The Forgotten Nissan Foria Concept Reimagined The Silvia For The 2000s

Remember the concept that revived the spirit of the Nissan Silvia with a compact, rear-drive coupe body and retro proportions? No, not the IDx, although we love that particular missed opportunity dearly. We’re talking about an earlier concept that went for a similar vibe, but a slightly more upmarket position, and has been rather lost to the mists of time – the Nissan Foria.

Unveiled at the 2005 Tokyo Auto Show, the Foria concept arrived a few short years after the final S15 Silvia went out of production. While those last few S-chassis cars were more outwardly sporty and beloved by drifters, the Foria took greater inspiration from the Silvia’s genesis, the CSP311 version, launched in 1965.

This was less an out-and-out sports car, even for its day, and more a stylish, compact coupe, although it laid down the Silvia recipe pretty early with a front-mounted four-cylinder engine and rear-wheel drive. It was also extremely rare, with just 554 made over three years.

It was that car’s upright, cab-rearward proportions that quite clearly lent themselves to the Foria, although there was one key change. Perhaps taking inspiration from another Japanese sports car of the era, the Mazda RX-8, the Foria featured a clamshell door arrangement, with backwards-opening rear doors to access the modest rear seats.

Nissan didn’t detail the Foria’s powertrain, only saying that it was front-engined and rear-wheel drive, and had a ‘mid-sized engine’. Given that the Silvia’s SR20 engine was still being built at the time, we could definitely picture it using some version of that, or perhaps one of the MR engines it had then recently started building with Renault.

The concept had a semi-auto paddleshift gearbox, but in a parallel universe where it made production, we imagine a manual being offered. Four-wheel steering was said to be included, too.

Where the Foria really differed from its spiritual forebears was its push upmarket. Much of the interior was swathed in rich, hand-stitched leather, while the chromed central control panel and instrument unit were apparently inspired by old-fashioned cameras.

All in, the Foria sounded like it would have made a fine addition to the noughties sports car roster, and a handy stablemate to the beefier, more muscular 350Z. So what went wrong? Well, reportedly a smaller, sub-Z rear-drive sports car was in the works around 2008, but also around 2008, car companies suddenly found themselves less able to justify pouring money into niche sports car projects. Can’t remember why.

The wait for a Silvia successor continued, then, and goes on to this day, despite Nissan teasing us again with the IDx a few years later. Will it ever happen? Last year, comments from the man who’s now Nissan’s CEO, Ivan Espinosa, suggested maybe, but we’ll believe it when we see it.