nissan skyline

***Nissan Skyline***

The Nissan Skyline (?????? in Japanese) is a line of compact cars originally produced by the Japanese carmaker Prince Motor Company starting in 1957 and subsequently by Nissan after the two companies merged in 1966. It is currently available in either coup�, or sedan body styles, and are most commonly known by their round brake lights, with the station wagon bodystyle being dropped in 1989 with the introduction of the R32 platform.

Iterations R30 to R34 of the Skyline are still popular tuner cars for Japanese car enthusiasts from the 1980s to today, especially with available features such as straight-6 engines, turbochargers, and the high-performance GT-R trim. While not distributed in the United States, the Skyline's prominence in video games, movies and magazines resulted in many such cars being imported there from 1999 to late 2005, after Motorex petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to allow 1990�1999 GT-Rs and GTSs to be imported, at the condition that they were modified to meet United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

The 11th generation Skyline (V35) was a major turning point for the nameplate, as it dropped the Skyline's trademark characteristics such as the straight-6 engine and turbocharging, eventually separated the GT-R into its own line, and moved to V6-engined era, this decision which extended to all later Skylines. Nissan decided to position the Skyline for the luxury-sport market, while its platform-mate, the 350Z, revived the Z line of pure sports cars. The V35 was the first Skyline made for export to North America, being sold under Nissan's luxury marque Infiniti as the G35. The Skyline (V36/J50) is sold in Europe, North America, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Middle East as the Infiniti G37.

April 11, 2010 saw a world record for the biggest ever Nissan Skyline meet and the most ever officially recognized on a track in the Guinness Book of World Records. This took place at Silverstone, United Kingdom at the ISTS event.

ALSID-1:

The first Skyline was introduced in April 1957,[6] by the Prince Motor Company, and was marketed as a luxury car. It featured a 1.5 L (1482 cc) GA-30 engine producing 44 kW (60 hp) @ 4400 rpm. It used a de Dion tube rear suspension and was capable of 140 km/h (87 mph). The car weighed around 1300 kg. Prince Skylines were produced as four door sedans and five door station wagons.
The Skyline also spawned a pickup truck and a delivery van called the Prince Skyway.

ALSID-2:

The Skyline was updated with quad headlights for 1958.
This model was powered by a slightly altered 1.5 L engine known as the GA-4 OHV (1484 cc) producing about 70 hp (52 kW) @ 4800 rpm and was produced through 1961.
In 1962, this model was restyled as the S21D/S series.

BLRA-3:

The Skyline Sport featured hand-built Michelotti bodies in stylish coupe and convertible versions. These cars used the 1.9 L (1862 cc/113 in�) GB-30 engine, producing 96 hp (72 kW) and 113.5 ft�lbf (154 N m). While only a few hundred were built, Prince Motors had a very aggressive product placement group and they can be seen (along the company's mainstream models) in many Toho films of the early 1960s.

S50:

In 1961 Fuji Precision Industries changed its name to Prince after the 1954 merger, and the S50 series was launched, which like its predecessor, came in sedan and wagon bodystyles. This was the second generation car, and became one of the more desirable cars in Japan. It was powered by the G-1 engine,[7] a 70 hp (52 kW) version of the old GA-4. A 1862 cc engine was also available, delivering 91 hp (68 kW). The S50 series were available with a 3-speed column shift transmission or a 4-speed floor shift transmission, as well as a 4-door sedan (S50) or a 5-door wagon (W50).

Three models of the S50 were built: S50E (1962�1965), S50E-2 (1965�1966), and S50E-3 (1967). All three used the same engines.
The S50 was further developed with new styling for 1963, and was sold in some markets with an A150 designation. The S50 was also sold as the A190D, which was equipped with a diesel engine.
In 1966, Nissan and Prince merged and the S50 also appeared with Nissan Prince Skyline badging. This model lasted in production through 1967. In 1967, the S50E-3 was introduced. It was sold as Prince Skyline, Prince A150, PMC A150, or Nissan A150.

S54:

Prince created a racing GT Skyline in May 1964. It was based on the S54 and used the larger 6-cylinder G-7 engine from the Gloria S41, though the car needed an 8" extension to the wheelbase (all forward of the cowl/firewall) to provide space in the engine bay for the lankier in-line six. When it entered the 2nd Japanese Grand prix they hoped to win the GT-II class. Competitive against the Porsche 904, the Skyline managed 2nd through to 6th places.

Largely due to the success of the race vehicle, the Prince Skyline 2000GT (also called GT-A, GT-B, S54A and S54B) was released to the Japanese market. There were two versions produced:

• S54A � 1988 cc G-7 single-carb I6, 105 hp (78 kW)

• S54B � 1988 cc G-7 triple-carb I6, 125 hp (94 kW)

S57:

The S50 Skyline was updated to become the S57 in 1967. It used a Prince's new engine (designed before the merger with Nissan), the OHC 1.5 L (1487 cc) G15. At 88 hp (66 kW), it was the most-powerful engine in the Japanese 1500 cc class.