Nissan Cedric Is A Street-legal Drift Car In China

A sinister Nissan Cedric (Y33), as seen on a car repair market in east Beijing. The big Japanese sedan looked great, painted black with a body kit, darkened window, drift tires and wheels, and black license plates.

The Nissan Cedric is a luxury Japanese sedan. The ninth-generation Cedric Y33 model was manufactured from 1995 until 1999. It looked classy, with a big shiny grille, a hood ornament, and frameless doors.

The Cedric stood next to a W220 Mercedes-Benz S-Class (1998-2005).

These drift cars are an odd thing in Beijing. The Chinese capital is normally very strict with what is allowed on the road and what is not. The yearly inspection usually rejects cars with even the smallest modifications. But the drift scene seems to have found a loophole. I have been to many drift events in Beijing, and most cars arrived by road, with valid license plates and insurance stickers. I asked of course, but the answer was always like “test, legal, no problem”, but they didn’t want to tell me how they did it exactly.

This Nissan Cedric is just such a car. It has a lowered suspension, a big exhaust pipe, a racy quick-release steering wheel, and a modified gear lever. Most drift cars in the Beijing scene are based on rear-wheel drive Japanese sedans from the 1990s.

There are shops in town that import these cars from Japan, with RHD! Some are converted to LHD, and some are changed into track-only machines without even doors for comfort.

This one, however, has original black license plates, indicating it has been in China long before it started a second life as a drift car.

The renowned black license plates were exclusively designated to foreign-owned companies from the 1980s until the mid-2000s. These enterprises had the option to purchase vehicles domestically or import them.

There were no restrictions on the quantity of cars, their pricing, or engine specifications. The unique numbering system commenced at 京A·00001 and progressed sequentially. Consequently, the lower the number, the older the vehicle.

Note the blue exhaust pipe tip on the left side.

The Y33 Nissan Cedric was available with various V6 ‘VQ’ engines: 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, and 3.0 turbo, and there was a 2.8 liter L6 diesel too. The V6 petrol engines were strong and easy to modify, and thus popular among tuning shops in Japan and China.  I can’t say for sure what is under the hood of this black-plate drift car, but I am sure it has a lot of power!