The Short Version
- No database we checked covers the S12. Not the Japanese factory tables, not the international aggregator.
- The Silvia coverage starts at the S13, in May 1988.
- So the widely repeated “S12 is 4×114.3” is an assumption carried back from the S13, not a sourced figure.
- Do not assume continuity. Measure your car.
What We Actually Found
We went looking for the S12 and Gazelle (1983–1988) and came back with nothing.
The Japanese factory wheel databases’ full Silvia generation index starts at chassis E-S13, May 1988. There is no S12 entry, no Gazelle entry, and nothing for the FJ20ET turbo grades.
The international fitment aggregator does have an S12 page — and its PCD, offset and centre bore fields are literally blank for all three variants it lists. Only tyre size and rim dimensions are populated, with offset marked unknown.
That is not a rendering problem or a search failure. We rendered the pages properly and read them. The fields are empty.
Why the 4×114.3 Claim Should Be Treated Carefully
You will see the S12 given as 4×114.3 in a lot of places. It may well be right — plenty of early-1980s Nissan rear-drive cars are 4×114.3, and the S13 that followed certainly is.
But we could not trace that figure to any source we could actually open, and there is a specific reason to be careful: the hub bore has no corroboration anywhere, from any source, for any S12 grade. A bolt pattern inherited by assumption is one thing; a bore that nobody has published is another.
For comparison, here is what the S13 — the first Silvia generation the databases do cover — actually reads:
| Car | Chassis | Period | Grade | Wheel | Tyre | PCD / Holes / Bore |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silvia S13 | E-S13 | 1988.05–1991.01 | 1.8 Q’s | 14×5J +40 | 185/70R14 | 114.3 / 4 / 66 |
| Silvia S12 / Gazelle | JS12 / US12 / S12 | 1983–1988 | all grades incl. FJ20ET | no data in any source we checked | ||
What to Do
Measure. It takes five minutes and it settles it for your car, which is more than any source can currently do.
- Count the studs. Four, almost certainly.
- Measure the bolt circle. On a four-stud pattern, measure centre to centre across the diagonal — that distance is the PCD. 114.3 mm and 100 mm are far enough apart to tell easily.
- Measure the hub register, in two directions, and take the larger figure. Our hub bore guide explains exactly where to measure.
Send us what you find with your chassis code. We will publish it here with credit, because this guide currently exists mostly as an admission that the data is missing.
Buying Wheels in the Meantime
If the car turns out to be 4×114.3, you are shopping the same pool as the S13, the 180SX and a great deal of 1980s Japanese product. That is a reasonable market, though it is thinner in modern sizes than 5×114.3.
What we would avoid is buying on the strength of a spec sheet. On a car this age, as RS Watanabe’s own site warns, parts get swapped over four decades and the car in front of you may not match any table even if one existed.
Importing
The S12 ran 1983–1988. Every one is decades past the US 25-year mark. North America got it as the 200SX, so the shape is familiar there, and a US-market car is the easiest thing in the world to put a caliper on.
What We Could Not Verify
- Bolt pattern, hub bore and offset for every S12 and Gazelle grade, including the FJ20ET turbo cars. Confirmed absent from the Japanese factory databases and blank on the international aggregator.
Seen on the road
Which wheels are you looking for? Tell us the wheel, the size and the fitment — send us a request and we will go and find it.
Wheel identification is taken from the hashtags the owner applied to their own post.