A high-performance model that will satisfy Skyline lovers

Nissan’s current Skyline has a new limited edition Skyline NISMO model with even better performance than the high-performance 400R model. It has “enough performance to awaken Skyline lovers”, which even convinced motoring journalist Jun Nishikawa, who said he had given up on the Skyline for a while.

A long association with the Skyline with its twists and turns

I love the Skyline. I’ve probably bought the most Skyline of all the cars in the automotive media industry. After all, since I started working I’ve driven everything from an R30 to a V36.

The first manual car I drove on public roads after getting my licence was a ‘Japan’. The first car I bought was a Celica XX, but my first new car was an R31. Then came the R30, R32 and so on after I came to this industry.

When the 34 became the 35, I, like many Skyline fans, was reluctant to switch, not because of the V6, but because it was not developed as a Skyline, but when the coupe came out I couldn’t resist. The ’35 is no Skyline!’ But I couldn’t resist when the coupe came out, because it was such a cool coupe that it blew away the “35 is not a Skyline”.

However, the Skyline is essentially a four-door car. The Hakosuka (the 3rd generation C10 Skyline that debuted in 1968) was the symbol of this: from the 35 to the 36, I bought the first ‘Hakoska’ = four-door Skyline in my life (partly because I had an R35 in the garage). Although the model was criticised in many ways, I liked it, including the design. I replaced the emblem with an Infiniti one and got a kick out of it.

When the V37 (current model) was introduced, Mr. Nakamura, the head of design at the time, said something like “This is a redefinition of the Hakosuka”. I didn’t think much of it, but I didn’t dislike the shape either.

In the end, though, I didn’t even consider the V37, partly because they didn’t offer a coupe in Japan. I thought it was time to move on. I wanted the Skyline name to continue, but it seemed like it wasn’t the Skyline I wanted anymore. I mean, it had the Infiniti badge on it from the start, you know?　I knew it was more Infiniti-driven than the previous generation, but …….

Nissan is not giving up on the Skyline

Since its debut in 2013, the V37 has had many other incidents. It started with just a hybrid V6, and a Mercedes-Benz engine. It also got a lot of attention for installing steer-by-wire and giving it away with ProPilot 2.0. But with each mention of such topics, my Skyline fever cooled even further. To be honest, there were times when I didn’t even want to test it.

Interestingly, since 2019, when it changed to the Nissan badge, the Skyline seems to have returned. Maybe it’s because the SUV style was at its height in the world and this kind of shape (three-box) sedan look itself was becoming rare. The Skyline crossover came too soon, but as a result, only sedans remained and the Hakosuka era had returned in two rounds!　And now Nissan’s only sedan (rusty).

Nissan is not giving up on the Skyline. SUV? or BEV? Amidst all kinds of speculation, Nissan unveils the 400R, a daring model that goes against the grain of today’s times. The naming was somewhat of a ‘waste’ (you’re using that word here!), but it had enough performance to awaken Skyline lovers.

And then there was Nismo, the star of the show, whose performance was even better than the 400R, leaving 400R owners in the dust, but that’s what the Skyline is all about! (It used to be worse.)