H: From Hakosuka to Godzilla
The Wild Ride of Nissan's First Supercar, the Skyline GT-R

You know how some cars just have that it factor? Well, the Nissan Skyline GT-R? It's got it by the truckload, and then some. We ain't talkin' about some fancy schmancy ride that just looked good in a movie. Nope. This is a story soaked in pure racing fuel, a genuine supercar pedigree that started way back. Forget Ayrton Senna and the NSX, or even Bond's sweet Toyota 2000GT – if your definition of a supercar demands actual racetrack dominance, then Japan's first undisputed champion is the Nissan Skyline GT-R. These machines weren't built for Sunday drives; they were born to conquer the track, plain and simple. And the results? Insane! The OG GT-R didn't just win its first race – it went on a rampage of 49 straight victories! Forty-nine! The only thing that stopped it was, well, eventually getting beaten.

But the story doesn't end there. From those early beasts to the resurrected legends of '89, the race-prepped GT-Rs didn't just edge out the competition; they straight-up demoralized them. We're talking about wins measured in laps, not seconds. Competitors cried foul, demanding rule changes or outright bans. Sometimes, they just threw in the towel and left the series entirely. But the GT-R's more than just a track weapon. It's become the very definition of Japanese high performance – cutting-edge tech delivering mind-blowing results. And it's all in the name, dig it. "Skyline" represents the sedans born in a booming post-war Japan, reaching for the sky, just like the skyscrapers going up. And "GT-R"? Gran Turismo Racer. High-speed, long-distance domination, and flat-out racing. That Italian flair? No coincidence. Japan's always had an eye on the world, especially when it comes to cars. Back when the first GT-R was just a twinkle in an engineer's eye, Europe was the place to look for inspiration.

Our story kicks off not with Nissan, but with Prince Motor Company. Back in '64, the Skyline sedans, coupes, and wagons were still Prince creations, a company spun off from the aircraft manufacturer Tachikawa Aircraft Company (yeah, the same folks who built parts for the Mitsubishi Zero!). Post-war, Prince shifted from fighter planes to premium sedans, like the Gloria and the Skyline, starting in '52. By the '60s, racing was in their blood. In '64, they threw a bunch of Skyline 2000GTs into the Japan Grand Prix at Suzuka. While the base Skylines had 1.5 and 1.8-liter fours, the 2000GT was packing Prince's top-shelf tech: a 2.0-liter straight-six, triple-Weber-carbureted beast borrowed from the flagship Gloria, stuffed into a stretched nose.

Those Prince Skyline GTs were quick enough to snag pole position, but a sneaky privateer Porsche 904 stole the lead at the first corner. But then, a miracle! One Skyline muscled past the Porsche, leading for a glorious lap, sending the crowd into a frenzy. The Porsche eventually retook the lead and won, with Skylines grabbing second through sixth. But a legend was born that day. Seeing the mid-engine magic of the 904 firsthand, Prince engineers got to work on their own low-slung racer, the R380, and a special engine to power it.

Fast forward to '66, Prince merged with Nissan, bringing a serious injection of tech and premium style to Nissan's lineup of trucks and basic sedans. In '68, the first Nissan Skylines hit the market (Prince became a dealer network, but their engineers were the backbone of Nissan's performance division). Just like before, they had 1.5 and 1.8-liter four-cylinder options, but the top-dog Skyline 2000GT had a 109-horsepower, 2.0-liter inline-six. But that wasn't going to cut it for Nissan's racing ambitions. The competition had caught up. So, Nissan's engineers took the R380's engine as their starting point. The result was the S20 engine – a 2.0-liter six like the others, but with zero shared parts. It had trick lightweight aluminum pistons, a crossflow head with hemispherical combustion chambers, four valves per cylinder, and dual overhead cams. This S20 was a pure racer, capable of screaming past 10,000 rpm in competition trim!

The chassis was race-ready too. To create the first GT-R in '69 (the PGC10), Nissan took a four-door Skyline 2000GT, stripped out the fancy bits like the heater and radio (replaced by oil pressure and voltage gauges), and bolted on the good stuff: a fully transistorized ignition, a five-speed, a limited-slip diff, and high-speed tires. Like any proper supercar, it earned a nickname from its fans: "Hakosuka," a blend of Japanese for "box" (hako) and a Japanese take on "Skyline" (sukairain).

This Hakosuka performance came at a price – GT-Rs were significantly pricier than Nissan's most luxurious Cedric sedan at the time. But boy, was it worth it. In May '69, the racing GT-R snagged its first official win, and even though it was by judges' decision, there was no turning back. By November, it had ten straight victories. By May '70, the Hakosukas had 20 wins, and by September, the tally hit 30. With Toyota's 1600GT-5 and Mazda's rotary-powered R100 and RX-2 heating up the competition, Nissan switched gears in '71, unleashing a new, lighter, coupe-based GT-R, the KPGC10 hardtop.

Despite being the most produced of the early GT-Rs, the Hakosuka coupe is now considered the holy grail. It was even more hardcore than the four-door, ditching the rear doors and shortening the chassis for less weight and better handling. The bucket seats didn't recline, the ride height was lower, and a big rear wing improved aero. Those bolted-on rear overfenders became a signature Japanese styling cue that lives on today.

And the wins just kept piling up. The two-door GT-R continued the four-door's legacy, winning its first race in March '71, bringing the consecutive win streak to 40 by April. On October 29th, '71, a GT-R coupe took the Fuji Masters 250km race, hitting a mind-blowing 49 consecutive victories. But the streak ended there. Mechanical issues and a determined Mazda RX-3 in December finally broke the GT-R's dominance. Still, in May '72, the GT-R celebrated its 50th victory, just two years and ten months after its debut. This first GT-R, with its high-revving DOHC inline-six and race-bred chassis, set the stage for a dynasty.

Then came the '73 Skyline 2000GT-R (KPGC110), arriving in the fall of '72. With its long, sleek nose, hatchback profile, and those iconic round taillights, it became known as the "Kenmeri" Skyline, thanks to a popular ad campaign featuring a cool young couple named Ken and Mary. But the world had changed. The oil crisis hit hard, and suddenly, racing and high-performance cars took a backseat. Sadly, Nissan pulled the plug on their Skyline racing efforts in '73, and by spring, the Kenmeri GT-R was no more, with a mere 197 units sold. While it never got to prove its mettle on the track, the '73 GT-R definitely looked the part with its aggressive overfenders. Mechanically, it was very similar to the Hakosuka, as we discovered during a back-to-back drive. While they lack the raw speed of modern sports sedans, both showed off a lightness and agility that's rare today. It's interesting that the earlier Hakosuka felt smoother than the Kenmeri, likely due to the longer production run and more development. Driving these restored legends from Nissan's own collection, the Hakosuka's S20 engine purred at idle but roared with enthusiasm when you tickled the throttle. Rev-matched downshifts were pure joy, and the '60s-era controls had a certain charm. The thin-rimmed steering encouraged fingertip driving, offering surprising balance at speed, though the old bushings did make things a bit… lively in the corners. The Kenmeri, with its small greenhouse and non-reclining bucket seats, had a different vibe, more visually striking but perhaps not as refined in its driving dynamics.

After the last '73 GT-R was sold, there was a 16-year drought for enthusiasts. The '70s and '80s are often seen as a golden age for Japanese cars, but for GT-R fans, it was a dark period. The mainstream Kenmeri Skylines ended production in '77, replaced by more pedestrian models. The GT-R name was gone, though Nissan did offer something called the GT-EX in the early '80s, notable only for being the first Skyline with a turbocharger (a non-intercooled 2-liter six). The next generation Skyline in '81 had lost nearly all the character of the early cars, save for those signature round taillights. While reliable, these were blocky and bland, even the premium versions. Nissan tried a bit of marketing flair with a Paul Newman edition in '83, complete with his signature.

But Nissan was still racing, though it lacked the dominance of the Hakosuka era. They were competing globally in FIA Group A, against serious contenders like BMW, Ford, and Volvo. In '86, they took the first steps towards reviving the GT-R with the R31 series. While visually similar to the R30, the R31 packed tech upgrades like electronic engine management and Nissan's HICAS four-wheel steering. And like the original GT-R, the real magic was under the hood: the RB-series of inline-six engines. While not as purely race-bred as the S20, the RB engines were derived from earlier Skylines and specifically designed for turbocharging. The high-performance RB20DET had twin cams, four valves per cylinder, and an intercooler. All this tech culminated in the Skyline GTS-R, built for Group A homologation. It had a bigger turbo, a tubular exhaust manifold, a front-mounted intercooler, and other race-ready bits. While it made around 200 horsepower stock, racing versions reportedly doubled that. Only 800 were built, and they sold out fast, because even in stock form, the performance was unreal. The GTS-R embodied that early turbo car feel – you had to plan your moves to ride that wave of boost. It felt a bit disconnected but was still rewarding and surprisingly quick, with a smooth, futuristic whoosh from the engine. And it wasn't just fast; in '89, it won Japan's Touring Car championship, hinting at what was to come.

Then came '89 and the eighth-generation R32 Skyline GT-R. During development, Nissan created a testbed called GT-X to build a race car specifically for Group A rules. One rule had a displacement multiplier for turbocharged cars, so Nissan went with a turbocharged 2.4-liter to compete in the 4.0-liter class. This class allowed for wider tires, so Nissan made a bold move: adapting their ATTESA all-wheel-drive system (previously used on front-drive cars) for longitudinal engines and rear-drive platforms. The new system, ATTESA-ETS (Electronic Torque Split), could send anywhere from zero to 50 percent of the power to the front wheels – a production car first! But all that tech, along with Super-HICAS four-wheel steering and beefy brakes, added weight. The solution? Bump the engine displacement to 2.6 liters, which not only put them in a higher class but also allowed for even wider tires. And so, the legendary RB26DETT engine was born – 2.6 liters, twin-turbo, dual overhead cams, electronic fuel injection.

Knowing they had something special, Nissan headed to the Nürburgring to test its mettle. Some say they were also using the all-wheel-drive, twin-turbo Porsche 959 as a benchmark. Whatever the reason, before the R32, Japanese manufacturers didn't regularly test at the 'Ring. Behind the wheel, even today, the R32 GT-R feels surprisingly small and light compared to modern super GTs. Its AWD system shows its age with some understeer when pushed hard, but for a car from the early '90s, the grip and cornering speed are still astonishing. In many ways, the tech-heavy R32 GT-R was the opposite of the original lightweight, rear-drive Hakosuka. But in spirit, it was a true successor, born to win on the track. The racing R32 GT-R debuted in 1990 in the All-Japan Touring Car Championship and dominated, lapping the previous champion Ford Sierra Cosworth in a 1-2 finish. That first year, it won all six races, including another 1-2 at the InterTec finale, beating the previously dominant Ford Sierra RS500 by an incredible two laps! The R32 GT-R went on to absolute domination in JTCC, winning every race from 1990 to 1993. It also conquered Australia, winning the Australian Touring Car Championship and the Bathurst 1000 multiple times, even with weight penalties and boost restrictors. In '91, it even won the Spa 24 Hours, the first and only Japanese car to do so. The GT-R's racing dominance was so complete it effectively killed the JTCC and Group A racing in Japan. As a road car, the R32 GT-R was an instant hit, with nearly 44,000 sold. Its over-engineered engine became a tuner's dream. Its racing exploits and limited global availability only added to its legend. The R32 spawned the even more capable R33 and R34, but neither sold as well. In 2007, the R35 Nissan GT-R arrived, carrying the torch. Like the "Godzilla" nickname it earned, the R32 Skyline GT-R was a monster that devastated its competition. Many cars wear the "GT" badge, but ask any true car enthusiast – there's only one GT-R, and it's the very definition of a supercar.