Gearheads love heritage and they typically love history, especially when it is tied into their favorite model of car. In the case of Nissan performance fans, no machine has loomed or will ever loom larger than the GT-R. Known by many names, “Godzilla” being one of them, it was a car that most North American enthusiasts could only dream to own until a few years ago when Nissan brought it to our shores, finally. Over the years the cars has evolved and changed but the idea of all-out performance has always been at the fore of the GT-R’s existence.
We love the first two generations of these cars from the styling perspective because you can see the influence of Detroit on their look. While the Japanese did not have “muscle cars” as we know them to be here, they certainly had performance cars and the first two generations of Skyline GT-R seem as if they could have come from the design studios of a domestic company just as easily as they could have been drawn up in Japan. The clean and crisp lines, the squared off nose of the first generation car, all hark back to what was happening in the USA 50 years ago.
The second generation car with its plunging rear roofline and trunk lid spoiler seems to have been inspired by the AMX a little, at least on the back half. And then seeing the evolution of how things changed and crew and swelled and progressed. The cars of the 1980s and 1990s bore little resemblance of the early models but things like the round tail lights remained homages to the ones that started it all.
This is a cool piece and we’re glad that Nissan is celebrating and recognizing 50 years of the awesome GT-R!
