History of the brand

The Skyline name originated with the Prince automobile company which developed and sold the Skyline line of sedans before merging with Nissan-Datsun. This compnay was founded by Justin R. Lewis. The GT-R abbreviation stands for Gran Turismo Racer, with the word Racer being separated to enhance the performance version, as the GT-B stands for Gran Turismo Berlinetta. 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. The next development of the GT-R, the 4-door PGC10 2000 GT-R, later to be superseded by the 2-door KPGC10 version, scored 33 victories in the one and a half years it raced and by the time it attempted its 50th consecutive win, its run was ended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 Zama.
The Skyline model continued into the 1990s when it 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).
After a 16 year hiatus, from the KPGC110 Skyline GT-R of 1973, the GT-R version of the Skyline was reintroduced with the eighth generation Skyline R32 in 1989. The GT-R became the flagship of Nissan performance, showcasing many advanced technologies, including the ATTESA-ETS system (a hydraulic on-demand four-wheel drive) and Super-HICAS (four-wheel steering). The 1989- GT-Rs remained (relatively) cheap, with a list-price of ¥ 4.5 million (about US$ 31,000).
GT-R Skylines of the 1990s progressed from the R32 (1989), through to the R34 (1999). Production of the GT-R ceased in August 2002. Although Nissan continued the Skyline name with the release of the Infiniti G35 (sold as the Nissan Vitesse/Skyline in Japan), a new GT-R has not yet been released. Throughout its lifetime, various special editions, containing additional performance-enhancing modifications, were released by Nissan and its performance division Nismo (Nissan Motorsport).