The Nissan Skyline is a compact car originally built by the Prince Motor Company in 1957 before it merged with Nissan 10 years later. The model was initially sold in various iterations such as coupe, sedan, station wagon, crossover, and even pickup body styles, although only the sedan version has been officially marketed since 2014.
It counts 13 generations so far, with the first two carrying the Prince Skyline moniker for a decade and the thirteenth being what we know as the Infiniti Q50 in the USA. That’s right; the R35 Nissan GT-R is not a Skyline.
By the time the third-generation Skyline appeared in 1968, Nissan engineers had come up with the first performance-oriented trim level for the range, giving birth to the Skyline GT-R. Nissan would subsequently discontinue this variant after the 1976 model year, bringing it back in 1988 on the eighth-generation Skyline with the R32 designation.
The Skyline GT-R of that era began its streak of straight wins at the Japanese Touring Car Championship (JTCC) from 1989 to 1983, ending the dominance of the Ford Cosworth RS at Australia’s Bathurst 1000 touring car race in 1991 and 1992. These feats earned the “Godzilla” sobriquet for the Nissan Skyline GT-R from the Australian automotive press.
