?  There’s already a proven market for cars like these, evidenced by WRX and Evo sales…cars that were previously unavailable for sale in the U.S., that sold like hotcakes once they were…

I know I’m living in a pipe dream where CAFE standards and crash tests don’t exist…but still…a guy can dream, right?

From Nihon Car, “A couple months ago, Benjamin Nawka was asked by Nissan to bring the Datsun name back to life through a design study named “X Link”. Even though we have no idea what Nissan plans regarding Datsun might be, it seems to have motivated other designers including Iacoski. Here’s his vision for a future Datsun Fairlady Z.

Moving away from the design of the recent Z (350), this concept is inspired by the legendary 240/280Z and the Nissan GT-R. Pretty amazing result isn’t it?”

Now, this wasn’t a commissioned design, but it incorporates many pieces of Nissan’s current design language – GTR front, sloping 240Z rear, angular sheetmetal a la 350Z – and as a whole, looks quite good.

Here’s the rest of the pics: Iacoski.

7Tune’s got the lowdown, “Yet another image has been leaked from Nissan’s GT 2012 meeting held in May, this time it’s a side view of the upcoming FR sports coupe due to go on sale in 2010. The image reveals just enough to give a good idea of what the final shape will be and going by similar images of the next generation Z12 Cube and Z34 Fairlady Z (370Z) which were also revealed at the meeting, Nissan isn’t going to let the new FR coupe loose without its own unique identity. Another interesting feature is the small third “quarter window” and the pronounced rear blister fender.”

Keep your pants on, we’ll be up and running soon!