“In our I designed the chassis. And with the tremendous success we had over there on the racetrack, this car could not be beat!” Kozo Watanabe gets glowing eyes as he walked between the Nissan youngtimers around, which are on display at the Fuji Speedway.
Watanabe was many decades ago, developers at Nissan, hardly anyone knows the legendary Skyline model as well as he. The car started life as an unobtrusive Prince Skyline sedan in 1957. The manufacturer Prince was swallowed in 1966 by Nissan, the Skyline model name but kept the Japanese at.
went The birth of Nissan’s high-performance GT-R abbreviation In the 60s it only really going on with the Nippon bike. “The generation S50 I was involved as a young engineer in the chassis development. With the car we drove race. Our fiercest competitor was at that time with the Mazda rotary engine technology,” says Watanabe. One of the most famous skylines appeared in the third generation model (C10) from 1968. Yet constructed by Prince, as he ran off the line and Nissan was to have as a sedan or coupe.The top version with 2000 GT took a two-liter six-cylinder engine 120 hp on the road. In 1969 came the coronation: the 2000 GT-R only weighed 1.1 tons and sported 160 hp, dual overhead camshafts and a top speed of nearly 210th He also introduced the combination of letters that stands today at Nissan for maximum performance.
the throttle it was in 1973 but over – the oil crisis hit the Japanese auto market just like everyone else in the marrow. The Skyline GT-R but swallowed as much fuel that could be ordered as an option, a 100-gallon tank. It was initially offered this year for the last time a GT-R. However, there was the fifth generation of extremely edgy-designed car (C210) for the first time with a turbo engine. The turbocharged six-cylinder engine had 145 hp. The following generations stayed true to the angular lines of Skyline and had in each of the top engine turbocharger under the hood.
Until the 80s into the skyline was true in Japan and some other countries a hit in Germany, but largely unknown. That changed in 1989 with the eighth generation of the type R32. On this car Kozo Watanabe is especially proud because he was then the project manager for Nissan’s experimental vehicles. “We wanted to be number one, and it was clear: We must at the Nurburgring,” says the Japanese. Thus, the R32 was the first Skyline, which was developed almost on the ring. Watanabe remembers well the pitying looks of the Porsche and BMW developers: “They have not respected us but this has changed rapidly..”
The Type 32 and the successor R33 and R34 are still in the Japanese tuning scene and classic cars extremely popular, especially, of course as a GT-R. The number of special models and special editions of the Skyline generations is incalculable, not to mention the violent intervention of the tuning scene. No wonder that several GT-R to play in the “Fast and the Furious” films or screen legend Jackie Chan in the action flick “showdown with 1000 hp” a R32 chases around the curves.
2001 was followed by the V35 Skyline, the Nissan based on the 350 Z – in the eyes of many fans it was a sacrilege. That now no longer unusual rounded coupe was offered as GT-R, was only disappointed his supporters. In Germany, by the way the car is sold as an Infiniti G37. Since 2008, there is also another GT-R, but as a unique model – without roots Skyline
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- Press Inform, 14:12
© 2011 Financial Times Germany,
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