A company in Japan will soon start making brand new SR20 engines. While they’re not technically from Nissan, like the remade Skyline GT-R parts and NISMO gauge clusters are, the motors are being made with Nissan’s blessing. Mercury Enterprise, a used car dealership chain that sponsors a D1 drift team, is the firm behind the project.
The news was revealed on the YouTube account of D1 driver Sayaka Shimoda, whose S15 Silvia is sponsored by Mercury. According to Mercury president Ken Sato, it took two years of negotiations with Nissan for them to grant him permission to go ahead.
Of course, there are caveats. Mercury is only planning to make 30 units. And of those 30 units, they are planning to keep five for themselves. As a result, only 25 engines will be released to the general public. Mercury is also limiting quantities to one per buyer or company to ensure they are not hoarded. However, if there is interest, Sato-san says there could be potential to build more.
The engines will only be available at Mercury’s headquarters location in Fujimori, Hachioji City, Tokyo. The company has the capacity to built three to four per month, so it will take about 10 months to make the full run of 30. Mercury will start taking reservations on September 26, and deliveries will begin in late November.
The engines appear to be the “black top” SR20DET motors found in S14 and S15 Silvias, but are easily swappable to the S13 chassis should one choose. So what’s the price of these brand new SR20 engines? ¥1,330,000 ($9,280 USD), which is pricey but fair. Engine importers ask $7,000 to $8,000 for used examples, and if you were to go buy the parts individually from Nissan it would cost about double Mercury’s price.
Sato-san says he was inspired by the Nissan Heritage Parts program for the R32, R33 and R34 Skyline GT-R. He hopes that by creating these engines, it will prompt Nissan to release heritage parts for the Silvia as well.
A couple of SR20 engines would pull a premium one week before Race Wars.
If demand for the Mercury SR20 reaches a fever pitch, I wonder if Nissan would take notice and start building the SR again as a crate motor, the way GM will sell you an LS3. As engines become more scarce and car companies move on to EV stuff, there could be a steady cottage industry for classic engines..
Seeing how a ton of people like to run engines to the ground and kill them for the sake of some kind of social media approval and clout, it has skyrocketed engines and the experience of building one.
I’m glad to see the SR get some love like this. $10k seems to be fair as mentioned that a used one can go for a bit less. I don’t know if transmissions or harnesses are part of that used deal either.
Even with my RB25det, rebuilding it is a hefty task and often times, I found myself just upgrading for a bit more, rather than stick with stock options.
I wonder how it is with the SR as well. It seems that many guys are shift from SR/RB to LS in many cars (including Skylines).