Late, Base, S12 Coupe...

Another interesting (and immaculate) car currently available at a dealer in Japan..

A very late, very basic, 1987 S12 Nissan Silvia R-X Coupe.

1987 being the second last year of a 5year production run; with the S12 introduced late 1983 to replace the S110 chassis.

1987 was also the year of a fairly thorough refresh; with new bumpers, mouldings, rear lights, and (probably most obviously) this full-width front grill treatment. Early cars had wider corner lights that ran the width of the headlight.

Headlights up! the shape and position of the headlights reminds me a lot of the N13 Exa..

No lip, spoiler, or skirts; black mouldings.. and steel wheels..

...Cloth seats (with fantastic genuine accessory covers), untrimmed wheel, and.. maybe a cassette player..? Nope, radio-only here..

This late in the S12's production, the R-X was about as basic as things got.

To add insult to injury; the R-X came equipped with the ferocious CA18S.
I remember shaking my head at a friends CA20E-powered R31 - completely unaware how exotic that twinspark-masterpiece was, compared to the dreariness Nissan was producing at the same time..
.and here it is.
The CA18S -  a fractionally undersquare, carburetted, single-cam four; mustering up ~66kw (90hp) out of its 1.8 litres of capacity.
In its defence, things like this are often brilliantly under-stressed - maybe even a further 100,000km of running on three cylinders with a knock; but this chassis deserved better..!
Luckily (and not surprisingly), it did. From here it stepped all the way up to the CA18DET-powered Twincam Turbo RS-X model, with the CA18ET (Injected, Single-cam, Turbo) Turbo R-X model in between.
Early top-spec S12's even came with the old FJ20ET 2litre turbo.. and I know I've mentioned how fond I am of those before...!

Late-model brochure image of the different coupe variants..

..and for comparison, the (arguably prettier) hatchback equivalents.

One last pic of the car for sale.
I pick on it; but seriously love things like this - It's just so basic an innocent. It look sharp in the solid white, and I'm sure the 5spd and skinny tires make it a bit of fun to punt about in.
This particular car is in absolutely amazing condition, and is listed with a claimed 16,000km on the clock - which I don't doubt.
Whats even more amazing; its only ~660,000yen. Importable, interesting, and so mechanically simple (and common) that I doubt there'd be any problem getting so, so, much more use out of something like this.
It's unique, affordable, and needing nothing. Very cool.