The Nissan Gazelle was a compact 2 door coupe and three-door hatchback

Hatchback

A Hatchback is a car body style incorporating a shared passenger and cargo volume, with rearmost accessibility via a rear third or fifth door, typically a top-hinged liftgate—and features such as fold-down rear seats to enable flexibility within the shared passenger/cargo volume. As a two-box...

 produced by Nissan, based on the Nissan S platform

Nissan S platform

The Nissan S-platform was Nissan's rear wheel drive sport compact automobile platform, produced from model year 1976 to 2002. It was sold in every major market where Nissan cars were available. It was usually equipped with an inline four-cylinder engine, and had four seats in a "two-plus-two"...

. It was produced for the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese and Australian markets only. The Gazelle is a sister car to the Nissan Silvia

Nissan Silvia

The S12 was produced from 1984 to 1988, with revisions to the exterior trim in 1987 . It was sold in three configurations—a coupe , a hatchback, and a widebody chassis called grandprix .A number of different engines were equipped in the S12 chassis, depending on production year and more...

. It was produced so that Nissan's different dealership networks in Japan could all carry the Silvia. There are minor cosmetic differences between the two cars. Both the S110 and S12 Silvias have a Gazelle counterpart.

The S12 Silvia in Japan was available as a hatch as a basic model only, but the S12 Gazelle in Japan was strictly a hatch, available in regular, RS and RS-X variants, as was the Silvia notchback. Japanese spec models came with many options like voice command, fog lights and options for different motors (FJ20DE, CA18DE, CA18E, CA18DET.). The RS-X model also came with different factory alloy wheels.

In the Australian market the S12 chassis, both body styles were sold as the Nissan Gazelle, in GL (normal) and SGL (luxury) forms, with electric mirrors and windows.

The Australian released models of the S12 Gazelle came standard with an SOHC CA20E motor, Producing 78 kW @ 5200rpm, and 160Nm of torque @ 3200-3200rpm.
This engine was mated to either a 5 speed manual gearbox or a 4 speed automatic.
This has made the S12 Gazelle very popular for engine conversions among motoring enthusiasts, as a sports coupe the ca20e was very underpowered, as were the brakes (front disks were very small, rear drum brakes standard). the CA18DE/T being a direct bolt in replacement for the CA20E is quite popular, and requires no modification to the drive train other than the engine itself.

When the S13 Silvia was introduced in 1988, the Gazelle nameplate was eliminated. The Nissan 180SX

Nissan 180SX

The Nissan 180SX was a hatchback coupe based on the S13 chassis from the Nissan S platform, and sold in Japan; and in some other countries under the 200SX name....

 took its place in Japan, although in Australia, there would not be a replacement until the introduction of the Silvia-based Nissan 200SX

Nissan 200SX

From 1995 to 1998 Nissan applied the name "200SX" to two different lines of automobiles in different markets these years.In 1995, Nissan reintroduced the 200SX nameplate in United States and Canada to designate a two-door version of the Nissan Sentra , known in Japan and Mexico as Lucino, replacing...

in 1995.