Nissan Skyline History

                                                                                  

The Skyline name originated from Japanese car manufacturer Prince Automobile. Prince Automotive company
started to build Skylines as a line of sedans. In 1966, Prince Automobile company merge with Nissan - Datsun.

The GT-R abbreviation stands for Gran Turismo Racer while the GT-B stands for Gran Turismo Berlinetta.
The Japanese chose to use English when naming the car as most cars made in Japan at that time used
American abbreviation to further enhance sales.

The earliest predecessor of the GT-R, the S54 2000 GT-B, came second in its first race in 1964 to the purpose-built
Porsche 904 GTS. The next development of the GT-R, the four-door PGC10 2000 GT-R, scored 33 victories
in the one and a half years it raced. The car took 1000 victories by the time it was discontinued in 1972.
The last of the original GT-Rs, the KPGC110 2000GT-R, used an unchanged S20 160HP Inline -6 engine from
the earlier 2000 GT-R and only sold 197 units due to the worldwide energy crisis. This model was the only GT-R
to never participate in a major race despite the sole purpose-built racecar which now resides in Nissan's storage
unit for historical cars in Zama.

 

The Skyline continued into the 1990s when it became popular largely because it remained rear wheel drive,
while most other manufacturers were focusing on front wheel drive cars. Throughout its lifetime, various special editions
containing additional performance-enhancing modifications, were released by Nissan and its performance division
Nismo (Nissan Motorsport).

Nissan Skyline ancestors was originally built and produced by the Prince Motor Company,
a japanese carmaker starting in 1957.  In 1957 the Skyline started as a ALSI series 1.