(engine running)
- This is the story of an underrated Japanese sedan
so humble that everyone in the world forgot about it.
Bye, I love you.
(engine running)
Hold on to your little butts,
because by the end of this episode
you're going to be scouring Graig's List
looking for Sentras.
This is everything you need to know
to get Up To Speed on the Nissan Sentra SE-R.
(video game music)
The Sentra SE-R is an amazing machine,
but it's not even a robot.
On a completely unrelated note,
thanks to War Robots for sponsoring this video.
War Robots is a tactical multiplayer game
where you get to dive a big ol' robot around
and shoot other robots.
I'm gonna be honest, I don't play many video games,
but this one is sick.
If you download the game using the link below
you get a special bonus pack that includes
100 gold, 400000 silver, a full set of weapons,
a GI patent robot, and a unique skin for it.
That's a lot of stuff!
You can fully customize your war robot
and fight others in a six on six online battle.
Choose from many different robots, weapons, skins,
maps, and game modes.
Click the link below to download War Robots.
I wish I could choose my skin sometimes
'cause honestly I feel uncomfortable in mine.
Nissan used to be called Datsun
and in the 70s they made a neat little sedan
called the Datsun 510.
It was small, light and people loved making 'em go fast.
They still do.
(engine running)
It's a great car and it helped put Datsun on the map
as a real driver's company.
We did an episode on it.
Watch it here after.
Fast forward a few years to 1982.
The world needs economical, durable and affordable sedans.
Nissan answered the call with the Sunny,
a two door, three door, four door, and five door
compact car.
In the U.S. we knew it as the B11 Sentra.
- [Announcer] The Nissan Sentra.
- I'm gonna be honest with you,
the Sentra doesn't really get interesting
for a few more years.
We're gonna just skip a whole generation
and just get right into it, okay?
Is that okay with you?
Yes, I trust that you're keeping my best interests in mind
and I appreciate that you respect
and value my time as a viewer.
Thank you.
1990 the Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore classic Ghost
is number two at the box office.
Wilson Phillips Hold On ruled the Billboard 100.
And Nissan was busy refreshing the Sentra
for the 1991 model year.
Nissan set their sights on beating the Toyota Corolla.
Like the Sentra, the Corolla was a compact
and value driven sedan for the entry level buyer.
A few years earlier the Corolla
had become a driver's favorite with the release of the AE86,
but the days of rear wheel drive were behind it
and the Corolla joined the Sentra
in the land of front wheel power.
(engine running)
Since the Sentra had been front wheel drive since day one,
they saw the Corolla as a major threat.
- Hey, that Corolla's pretty good.
Kids were driftin' the old one down Mount Akina
and now the new one is front wheel drive like our car?
- What are we gonna do, boss?
- Get ahold of yourself.
We'll just have to make our car better.
- The new B13 Sentra would come with features
uncommon in the subcompact segment like sunroofs,
alloy wheels, power windows, and all that good stuff.
But I'm not here to talk about trim levels, okay?
I'm here to talk about (beep) cars and kickin' butt.
And I'm all outta butt.
Nissan added a new variant to the lineup.
It would be fast, it would handle well,
and it would be red.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Sentra SE-R.
(engine revving)
The B13 SE-R was like the Datsun 510 of old.
It was small, light and affordable,
and like the 510, the SE-R had tons of potential
to go really, really fast.
(engine revving)
Nissan did something not a lot of other companies did
with their subcompacts.
They put a really good engine in it.
Powering the SE-R was one of the best engines
Nissan ever made, the SR20-DE.
That might sound familiar to all you dirty little drifters
out there because the turbo charged version powered
the S13 and S14 over in Japan and Europe but not here.
We got a truck engine.
For some reason, anyway!
The plucky little SR20 revved all the way up to 7500 RPMs
♪ singing a glorious song all the way there ♪
(engine revving)
The two liter displacement and dual overhead cams
produced a very, very respectable 140 hrsprs,
which was unheard of in the subcompact segment.
This Sentra's rival Corolla
was making at most 115 horsepower
and it had independent suspension all the way around.
This made for a very balanced little chassis.
Car magazines of the time were including the SE-R
on their top ten best car lists
pitting the little subcompact against the Acura NSX.
How was this possible?
Well the SE-R put the power down with the help
of a little thing called a viscous limited slip differential
that could evenly split the power
between the front two wheels.
