American’s are pretty much assed out of anything fun, well, more or less. To this day Europe and Japan both see the best 2+2s and 2-seaters in the world and the US doesn’t. The once almighty sports cars market took a cramped backseat to the likes of four-door sedans and sports utility vehicles half a decade ago. More so than family sedans sport futilty—er, utility vehicles have attributed to the near-demise of the sports car segment. Americans don’t want to cruise through Pismo Beach in style with a 2-door speed demon.

What Americans do want is their daily commute or errand run to be safe, rugged, fun and highly economical. Well, three out of four ain’t bad. When the market took the dive greats like the Supra and 300ZX gave way to baby carriages like the 4Runner and Pathfinder. Who would have guess that Gen Xers would have more kids than the Baby Boomers.

Enter Nissan’s Silvia (S15), the 99 year model entry into the automaker’s japanese sports car lineup. While our beloved 240sx (S14) met that big garage in the sky in ’98, it lives on in Japan. The newest Silvia is powered by the race-worthy SR20DET four-banger. Even the US 240, with its torque-rich KA24DE truck engine, couldn’t match the sheer horsepower produced from Nissan’s SR20DE motor (also found on the Sentra SE and G20) mated to a turbocharger. Grab hold of the Silvia’s 6-speed shifter and this stallion will take you 0-to-60 faster than an old school 300ZX Twin Turbo can. 

That insignia on the hood looks like a lightning bolt and I can see why. Quite the bargain if you consider that two stock Silvia's can be picked up for about the same price of a Honda S2000—especially when the 2.0 liter outputs as much as the S2000 and then some. Hard to believe this much can be had for under 20,000 US dollars.