Nissan Skyline C10 (1968–1972)

A Prince design under a Nissan badge

The C10 was engineered by the former Prince team at the Ogikubo technical centre, but it reached showrooms in August 1968 wearing a Nissan badge. It was still sold through the Prince sales channel of Nissan dealers, which kept the Skyline's sporting image apart from the more mainstream Bluebird.

Compared with the S50 it replaced, the C10 was wider, lower and much more angular. Nissan's own heritage notes describe the crease running along the rear wing as the "Surfin' Line", a styling cue that later Skylines kept for years. Square headlamps in pairs replaced the round units of the Prince cars. Underneath, the C10 shared its platform with the new Laurel, which used a longer wheelbase.

The range started with a 1.5-litre saloon and estate. In October 1968 the 2000GT added a straight-six with an overhead camshaft and a front end stretched to make room for it. A 1.8-litre four and the "Ai no Skyline" ("Skyline of love") advertising campaign followed in 1969. The two-door hardtop, on a wheelbase 70 mm (2.8 in) shorter than the saloon, joined in October 1970.

The complete Nissan Skyline overview places the C10 in the 13-generation line, between the Prince-built S50 and the C110.

Body styles and chassis layout

Three bodies were offered: a four-door saloon, a five-door estate and van (previously sold under the Prince Skyway name) and the two-door hardtop coupé. Gearboxes were three-, four- or five-speed manuals and, from 1970, a three-speed automatic on the 2000GT.

Front suspension used MacPherson struts. At the rear, the six-cylinder GT models had independent semi-trailing arms; German Wikipedia states that the basic four-cylinder cars kept a rigid axle. Nissan's specification sheets for the 2000GT, GT-X and GT-R list front discs and rear drums.

Engines from G15 to the S20 twin-cam

The C10 combined a Prince-designed four-cylinder family with Nissan's L-series six. The table shows the main Japanese-market engines; outputs are the rated figures in kW, followed by the metric PS figure used in Japan.

Wikipedia also lists a 2.4-litre L24 2400GT for left-hand-drive export markets, sold as a four-door only.

The S20 is the heart of the C10 legend. Prince engineers derived it from the GR8 engine of the R380 sports-prototype racer, keeping the 82 mm bore and shortening the stroke slightly to 62.8 mm so that the capacity stayed under 2.0 litres. It has four valves per cylinder, two chain-driven camshafts and three twin-choke Mikuni-Solex carburettors. It is described as the first mass-produced Japanese engine with more than two valves per cylinder. The same unit went into the Fairlady Z432, the rare twin-cam version of the Nissan Fairlady Z.

PGC10 and KPGC10: two bodies of the 2000GT-R

The GT-R was first shown at the October 1968 Tokyo Motor Show and went on sale as the four-door PGC10 on 4 February 1969. Nissan's heritage description calls it a car that put racing know-how from the R380 into an ordinary-looking saloon. It had a five-speed manual gearbox and a limited-slip differential, and the interior was stripped of comfort items in favour of bucket seats.

In October 1970 the GT-R moved to the hardtop body as the KPGC10. Nissan says the shorter car was more than 20 kg (44 lb) lighter than the saloon and carried a 100-litre (26.4 US gal) fuel tank and non-reclining bucket seats. Black glass-fibre extensions over the rear wheel arches made room for wider tyres on the race cars and became the hardtop's visual signature.

Production figures do not agree. The English Wikipedia S20 article gives 832 PGC10 and 1,197 KPGC10 cars, a total of 2,029, while German Wikipedia states 1,945. "About 2,000" is the safe figure.

The racing record

The GT-R won on its debut at the JAF Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway on 3 May 1969, three months after launch. Wikipedia credits the PGC10 with 33 wins in under two years and the GT-R with 49 consecutive victories on Japanese circuits. That streak ended on 10 October 1971, when a Mazda Savanna RX-3 beat it. The 50th win came on 20 March 1972, and Nissan puts the final tally at 52 when the works team withdrew in October 1972. Wikipedia names the Toyota 1600GT, Isuzu Bellett GT-R and Mazda's rotary Capella among its other domestic rivals.

C10 dimensions in numbers

The table compares the two GT-R bodies with a six-cylinder 2000GT saloon, using Nissan Heritage Collection data.

Brakes, belts and period safety

The C10 was designed long before formal crash testing, so there is no crash-test score to quote for it. Its safety story is the hardware of the day. Six-cylinder versions had front disc brakes and independent rear suspension, a real advance over the leaf-sprung Prince cars, and the GT-R used the same disc-and-drum layout as the 2000GT. Anyone using a C10 on modern roads should budget for brake and steering components to be checked and, where the car allows, for proper seat belts.

Which C10 to look for today

Values follow the chassis code more than the badge, so the first job is to read the plate.

• 2000GT-R (PGC10, KPGC10): the collector's car. Because a GC10 or KGC10 2000GT shares the body, check that the chassis plate reads PGC10 or KPGC10 and that the engine is a genuine S20.
• 2000GT-X (KGC10, from 1971): the twin-carburettor L20 hardtop with 96 kW (130 PS), the strongest non-GT-R C10.
• 2000GT (GC10, KGC10): the core six-cylinder model and the most common base for period-style restorations.
• 1500 and 1800: lighter four-cylinder cars, simpler to run, but worth less and, according to German Wikipedia, mostly without the independent rear end.

For the wider context of Japanese cars and the Prince merger, see the history of Nissan Motor Company and the Nissan catalogue.