For anyone who grew up watching the Fast & Furious films, the current explosion in popularity of hardcore builds based on Nissans, Toyotas, and Subarus makes all the sense in the world. Especially when honing in on Japanese Domestic Market products that never made it to the United States when new, like the Nissan Silvia that's become the basis for so many drifters today, millennials with some money in their pockets definitely have their taste locked in. But everything that makes the JDM Silvia so potent as a drifter, earning it the nickname "The Mona Lisa of Drifting" in Tokyo Drift, also applies other forms of motorsport fun, as proven by an unusual drag build featured in a new video posted on the YouTube channel High Performance Academy, a Nissan Silvia S15 that's received a Cosworth engine reportedly producing 1,000 horsepower.
A Cosworth In A Nissan Silvia: Two Legends In One
As legendary as the Silvia might be in a certain crowd, the Cosworth name stands out equally as much to others after proven success powering the likes of rally cars from Ford and the new Aston Martin Valkyrie. In the clip, Fred Karam of Team Karam Racing out of Australia goes into why he chose the Cosworth YB powerplant for his Silvia drag racer.
Boost Turned Up High
Predictably, Karam highlights the engine's history powering the Sierra RS, referencing experienced builders who loved being able to turn their boost up to an absurd 60 psi of boost without concern that their engines would blow. The car in question here is only running a more conservative 47 pounds from its Precision Turbos 7675 snail, as the team hopes to get it dialed in enough to turn things up higher later.
Aiming For 7.7-Second Quarter-Mile Time
The Nissan Silvia was always a light car with great balance but stripping and gutting the interior only enhances that appeal. And with the Cosworth engine currently pumping out four-figure horsepower stats, the goal of 1,200 ponies once the turbo setup has been unleashed sounds reasonable, as does a hoped-for 7.7-second quarter-mile time—making those wheelie bars at the tail end equally as reasonable.
Sources: youtube.com and facebook.com.