History of the Nissan Skyline GTR

The history of the Nissan Skyline GTR stretches back to the mid-60s, when Prince automobile company merged with Nissan-Datsun in 1967. The earliest predecessor of the GTR, the S54 2000 GT-B, came second in its very first race in 1964 to the Porsche 904 GTS, to the delight of the home crowd, the Skyline was seen to overtake a Porsche 904GTS during the race. The legend of the GTR Skyline had begun. The abbreviation GTR stands for Gran Turismo Racer.

The next generation of the GTR, was the four-door PGC10 2000 GTR which had 33 victories in the one and a half years it raced, its run was ended by a Mazda Savanna RX-3 attempting its 50th consecutive win. The Skyline GTR took 1000 victories by the time it was discontinued in 1972. The last of the original GTRs was the KPGC110 2000GTR which used an unchanged S20 160hp (120 kW) inline-6 engine from the earlier 2000 GTR. This model was the only GTR that never participated in a major race. There is one purpose-built race car which now resides at Nissan’s storage unit for historical cars which is in Zama.

16 years after the KPGC110 Skyline GTR of 1973, the GTR version of the Skyline was back in the form of the eighth generation Skyline R32 in 1989. The GTR was the flagship of Nissan performance, it showcased lots of advanced technologies including there four-wheel drive system “ATTESA-ETS” and the Super-HICAS four-wheel steering.

GTR Skylines of the 1990s progressed from the R32 (1989) to the R33 (1995) through to the R34 (1999). Production of the Skyline GTR ceased in August 2002. The Nissan GTR, although it doesn’t carry the “Skyline” badge anymore, it still has its heritage in the Nissan Skyline GTR. There were two concept vehicles displayed at motor shows prior to the unveiling of the production car. The first concept was shown at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2001 to show what a 21st century GTR would look like. And at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan displayed a redesigned concept, saying that the production GTR would be 80-90% based on this concept. The production version of the Nissan GTR debuted at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show.