In the mid 80’s Nissan was struggling and the R31 Skyline was also proving to be a lackluster offering in the market. To deal with this, Nissan’s management decided to change the game by signing off the successor of the R31 in the form of the R32 Skyline that was to be designed with the racing spec GT-R model from the onset, giving birth to what is now known in the history books as the Nissan R32 Skyline GTR. And it was unveiled to the world in 1989 and it was created with only one thing in mind, to dominate Group A Racing. The car was powered by a race spec 2.6 Liter Straight-Six engine that produced a mad 600bhp, this 2.6 Liter engine meant that the Nissan R32 Skyline GTR could be admitted into the class with a minimum weight of 1260Kg. Understanding that they have a monster of an engine in a comparatively lighter car, the engineers at Nissan knew that just going around with a rear wheel drive setup would not help in achieving their targets, so they developed an innovative race spec all-wheel drive system which they called, ATTESSA E-TS. This system was very much similar to the one on the Porsche 959 used an electro-hydraulic clutch to split torque between the front and the rear, however, on the Nissan R32 Skyline GTR, this system helped the car to remain rear wheel drive until the rear wheels lost traction as against the Porsche’s system that split torque based on the car’s weight distribution on the move.
This innovative and highly complex all-wheel drive system meant that the Nissan R32 Skyline GTR system kept the car fully rear wheel drive at corner exit to preserve maximum grip of the front tires. This gave the Nissan R32 Skyline GTR incredible agility out there on the track and when the car hit the race tracks, people sat watching in awe how the car kept breaking the records at will and kept rewriting history wherever it went racing.
The Nissan R32 Skyline GTR had a string of race victories and it showed its strength by winning all 29 races of the Japanese Touring Car Championship from 29 race starts the car entered, it also took victory at the 1991 Spa 24 Hour race. Today a mint loved un-abused unit can be yours for just below RM125,000 and an abused modified unit for between RM55-75,000. We prefer to pay more and get the un-abused unit. (pictured below is the original Skyline…..which is very rare and very expensive)
