Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-R

Skyline 2000 GT-R at a glance

Every Skyline GT-R generation

Where two production figures are given, Wikipedia EN and Wikipedia JA disagree. Each Skyline generation, including the versions without a GT-R, has its own page: the Hakosuka C10, the Kenmeri C110, the R32, the R33 and the R34.

Skyline GT-R timeline

The S20 engine: a racing unit for the road

The S20 was a 2.0-litre straight-six with a pair of overhead camshafts and 24 valves, developed from the GR8 engine of the Prince R380 sports-racing car. It replaced the single-cam G7 six, which was no longer competitive in touring-car racing. In the 2000 GT-R it produced 118 kW (160 PS) at 7,000 rpm and 176 Nm at 5,600 rpm; Wikipedia EN rounds the output to 119 kW. From October 1970 an unleaded version with a compression ratio lowered by 0.5 gave 114 kW (155 PS).

That output meant 59 kW per litre, a figure the RB26DETT of 1989 exceeded only with two turbochargers. A five-speed manual and a limited-slip differential sent the power to the rear axle. The C10 braked with front discs and rear drums, and its rear suspension used semi-trailing arms. Our power converter translates the PS ratings of the period into kW and horsepower.

The first 2000 GT-R: a saloon in 1969

The Skyline 2000 GT-R went on sale on 21 February 1969 as a four-door saloon with the code PGC10, priced at ¥1,500,000. Nissan built 832 saloons. The nickname Hakosuka joins "hako", Japanese for box, with "Suka" from Skyline, and describes the square body of the C10 generation.

The KPGC10 hardtop of 1970

On 5 October 1970 the two-door hardtop KPGC10 joined the range at ¥1,540,000. It outsold the saloon, with 1,197 cars built. Wikipedia EN gives 2,029 first-generation GT-Rs built from February 1969 to September 1972; Wikipedia JA lists 1,945. How Nissan grew from the DAT car to a group that included the Skyline is told in our history of Nissan.

The racing record of the first GT-R

The 2000 GT-R was built for touring-car racing in Japan, and it won almost without a break. Nissan's own count, repeated by Wikipedia EN, is 49 consecutive wins followed by a 50th; the 50th overall victory came at the Fuji 300-mile race in March 1972. The magazine Racing On counts more strictly: 18 of these wins were class wins only, and a sixth place overall (second in class) at the Fuji 1000 km on 25 July 1971 ended the unbroken run at 46. Wikipedia EN names the Mazda Savanna RX-3 as the car that finally beat the GT-R.

A monument at Prince no Oka Park speaks of 50 consecutive wins, so even the official figures differ depending on whether class wins are counted.

Kenmeri KPGC110: 197 cars in 1973

The GT-R version of the next Skyline, the C110, was the KPGC110 coupé, which arrived in January 1973 at ¥1,630,000 in Tokyo with accessories. It kept the 1,989 cc S20 and added disc brakes at the rear, but the engine no longer met the tightening exhaust-emission rules. Production stopped in April 1973 after 197 cars, 195 of which were sold. The oil crisis of that year is the other reason usually given. The KPGC110 never raced in a major event; it also has a separate entry, Skyline 2000GT-R KPGC110, in our Nissan catalogue.

R32 GT-R: the return in 1989

Production of the BNR32 Skyline GT-R began on 21 August 1989, sixteen years after the Kenmeri. The new car had all-wheel drive with the ATTESA E-TS system, HICAS rear-wheel steering and the RB26DETT, a 2,568 cc straight-six with two turbochargers. Its official 206 kW (280 PS) at 6,800 rpm and 353 Nm reflected the voluntary limit agreed by Japanese manufacturers; tests found about 244 kW at the flywheel. The standard car weighed 1,430 kg.

Nissan chose 2.6 litres to fit the Group A class rules, and the racing engines produced 373 to 485 kW. From 1990 to 1993 the R32 won all 29 races it entered in Japan's touring-car championship (JTC), the Bathurst 1000 in 1991 and 1992, and the 1991 Spa 24 Hours. The Australian magazine Wheels called it "Godzilla" in July 1989. Nissan built 43,937 R32 GT-Rs, including 560 Nismo homologation cars of 1990, 1,396 V-spec and 1,306 V-spec II.

R33 and R34: the last Skyline GT-Rs

The BCNR33 of January 1995 had a longer wheelbase and weighed 1,540 kg, about 100 kg more than the R32, yet it lapped the Nordschleife faster: Dirk Schoysman went round the Nürburgring in 7:59.887, which Wikipedia describes as the first production-car lap under eight minutes. An R33 finished tenth overall at Le Mans in 1995. The rarest versions were the Nismo 400R with 298 kW (405 PS) and 470 Nm, of which 44 of a planned 100 were built, and the Autech four-door saloon of January 1998, 416 cars at ¥4,985,000.

The BNR34 followed in January 1999 with the same 206 kW rating. Its best-known versions were the V-spec (4,193 built), the V-spec II (1,855), the M-spec named after chief engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno (366) and the 2002 Nür editions with stronger turbochargers (718 V-spec II Nür and 285 M-spec Nür). General road tests gave 0–100 km/h in 4.4 seconds. After the last R34 left the line in November 2002, Nismo rebuilt used cars with less than 30,000 km into the Z-tune, with 368 kW (500 PS) and 540 Nm; the catalogue lists it as the R34 NISMO Skyline GT-R.

Skyline GT-R specifications by generation

From the first to the last Skyline GT-R the official output rose by 75 percent, from 118 to 206 kW, while the engine grew by 29 percent in capacity.

From Skyline GT-R to Nissan GT-R

Kazutoshi Mizuno, whose name the R34 M-spec carried, went on to lead the development of the R35. When it reached the showrooms in December 2007 it was no longer a Skyline: the Skyline itself had become a V6 saloon, and the GT-R was a model of its own with a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6. That car has its own page as the Nissan GT-R, and every Skyline, from the Prince era to today, is summarised in the Nissan Skyline overview.

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