Nissan, quality Japanese motor company with great styling well as far as the Skyline goes, The Skyline arguably the Japanese manufacturers best ever production road car, how ever it was not always this way read on.
GENERATION 1: 1957-1963
The Nissan Skyline started out as a coupe concept the thinking of Prince Motors in Japan. The idea was to design a car with similar looks to its competition across the globe. The first incarnation was the Series 1 it had 60 bhp and a rather sporty shape for the time, the series 2 had 70 bhp.
GENERATION 2 : 1963-1966
Soon after the E Series Skyline was released with a punchy 1.5 litre engine with 70 bhp it was racing. This commenced in 1964, many Japanese teams started to rank in local races. A little later the Nissan Skyline 2000 GT was introduced.
The GT was designed to be in direct competition with Porsche, with its high compression pistons and close ratio 5 speed gear box and racing cams it was a serious contender on the circuit.
GENERATION 3: 1968-1972 C10
The car remained under Prince Motors development however was completely funded by Nissan who owned a large percentage of the company. The C10 was owned by Nissan.
In 1968, Nissan bought out Prince Motors. This was the time the 5 speed, 4 door model was released, in 1970 the 2 door was unleashed on the market, sporting a 108 bhp GT engine.
GENERATION 4: 1973-1977 C110
The C110 Skyline was a 1600 GT model running 110 bhp. The overall design C110 had very sleek lines and a much needed aggresive stance.
GENERATION 5: 1977-1981 C210
Initially the C110 was released sporting A GT-R badge, however this was removed due to its looks and lack of power. The C110 was fuel injected with a T -this denoted turbo. The oil crisis at the current time played a role in the lack of bhp in the Skyline range.
GENERATION 6: 1981-1985 R30
A re-branded Nissan Skyline was released the R3X known as the R30. It was typically a very boxy car much depicted from the 80’s when boxy was good. The model had a 1.6 litre fuel injected engine. Later R30 Skyline models had a greater engine running at 145 bhp, these cars then started to do very well on the track.
GENERATION 7: 1985-1989 R31
The next incarnation was the R31, sleeker lines and redesigned interior and a much sportier exterior. The RB engine was introduced from Skyline R31 onwards, with a straight 6 cylinder engine capable of creating 130 bhp / 160 bhp and even 180bhp the addition of a turbo and intercooler pushed the car to 190 bhp. The HICAS was formally introduced, HICAS basically gave the car 4 wheel assisted steering.
GENERATION 8: 1989-1994 R32
The Nissan Skyline R32 was the introduction of the Japanese Supercar, well known in today’s world. With an RB engine, HICAS system and aggressive looks, this car truly was a force to be reckoned with. The Nissan Skyline GT-S was released running a 150 bhp RB engine.
The release of the RB26 dett twin turbo pushed the Nissan Skylines total up to a staggering 280 bhp. The auto dominated all the races it entered throughout the world. No one wanted to race against the Jap Supercar, therefore its own class was introduced. It was around this time the Japanese government started to regulate bhp.
GENERATION 9:1995-1998 R33
A redesigned and heavier Nissan Skyline was developed, the GT-25-t capable of developing 250 bhp.
This in turn saw the release of Nissan flagship Supercar the Nissan Skyline GT-R with a broader torque range, vastly improving driveability. The release of Super HICAS and ATESSA – ETS spurred the release of the 1997 V-spec R33 GTR.
GENERATION 9 : 1995-1998 NISMO 400R
In 1996 The car companies tuner developed, the NISMO 400- GT-1 & GT-R LM spec model all capable of running at 305hp.
GENERATION 10: 1999-2002 R34
The Nissan Skyline GT-R has 280 bhp as standard. A 4-wd.inline 6, 2.6 l engine upgraded twin turbo, redefined suspension and chassis.
By: Hubert Sha
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