That means when you're coming out of a turn
with your foot on the gas,
you're not doin' a one wheel peel.
No one tire fires here!
Both wheels turnin'!
(engine revving)
The LSD came standard on the SE-R which again was insane
in the subcompact market.
The SE-R also had disc brakes on all four corners.
Again, crazy for 1991.
But perhaps the craziest part about the SE-R was the price.
The original MSRP was just under $11,000 in 1991 money.
About $20,000 today.
It was the same price as a Corolla but way more fun.
Mission accomplished.
So why doesn't anyone talk about it now?
Well, Nissan blew it.
When it came time to replace the B13 in 1995,
the new B14 Sentra was ugly.
Nissan replaced the independent rear suspension
from the previous gen with a torsion bar configuration.
While torsion can be good in some cars,
it was a definite step back in the Sentra
and Nissan fans were kind of insulted by this.
They saw cars like the Civic SI, the Miata, the Integra GSR
and they wondered why they couldn't buy a Nissan like that.
I imagine Nissan felt bad
because a replacement wasn't far off.
The year 2000.
Y2K had just killed us all.
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
was number 71 at the box office.
Nissan had a new Sentra for the U.S.
and it was poised to bring us back
to the good old days of the B13.
The B15 which this one is was once again available
with an SE-R option, rejoice!
It was no longer powered by the SR20
but now had a 2.5 liter QR25-DE borrowed from the Altima.
Bolted on the back was a 5-speed transmission,
but Nissan had a little trick up their sleeve
because this SE-R wasn't even
the baddest SE-R you could get.
Back in Japan, Nissan was selling a little car
called, I don't know if you guys have heard of it,
the Skyline GTR.
It's pretty sick!
One of the Skylines was called the V-SPEC.
We did a Bumper To Bumper on one.
Watch it here, but you probably wanna watch
the rest of this video first.
Nissan, Nissan, wanted to bring a little tasty taste
of that car to their budget compact car in the U.S.
I mean it makes sense.
The B15 SE-R SPEC V had the same QR25
as the lower SE-R but this one made 10 more hrsprs
crankin' out 175 horsepower and 180 torques.
(engine revving)
The SPEC V also had a helical limited slip differential
kinda like the B13 from a few years back.
The SPEC V also had tons of suspension upgrades
that tightened up the handling,
as well as a tower strut brace up front
to strengthen the front end.
This B15 weighed about 200 pounds more
or one Nolan, than the original SE-R,
but, hey, it made 40 more horsepower.
But Nissan fans didn't think the SPEC V
quite lived up to the B13 SE-R.
The main reason was size.
I mean, the Sentra was no longer
the tiny little subcompact sedan of years gone.
(tires screeching)
In 2007, the Sentra was refreshed and made even bigger
officially entering the midsize sedan class.
The SE-R and SPEC V were still kickin'
with the former making a respectful 200 horsepower.
The SPEC V had all the same improvements as the B15
better suspension, much better brakes,
limited slip diff, yadda yadda yadda,
but despite those upgrades, critics and fans
didn't fall in love with the B16
because there was a car called the Civic Si
that destroyed it in nearly every way.
(engine revving)
Skip forward to today.
Instead of a SPEC V or even an SE-R package,
Nissan decided to give the Sentra the Nismo treatment.
Yep, you Nissan nerds know what I'm talkin' about.
The same name that has adorned Skylines and Zs for decades
is now on the Sentra.
It's got beefed up power and better suspension.
It also has a ton of red stuff on it.
Let's go back to the B13 real quick.
So Nissan only built them between 1990 and 1994.
But Nissan Mexico did it for a little longer.
Their Sentra down there is called the Tsuru.
They built these suckers for years.
It was the most popular car in Mexico until 2011.
The Tsuru was super reliable, cheap to maintain
and lasted forever making it an undercover icon
around the world.
When the Mexican government updated it's safety standards
mandating anti-lock brakes and airbags,
only then did Nissan stop building it.
In 2017, hi-yah.
(engine revving)
Thanks for watching Donut Media, guys.
It means so much to me.
I can't believe so many of you guys have subscribed.
We're almost at two million.
Sentra SE-R, do you want one?
Let me know down in the comments.
We'll chat about it.
I want one bad.
Follow me at jamespumphrey on Instagram.
Follow donut at donutmedia.
Watch this episode of Bumper to Bumper.
Watch this episode of Wheelhouse.
I love you.