On January 17, 2011 in the quiet Tokyo suburb of Setagaya, Shinichiro Sakurai, the father of the Nissan Skyline, passed away due to heart failure at the age of 81. Every major newspaper and reporting agency in Japan ran a story about the man’s life. Otherwise gruff auto enthusiasts wept openly. This outpouring of emotion and respect for a simple engineer is proof that Sakurai’s creation not only had an immense impact on the motoring community, but the average Japanese citizen too.
