Over the past decades Nissan has been one of the names dominating the list of the leading automobile manufacturers. They have shown with their variants of models of vehicles how one should and can bring in the vehicles that reign supreme over time. One of their monstrous creations is the Nissan skyline GT-R series. This iconic saga of GT-R has remained unbeatable and unforgettable in the history of professional and illegal racing in general.
The generations of Skyline GT-R
Nissan dropped in with their very first Skyline GT-R in 1970s. That first generation and second generation speedy demons had already gained awe-inspiring reputation in the Japanese touring race events. For some reason Nissan decided not to continue with their Skyline series production. Out of surprise, they again dropped in the third generation skyline GT-R names R32 in 1989. No one knows what they had been planning since the first generation that they came in with such jaw dropping high spec sports car that was unreachable and unbelievably fast!
Nissan R32
R32 dominated Japanese Touring Car Championship and as well as Australian Touring Car Championship from its birth year until 1992. This bad boy was so unreachable in those race events that it gained itself the name of ‘Godzilla’.
The name was first coined by the Australian Wheels magazine. The Skyline GT-R became the hotshot icon for Nissan. They managed to show off their mighty advanced technology that was way ahead of their time in an incredible way. Some of the crucial features were ATTESA E-TS which is a fancy name for four-wheel drive and Super-HICAS system. Super-HICAS is a Nissan’s rear-wheel steering system found in their sports car like Skyline and 350z. The R32 remained in production until 1994.
Their further generations differ from the second generation onwards as they got updated and received much more upgraded functions and performance than the previous ones. The fourth generation street dictator, R33 was launched in 1995 and remained in production until 1998. The engine of R33 was closely identical to the R32 with the same turbochargers and the same spec for the manual gearbox. Yet, what differed was the syncros which were way stronger than the R32. There were also such upgrades as the fix of the weakness R32 had in their engine was, oil pump drive collar. This drive collar often used to fail under high power acceleration. R33 GT-R also came in with a V-spec version, Victory specification, that was over the top GT-R series that was equipped with mad power to get you the trophy.
Nissan R33
In 1997 Nissan’s customization division Autech launched a four door GT-R series as sort of like a tribute to the Skyline saga. Nissan tested out the R33 before releasing it out for sale at the Nurburgring Nordschleife racing track with a professional racing driver, who set the lap record of 7:59:887 minutes. That became the very first production vehicle that broke the record of the 8-minute mark. This record was broken by the king of all GT-R series the legendary Skyline GT-R R34 in 1999.
Nissan’s GT-R series also developed sports cars to race GT1 class racing for the BPR racing series. They developed the R33 LM racing monster on top of R33 GT-R series. The car was significantly lowered to maximise the downforce. This bad guy was highly equipped with N1 specification engine. This made this beast to produce power throttle of 400 hp with 6 speed sequential manual transmission.
This system was developed by the Xtrac. This one dropped into the 1995 season of LeMans but unfortunately his rivalry was a way too strong. There were tough battle axes like Ferrari F40 LM, Porsche 911 GT1, McLaren F1 GT-R which was nearly impossible to beat. Nissan withdrew from the race in 1996 season.