The Nissan Skyline GT-R is an iconic Japanese sports coupé in the Nissan Skyline range. The Skyline name originated with the Prince automobile company which developed and sold the Skyline line of sedans before merging with Nissan-Datsun. The GT-R abbreviation stands for Gran Turismo Racer. The Japanese chose to use English as their first language 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 race car. The next development of the GT-R, the 4-door PGC10 2000 GT-R , later to be superseded by the 2-door KPGC10 version, scored 33 victories in the one and a half years it raced and by the time it attempted its 50th consecutive win, its run was ended by a Mazda Savanna RX-3. 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 160 hp (120 kW) 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 race despite only having one built which now resides in Nissan's former factory turned storage unit for historical cars in Zuma.
The Skyline model became popular largely because it remained rear wheel drive, while most other manufacturers' models were front wheel drive (which had certain complexities inherent in achieving high performance in power or handling when compared to a rear-wheel drive car).
The Nissan Skyline R range houses the RB engine. Generally, R32s have RB20's and R33's and R34's have RB25s. Some later model R32s came with a non turbo RB25.
The Nissan Skyline GTR is one of the most loved performance cars to come out of japan. When the R32 GTR came out in 1989 it was considered to be way ahead of it time with the powerfull RB26DETT.
