 |
Today we know the Skyline as a high-tech coupe and one of the most capable cars on the road, but its ancestors go right back to the late '50s and the Prince company, which built some fairly bland saloons of little merit badged as Skylines. In 1963, Nissan merged with Prince and, by the end of the decade, the company was offering a muscular-looking, two-door hardtop called the Skyline GT-R. Though only a 2.0-litre, its twin-cam, six-cylinder engine produced 160 bhp at 7000 rpm and Nissan claimed a top speed of 124 mph. Nobody seems to know what it drove like but, with its black wheel-arch extensions and big wing mirrors, it looked tough. The chassis showed signs of sophistication, too, with independent suspension at the rear.
Datsun imported the Skyline to Britain for a while in the mid '70s, but with rather more prosaic bodywork: if the '60s GT-R looked set for a blast round a circuit, the '70s model looked more suited to a trip to the golf club. That said, it was a decent enough car, with fuel injection, power steering and discs all round. Some even mentioned it in the same breath as BMW. It's now almost extinct.
|
