started as a luxury sedan and ended as godzilla.it wasn't available to most of us for decades, but it's an icon around the world. an evergreenstar of video games and movies, nissan skyline is the quint essence of forbidden fruit. in the late 90's japanese import culture exploded and suddenly posters of jdm cars covered american teenagers walls: supras rx7's 300zx's 3000gt's mr2's
s13's s14's integra's eclipse's civic's but for many, one car stuck out twin turbo, all-wheel-drive, it looked like a buff maxima, and we weren't allowed to have it. this is everything you need to know aboutthe nissan skyline in less than 10 minutes. first things first, the nissan skyline wasn'talways a nissan it was a prince.
what is a prince you ask? well in the years followingworld war 2 prince motor company was mostly known for making electric cars, but in 1952they moved away from electric and they asked engineer shinichiro sakurai, the godfatherof the skyline, to create a luxury car to rival the european and american brands ofthe day. over the next decade the skyline would undergo a number of iterations, so wouldthe prince company. 1966, prince was acquired by nissan, all of a sudden skyline was a nissan. fun fact, according to insiders the prince team operated almost completely independently within nissan 'til the r34 was phased out in 2002.
may live in your house nissan, butyou are not my real dad. you're not my dad! ugly a**... in 1969 shit got real, team lengthenthe nose of the skyline so they could fit the s20; this is a six-cylinder, 24 valve,twin-cam, triple two barrel side draft badass, that made 160 horsepower at 7000 rpm. theycalled it the skyline gran turismo racer or skyline gtr! it transformed the car over nightand immediately started embarrassing the americans and europeans on the touring car circuits.the gt-r was successful enough to warrant a second generation just three years later.nissan wanted to present the car as having
an exotic, american vibe. so they marketedit with a series of amazing commercials starring two american lovers named ken and mary. ken mary ken - mary mary-ken american huh! from then on the second generation gtr was known as the kenmery.
now this car is a legend and its bad as f@$!, but unfortunately bad as f@$! cars from the 70's ate a lot of gas and the gas crisis happened right after the car was introduced. that made the gtrbadge disappear for about a decade. the gtr may have been dead but the skyline soldieredon with the r30 generation. it's a good looking car, boxy. the r30 rs-x turbo was a mainstayof the super silhouette races of the 1980s. later, the r31 gts-r was purpose-built for group a racing and won a ton touring car championships in australia so not sweatingit.
as the eighties continued gas crisis disappeared, japanese economy recovered, nissan got moremoney, and they were finally able to focus on the gtr brand that they abandoned a decadeearlier. in 1989 the skyline r32 gtr debuted. it had a straight six, two turbos, all wheelsteering, and four wheel drive. this is the beginning of the skyline that most of youguys know. this is the beginning of godzilla. fun fact, although the r32 was listed as having289 horsepower, it really had closer to 320. this was part of a gentlemen's agreement betweenall the japanese oem to not brag about their horsepower. around the time that the r32 debuteddrifting started taking off and nissan had a skyline for that too. the gts-t was basicallythe same as the gtr, but it was rear wheel drive. which means it's good for skids aroundthe corners
linking it. the r32 kick of the 90's which is the golden era of skylines. the r33 and r34 only cemented the dominance of godzilla! the changes between this three generationsare minimal, they lightened up the front end, improved structural rigidity, moved the battery to theback, made the hicas electric, and improved aero and updated the cosmetics. this is theskyline we fell in love with. this is the car that made it a legend. this is the reasonfor brian o'conner/spilner. this is what many people picture when they hear gtr. during this time nissan made a number of low volume high-performance variance of the gtr.
nismo, nissan's racing divisions turned the r33 into the 400r. a 400 horsepower gtr. huh later the r34got the m-spec and v-spec nur editions. now it's the late nineties r32 r33 r34 have made the gtr a legend. people are importing them to the uk to australia
to new zealand, but if you live in the states you cant have one unless you're paul walker. "dude i almost had you." in 2001 nissan updated the skyline to the v35. no longer a straight six now it'sa v six, and hey we even got it in america as a naturally aspirated two wheel drive infiniti. "dumbass" sweet thanks. for now, the gtr was dead again. or was it?
in 2007 nissan announcedit wasn't dead and it was coming to america. and it was twin turboed and it was all wheeldrive and it's not a skyline. it's just the nissan gtr. looks kinda like a fat 350z. isit a skyline? is it a continuation of the legendary godzilla? let us know in the comments.if the there is other things that you think people should know. let us know. if you likethis format let us know what you want us to cover if you hate my face, let me know. if you want me to die, please tell me how. please subscribe, comment, and share.
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