Nissan Cefiro A31

Nissan Cefiro A31: the four-door Skyline in disguise

A budget way into RB turbo drift

Here is the trick most people miss with the A31 Cefiro. Nissan sold it from 1988 as a comfy executive sedan, all soft seats and quiet motorway manners, but underneath it shares its chassis and running gear with the R32 Skyline and the C33 Laurel. Same 2,550mm wheelbase as the R32, closely related subframes, rear-wheel drive as standard. In other words, your nan's old airport taxi is hiding proper Skyline bones, and that is the whole reason it turned into a cult tuner car in Japan and out here in Australia.

The heart of it is the RB straight-six. You will find the naturally aspirated RB20DE, and from 1992 the bigger RB25DE, but the one worth having is the turbo RB20DET. Nissan quoted it at somewhere around 205 to 215 PS depending on which source you trust, detuned just a whisker off the GTS-t Skyline. The Autech Version is said to push about 225 PS if you ever trip over one, though those are rare as hen's teeth now. Because the mechanicals came straight off the R32 shelf, a huge chunk of GT-R and Silvia knowledge bolts right on, which keeps this thing cheap to run and easy to fix.

A fair few came with HICAS four-wheel steering, which nudges the rear wheels to sharpen the car up. Clever on paper. In practice most drifters rip it out and lock it, because a rear end that quietly steers itself is the last thing you want when you are trying to hold a slide. If you are buying to skid, a deleted HICAS is no red flag at all. If you want it standard and working, actually check it does something.

Now the honest bit, because these are cheap for a reason. Rust is the big one on imports, so get underneath and poke around the sills and the boot floor. Plenty of these have lived hard lives getting sideways, so look hard for kinked chassis rails and uneven panel gaps. Fresh paint can be hiding a straightened shell. Make absolutely sure a "turbo" car is a genuine factory RB20DET and not an NA with a boost gauge and a big story, because engine swaps and badge jobs are everywhere. The sixes are knocking on 30 years old now, so budget for tired turbos and weeping cam covers. A tidy, unmolested, standard one is getting properly hard to find, and it is worth paying a bit more for.