Godzilla is back!!

Early nineties was a great time. Disco was dead. Rock was at its peak and super cars were being made in their dozens. Every manufacturer worth it’s salt was building one. In middle of all this chaos Nissan resurrected the GT-R. Resurrected you asked? The famed R32 was not the first GT-R as people think. The Skyline name had been in use since the mid 60s. The GT-R was raced successfully during that period till 1973 when the moniker was laid to rest as a result of the Oil Crisis.

In 1989 Nissan brought back the famed GT-R and rest as they say is history. The R32 was raced for first time in the 1990 Japanese Group A series and it won all, yes all, the races that year. So impressive was the car that it was the champion three straight years and ultimately led to the disbanding of the series itself. Fosters maybe Australian for beer, but do you know what is Australian for Sportsmanship? It’s “Ban the car or the Holden’s will get their arse whupped, mate”.

So impressive was the car when launched in Australia that Wheels magazine named it the Godzilla. In Australian Group N it was the heaviest car in its class, and still gave competition nightmares. They tried to slow the car down by adding a ballast of 160 kg and reducing the boost pressure. But all was in vain. In the end they had to ban the car from the endurance racing in Australia.

All this prowess and the engine was a mere 2.6 liter straight six. It had twin turbo chargers and Nissan said that it produced 273 bhp in stock trim, although dyno tests showed it actually produced 300+. At the hands of a good tuner it was known to produce close to 1000 bhp. Trust the Japanese to put technology in everything they do. This car was so far ahead of its time that the technology used by Nissan in late 80s and early 90s is now being applied by competitors in their rally cars (read Subaru and Mitsubishi) 15 years after it was first implemented. The car could convert from a full rear wheel drive to a proper 50-50 all wheel drive. The torque split was controlled in real time by a computer. It also had four wheel steering. This mid eighties technology is still ‘high-tech’ today.

The R33 and R34 were only minor improvements over the R32. By the end of it’s life cycle Nissan had added a g-force meter into the electronic display, which showed how many g’s you were pulling in each turn. It also showed everything from boost pressure to water temperature and a lap timer. The R34 stopped production in 2002 and since then Nissan has been steadily working on the new GT-R. Although the Skyline name has been laid to rest. The target this time it seems is the Porsche Turbo. Both cars seem pretty similar on paper. 6 cylinders, 470+ bhp, all wheel drive. The initial reports suggest that the wait has been worthwhile. The Godzilla is well and truly back