Not everyday do you get to play with 3 generations of Godzillas, and by Godzillas I mean the Nissan Skylines. For a change, we wanted to travel back in time and deterge ourselves from the plethora of tech-savvy vehicles that the recent years have been throwing at us.
So let’s get to it. We have all heard of the three letters that can end any car-related argument; GTR. However, even though the Skyline R32 was the one to really put the nickname “Godzilla” out there, the term was actually used in 1957 by Suginami, Japan. After the end of the Second World War, a firm called Tachikawa Aircraft dissolved and was renamed to Fuji Precision Industries. The company then went through numerous other name changes until the name, Prince Motor Company stuck.
Prince released the Prince Skyline, which was not the record-breaking monster that it is today. Instead, it was a luxury car that didn’t do very well. Prince Motor Company decided to release a sport version of it, which was embraced fairly well by the market. It was the beginning of a legend.
The first high performance Skyline was debuted in Tokyo Auto Show. Nissan made the mistake of trying a four-door version again as well, which failed miserably. They like to learn the hard way. Despite the second generation of the GTR not doing too well either due to the worldwide oil crisis, Nissan came back strong with the release of the R31, R32 and R33 Skyline GTRs. The R31 housed a rock-solid inline 6 engine. The R32 Nismo, the most demanded GTR till date was home to a twin-turbo 6-cylinder engine with an all-wheel drive system, hammering 280hp to the ground. This in its time was a breakthrough.
The release of the R34 followed, more innovative and powerful than ever. Have you ever wanted to buy a new phone or laptop but it misses on key feature important to you? Well unlike that, this GTR had all the right features in place for every car lover to fall eternally in love with it. The car came with a twin-turbo, inline-6 engine and an all-wheel-drive in order to put the power to the ground. The best part was, it was a great platform to throw in more horsepower without having to blow the engine. This, and the GTR appearing in multiple movies such as Fast & Furious, had every fan boy in the world throwing the word “RB26” in any best-engine argument they could find.
All in all, the car has always been in the limelight of the JDM scene. Nissan has been careful with the GTR brand, especially since it is one of the few cars that has been doing well since inception. We all know that the Skyline R35 is a beast in many ways. We can only hope that the future Skylines are just as good, especially since Toyota is coming up with the new Supra.
- Article by Kashif Bhaor
- Photography by Mohammed K. Yusuf
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