Excess. That’s the only word that can describe the Super Silhouette race cars of the 1980's. They were excessive in power, looks, and image. Nissan in particular had a few different Super Silhouette racers that were very successful in competition and inspired waves of Japanese car owners to mimic their style of outlandish wide body kits, giant rear spoilers, and mega-wide wheels.
The Super Silhouette cars themselves fell in line with FIA Group 5 standards which were seen on various race cars in Europe and elsewhere. In Japan, the Super Silhouette races were held as part of the Fuji Grand Championship Series and lasted between 1979 and 1983. The fact the Super Silhouette races were very popular among race fans is not surprising when you take a look at how crazy the cars were.
There were very few regulations when it came to the cars. Essentially they had to have the same “silhouette” as the production cars (hence the name), and had to use the same block as the production vehicles. Beyond those points, everything else was fair game.
One of Nissan’s early Super Silhouette cars was the 910 Bluebird pictured above. The Bluebird race car weighed in at a scant 1000kg (2,200lbs) and was powered by a race-built turbocharged L20ZB four cylinder that outputted 570ps. Famously, this was more power than even the F1 cars of the period. The transmission was a 5-speed from Doug Nash in the United States. The bodywork on the car is aggressive as it gets. You really can’t see much of the original Bluebird besides the front grill and the roofline. I guess that qualifies as silhouette though. The wheels under those huge fenders are 16"x11J in the front and 19"x15J in the rear. This particular car was driven by H. Yanagida and took the championship in both 1980 and 1982. The Skyline and Silvia models are a bit more famous today, though under the skin, the were all pretty much identical.
The model shown here is by “TrueScale Models” in 1/43 and simply amazing. It came to me via The Netherlands (you may guess who might be responsible). The level of detail is simply wonderful, both inside and out.
Apart from their success on the race tracks, these cars also had a different effect: they spawned a whole school of Japanese custom cars, which copied the crazy body extensions and wings, plus the extremely low ride height. And thus, the “Bosozoku” or “GraChan” style of customizing was born. Of course, this is Japan, and some went a bit overboard...
But you can see where they got the idea from. Now, if you have 8 minutes to kill, have a look at the car in action on this YouTube video, it is quite fun to watch the wildly designed Bluebird race the rather sober looking BMW M1. It is from 1982, when the car still had the regular Coca-Cola livery. The Coca Cola light livery is from 1984, but the car is still the same.