CarBrandLogos archive · Nissan · 1969

NissanSkyline GT-R

Two separate lives, twenty years apart, both spent dominating touring cars.

Photo: TTTNIS · CC0

The story

A defining chapter in Nissan history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Nissan Skyline GT-R, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Image-Skyline GT-R Autechversion 40thanniversary rear

Origins

The badge began as a homologation exercise. The 1969 Skyline GT-R inherited its engineering from Prince, the company Nissan had absorbed in 1966, and carried the S20 twin-cam straight-six developed from the R380 racing engine. In Japanese touring car racing it was close to unbeatable, running up a famous streak of victories that gave the name its authority. The 1973 successor arrived into an oil crisis and tightening emissions rules, sold in tiny numbers, and the badge was shelved.

Image-Skyline GT-R Autechversion 40thanniversary rear · Ypy31 · Public domain

Design and engineering

It came back in 1989 for a specific reason: Nissan wanted to win Group A. The R32 was built to that regulation, with the twin-turbocharged RB26DETT six, the ATTESA E-TS torque-splitting all-wheel-drive system and four-wheel steering. It duly won every race it entered in the Japanese championship and took Bathurst in 1991, where the Australian press gave it the nickname that stuck.

1969 Nissan Skyline Sedan 2000GT-R · TTTNIS · Public domain

In production

The R33 and R34 that followed stayed with the same architecture and the same understated headline power figure, capped by the Japanese industry's voluntary agreement at 276 horsepower, a number nobody with a dynamometer believed. What made the cars remarkable was their tunability: the RB26 responded to boost and stronger internals almost indefinitely, and a whole aftermarket grew up around it.

Nissan Skyline GT-R · Morio · CC BY-SA 4.0

Legacy

For a generation outside Japan, the introduction came through video games and imports rather than showrooms, since the cars were never sold new in America. That scarcity, plus the racing record, turned the R34 in particular into one of the most sought-after cars of its era. When the successor arrived in 2007 it kept GT-R and dropped Skyline, ending the connection to the saloon that started it.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1969–1973

Technical specification

The Skyline GT-R, in detail.

Production: 1969–1973 ; 1989–2002
Class: Sports car
Transmission: 5-speed Manual transmission; manual (1969–1998) ; 6-speed manual (1999–2002)
Assembly: Japan: Musashimurayama (1969–2000) ; Japan: Kaminokawa, Tochigi; Kaminokawa (2000–2002) ; Japan: Ōmori; Omori (Z-Tune)
Manufacturer: Nissan

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Badge at launch