The SE-R Returns...With A Vengance

At both peaks of the Z car's long history, there was a surprising little box in the shadows. A little brother to the Z, this box offered exceptional performance at an even more exceptional price, adopting the Z's philosophy of affordable performance, but turning it down a notch and leaving out the extroverted styling.

At the Z's first peak, the little brother was the 510, the first Japanese sleeper to hit our shores. The next time the Z really hit the mark, with the Z32, it was the Sentra SE-R lurking in the shadows. Both times, the little brother developed a cult following with numbers and enthusiasm that rivaled that for the Z, and like the Z, the SE-R's following has survived the car's absence.

Luckily for the cult of SE-R, Nissan's resurgence will include a new, much improved version of the box. Like the original, the new SE-R is built on the standard Sentra body. Since there is no longer a two-door bodyshell to work with, the SE-R is now a high-performance four-door, something we are likely to see a lot of now that Subaru, Mazda and Nissan all want to jump into the performance game more quickly than their platform departments can develop bodyshells.

Rear doors or not, Nissan wanted to make the new SE-R more visually distinct than previous models. To that end, it gets a new nose intended to mimic the Skyline GT-R's bulldog brutishness. To some, the nose seems to have mixed with the Frontier pickup's brutishness, but either way, it does make the Sentra a little less friendly. Also in the works is the three-piece wraparound rear wing shown on this car, but the tooling won't be complete in time for the first model year. Expect the new wing in 2003.

Wings, shmings, who cares? We want horsepower, and the SE-R delivers. Using an all-new, all-aluminum 2.5-liter engine dubbed the QR25DE, the SE-R will deliver 170 or 180 hp, depending on which model you get. Despite its displacement, the new engine is smaller and lighter than the SR20DE, and thanks to twin balance shafts, it's also smoother.

The SE-R is expected to account for a relatively large portion of Sentra sales--20 to 25 percent, if all goes as planned--so there will be two models to appeal to the broadest customer base. The standard SE-R will use either a five-speed manual transmission with a viscous limited slip, or a four-speed automatic. The suspension tuning will be firmer than the current Sentra SE, but not too aggressive. The layout remains MacPherson struts in front and Nissan's optimistically named Multi-Link Beam(R) in the rear, but firmer springs and shocks are used, along with 2mm larger front and rear anti-roll bars. Tires will be 195/55R16s.

With 170 hp and an even more impressive 175 lb-ft of torque, the base SE-R promises to be a very entertaining car to drive. It will also be completely overshadowed by the surprisingly hard-core SE-R Spec V. If the Spec V label rings a bell, it should. The name was originally to be V-Spec, the same label used for the ultimate version of the Skyline GT-R, but the Skyline design team balked at its name being used for a Sentra. Since the V-Spec name actually refers to the active side-to-side torque split technology unique to the V Spec Skyline, the SE-R's ultimate label was rearranged to maintain the factual purity of the Skyline's name.

Whatever you call it, the Spec V is one serious car. During development, the Integra Type R was the performance benchmark, and if you believe the stories from the test track, the final Spec V actually beat the Type R around the complex and challenging marketability course at Nissan's Arizona test track. That's no small feat, considering the Type R's abilities. Look closely at the Spec V's build sheet and you start to understand how it's possible.

First, engine output is pushed up to 180 hp and 180 lb-ft of torque, thanks to a less restrictive muffler with a flapper door that blows open to reduce backpressure at high rpm. While that still leaves the Spec V 15-hp shy of the Type R, its 180 lb-ft of torque beat the Type R by a whopping 50 lb-ft. That means the Spec V is on top for much of the powerband. Making maximum use of that powerband is a new six-speed manual transmission with a helical limited-slip differential similar to the Type R's (there will be no automatic for the Spec V).

The difference between a viscous and a helical limited-slip may seem like a minor detail, but in reality, it's night and day. Having driven at least one first-generation SE-R that had its stock viscous limited-slip replaced with a helical Qualife limited-slip, the difference is astonishing. Power can be applied much earlier in a corner, and the helical diff offers a self-steering effect similar to, but more natural than the Prelude SH's more complex ATTS system.

The six-speed gearbox also promises to be far stronger than the earlier SE-R's five speed. The new box will be shared with a 260-hp version of the Maxima, a car that puts a far heavier load on its drivetrain than the relatively dainty Sentra. In a departure from standard Nissan practice, the new gearbox is cable shifted. While Nissan's past rod shifters have always offered excellent feel, the switch to cables was a packaging necessity.

The Spec V, naturally, gets even more aggressive suspension tuning, with front springs 15 percent stiffer than the standard SE-R, and rears that are 16 percent stiffer. Shock valving is surprisingly stiff, and the handling balance is tuned to allow the car to rotate well under trailing throttle. While struts and a well-located beam may have a hard time competing with the Type R's double wishbones, standard 215/45ZR17 Continental ContiSport Contacts (compared to the Type R's smaller but still very sticky 195/55VR15 Bridgestone RE010s) do a good job of making up the difference with sheer, rubber-on-the-road grip.

Brakes will be shared with the standard SE-R, and, in fact, with the standard Sentra SE. The SE-Rs will use more aggressive brake pads with a higher heat tolerance, but rotors and calipers remain the same. The SE already uses the brakes from the bigger Altima, so the brakes are fairly large, at 11 inches in the front and 9.1 inches in the rear.

The original SE-R had some of the best factory seats ever made for performance driving, but the new Spec V will out-do them significantly. The aggressive, body-hugging buckets from the Skyline GT-R are being transplanted directly into the SE-R. Most of the interior of the show car shown here is actually inaccurate. The gauges will not be yellow, but will be a titanium color, with orange illumination on the Spec V. And while we're talking about things that don't make it go fast, the Spec V will also be available with a 280-watt, nine-speaker Rockford Fosgate audio system with a six-disc in-dash CD changer. Not too shabby.

The SE-R Spec V is an impressively hard-core performance machine, but the most impressive spec is the price. Nissan's official word is only that the first number in the Spec V's price will be a 1. Our sources suggest the second number may be an 8. That puts the Spec V in the price range once occupied by a well-equipped Civic Si, but with performance that should be in another world.

Nissan's comeback starts this summer.