Skyline GT-R

The famed Nissan skyline GT-R, the ultimate Japanese sports coupe, known as "Godzilla" by world renown publication Wheels Australia after its release in 1989. The car was iconic due to its performance and handling said to be superior to European supercars Porsche Carrera and the Masserati. The Skyline's has always been in direct competition with such Jap Supercars as the Honda NSX, Toyota Supra, Mitsubishi Evo, Subaru Impreza WRX STi & Mazda RX-7 & RX-8.

The birth

The Skyline name originated from Prince's motor company before merging with Nissan-Datsun. The first version, the S54 2000 GT-B, came in second place in its first race in 1964 just behind the custom-built Porsche 904 GTS . The next GT-R, the KPGC10 / PGC10 2000 GT-R, scored 33 wins in 1 year and 6 months, out of 50 races ended by the Mazda Savanna RX-3. The GT-R had around 54 victories when it was discontinued in 1972. The final model of this design and era was the KPGC110 / PGC110. This model car was the only one never to participate in any race, Zuma now houses this rare Skyline amongst other historical cars.

The Skyline GT-R continued through into 1990 when it became largely popular largely due to its rear wheel drive system, other manufacturers' models were mainly front wheel drive, therefore not being as agile as rear wheel drive models.

R32 R33 R34

The Skyline GT-R was reintroduced in 1989. Innitially most models sold were the basic models such as the GT-S, the top of range version was becoming a symbol of Nissan's performance. The performance and the toys many advanced breakthroughs in handling and performance were showcased by the GT-R, it demonstrated many advances never seen in mass production, even though, the 1989 - GT-R's remained cheap in comparison. The 1990's started with the R32, making its debut in 1989, through to the R34 released in 1998 which ended production in August 2002 when the G35 Nissan was launched in Japan which had a standard model lineup.

The final R34 Skyline GT-R were sold with many addons and mods such as special editions such as the V-Spec II even Nismo additions.

Z-Tune

On 14 January 2005, resurrected by Nismo, the R34 GT-R was given one last tour before the much anticipated arrival of the next gen version. The Z-tune, Nismo engineers made this car as money was no object and more than that, they wanted this model to be the most powerful Skyline GT-R ever created. It ran a rebuilt, re-engineered R34 engine, with an array of technology from the GT500 & endurance racingcars.The auto ran a 2.8L twin turbo, which was a rebored version of the stock 2.6L engine with the addition of racing pistons, connecting rods & uprated camshafts and finally a remapped & upgraded ECU, giving the Jap beast 500 hp (370 kW) with 540 N·m (400 lb·ft) of torque. It wasn't long before the car was known Mother of all GT-Rs, Nismo stated the R34 Z-Tune would be limited to 20 with a price tag of around $170,000 US dollars.

GT-R

The GT-R's running in the 1990s ran a 2.6 straight six-cylinder twin turbo engine running at 276 bhp. The GT-R had a hybrid steel/ceramic twin turbo chargers allowing them to spool up faster due to there light nature, therefore reducing turbo lag.

The 276 horses were transferred to all four wheels by a electronically-controlled 4 wheel drive system, the ATTESA system for short, ATTESA uses two G-Sensors mounted underneath the drivers console, these feed longtitudinal and lateral data to the ECU. The ECU then tells the wheels how much power to put down, via an electronic torque split converter. The GT-R V-Spec models were equipped with a faster reacting ATTESA Pro 4wd system with tweaked ECU settings, improving the overall handling.

The GT-R had additional computer-controlled all wheel steering system, rear assisted steering HICAS,this system came into use when the GT-R exceeded 80 km/h or the wheels were detected to be travelling at over this. Therefore allowing quicker more responsive entry into corners.

Nissan published figures quoted 150 Kw, The lower figures were purely to adhere to the gentleman's agreement between the Japanese car manufacturers, stating that any released would not exceed 206 kW of power output.

Skyline racing

The GT-R's was a force to be reckoned with, it made its mark at the annual race held at Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst, 3 years running was a GT-R was on the winning stand (even with additional weight penalties for its extreme and unbeatable performance), alos in the Japanese GT series still performing to this day.

Whereever the GT-R raced there was major issues starting in 1990 Macau Grand Prix Guia a Macau touring car race, Nissan backed the R32 GT-R driven by Masahiro Hasemi , the car led the race all the way to the finish, this caused a flood of protests by European entrants. The next year, the GT-R was ordered to carry additional weight as a penalty 140 kg, a fair weight to any car, this reserved a frustrating fourth place behind the top 3 DTM BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evo II. The GT-R's continued success racing on Mount Panorama in 1991 & 1992, Jim Richards, led to changes in formula racing regulations, the exclusion of turbocharged and four-wheel-drive cars in the years following. This led indirectly to it being included in the Super Touring Car category in the JTCC and the subsequently in the JGTC grand touring car series in Japan, in this GT-Rs only race using rear-wheel drive and still win.

In the UK Andy from Middlehurst Motor sport a well renown Skyline GT-R dealer based in Cheshire, took the Nissan GT-R (R32) to 2 championship wins - National Saloon Car Cup - 1993 Spanish Touring Car Championship.

Future concepts

The Nissan GT-R lies in tatters as far as the aggresive style. The latest version is a radical step from the original Skyline formula. The "Skyline" nameplate for the first time will not share the same body style as the sedan range. The evolutionary, incremental changes between models R32 through R34 has been done away with, for a much more rounded design.

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