Two years ago, I finally got to check a major item off of the bucket list: drive a Skyline. Ever since I first fired up Gran Turismo in the old Playstation and learned that a little Japanese car could kick around a Camaro Z28 all day long and twice on Sunday, I had to learn more. I had to know more about this Nissan, this car I could not identify, this car I had never seen. Between Colin McRae’s 555 Impreza rally car and the GT-R, I was diving into JDM territory never seen before. I liked what I saw. I liked the fact that the R32 basically showed up and started stomping everything in sight on any track it took on. It killed Group A Touring racing. It dropped jaws at Mount Panorama. It was a certifiable badass, the kind of car that doesn’t need the “…for a Japanese car” line to be added to “it’s fast.”
Then came the Fast and Furious movies. Suddenly everybody was an expert, everybody wanted four-digit horsepower, everyone knew that these cars were too fast and subsequently banned by the United States (wrong). Everybody knew that once the boost kicked in, shit would get real in a hurry. They knew quite a bit…and they didn’t know a damn thing. The car I drove had been modified, more than a little bit, but it still wasn’t peaky or have the on-off switch boost that went from “yawn” to “OH DEAR GOD” when pushed. It just built up and started shoving harder and harder gradually.
The R32 that Roadtrip Motorcars cut me loose with was wicked-up. But what about a stock R32? The factory said 276 horsepower to be on-par with the “gentlemen’s agreement”, but everybody knew that number was the biggest load of crap to come out of Japan. Truth be told, a stock Skyline GT-R of this era was pushing numbers closer to 320 horsepower at the time, plenty stout. Without aftermarket bodykits, the R32 looks….well, not sedate, but less cartoonish.
My test drive was too short, too sweet and certainly not the full-fat track session you were hoping for. But until the day someone trusts me that far, allow Mr. Regular to give you a bit more insight into the Japanese legend that doesn’t destroy Tokyo and turn everything into cinders:
