Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Yes so basically an SP311 chassis and hand built body (all the panels make specifically for each car) This made them very expensive - they cost a lot more than all the other nissans at the time This is probably why they only made 554 CSPs in total Mine is No. 179.
The CSP register says there is no more than 75 on the road or being restored . No way of telling how accurate that is but the number is in the low hundereds at most.

Being handbuilt the panel joints are not noticeable which looks great Only issue is if you crash one its brand new handbuilt metal panels - and even if you cam find even a wing from another CSP will a fair amount of work to fit peoprly.

Hi Rustybucket,

The CSP was shown as a pre-production model with the G15 engine, before moving to the R16 before production. There was a slim, slim chance the CSP may have been toyed with idea of fittng the XY80 2 litre DOHC engine to it (Yamaha design), as the initial project was for a 2L car to replace the SP(l)310, of which the CSP was.

The body design was not wholy liked by Nissan bosses when initially shown, as it wasn't Japanese, but the point of the design team was to move a little from that and take some influences say from European design houses. The car designers all over the world were looking at other designers/countries, as well as architecture for inspiration.

RustyBucket wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 9:02 am So the CSP 311 has the same drivetrain as the SPL311.

Yes, same as SP(L)311 but the diff ratio was 4.11 as standard, with 3.9 as an option.

Red CSP wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 9:36 am ...hand built body (all the panels make specifically for each car)

Not quite true, the prototype Silvia's were hand-made on wooden bucks, but the production cars had the panels stamped out, but the body was still hand assembled on its own jig(s) which took time to get the panels to fit well. Then the Silvia was hand assembled by a small team in the corner of the factory.

https://csp311.net/csp311-development-history/

Just out of interest why did they then write the chassis number on the back of some of the panels.

Red CSP wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 11:46 am Just out of interest why did they then write the chassis number on the back of some of the panels.

It is looking very much like the number on the interior panels and also stamped on some metal interior trim parts (e.g. A pillar) is the BODY number, not the chassis number. It's assumed the chassis number is the same as the body number, and what I and a friend are seeing is they are not the same. If your chassis is 179, I reckon your body is about number 220-240. You should be able to tell as the body number is stamped on the bootlid catch tower.

So far, my friend and I have yet to see a Silvia with the same chassis/body number. All have a higher body number than chassis number.

Why, it's looking like the first 52 (approx) Silvia's didn't have a body number written or stamped. Then they started to. We have seen gaps of about 44 up to about 80 between chassis and body numbers. And so far, body is higher. we even see a few later chassis cars without a body number stamped/written on them too. We think the fluctuating range is down to how the body was assembled as could well have more than 1 body jig, and we know some had to go back for a repaint around the C pillar/roof, due to cracking. Also, the chassis and body weren't assembled in the same place, so it is easy to see they just picked a body or chassis, (nearest/ready) and the numbers moved around. I doubt it was on their radar to match numbers.

I think as production picked up the assembly needed to keep tabs on what panel went with what body, as they all slightly different, so tailored to a particular body. Even the side glass (next to the door) has numbers written inside the frame (not body or chassis) but like 3 or 4 , so they were matching the frames up when they were being made. My dash has a body number written in chalk.

I think some owners don't know, or don't want to know the body./chassis doesn't match, as they think it is wrong, something happened to their car. But,it's looking like this is how it happened at the factory.

Still plenty of digging and research to do on this. Gradually finding diferences between the cars during production, slight differences which seem to be brought in from a body number onwards (roughly, as we are dealing with a load of Silvia's that are not around so just using surviving cars to get an idea).

That answer your question?

Lord help you if you have a fender bender !!

Pretty interesting read. Nice research. Definitely not a car to be involved in an accident.

S

I've posted these before, but here are a couple color shots of a new Silvia being "stall built" (ie. not on a production line) that might be of interest:





Michael

I don't think the Silvia was ever on a production line, as the numbers didn't warrant it, even at the height of its production. I have these images on my website, and you can see a blue airbox. This is either an indicator of blue airbox being replacement parts-which happens on the z432/Skyline S20 engined (it should be red), so this Silvia is a lone one or 1 of very few being built, which happened later in the production run. Thus the car is being assembled with some boxed parts (you see one in the first pic)? I have also seen 5 engine bearing ones with a blue airbox (but these could have been replaced later in the cars life), which happened towards the end of the production run. Still not quite nailed this down.

Its a great couple of images.

nice pics but what they are doing in my thread about my car.

High Red CSP, the posts are not commercial, and were posted by Knowledgeable members that thought you might want to see some interesting origin pictures of your car. I can remove them if you wish, but I didn't see any harm in these being posted in your thread.