For all who’ve had a long obsession for anything with a badge that says GT-R, lets just say a lot of us are now able to understand the reasons for it and why such an obsession is capable of being rather overwhelming. And although Nissan has been around since 1933, it was the 1964 Japan Grand Prix meet at Suzuka for the GT-II race that put Nissan into the beating hearts of all, with the introduction of Shinichiro Sakurai’s (R.I.P. 2011) Skyline GT – the car that started the GT-R (Gran Turismo Racer) lineage.
The Skyline GT certainly had humble beginnings with its S60 2.0L straight-6, triple carburetted engine dishing out about 160bhp. But it wasn’t the performance of the GT (Gran Turismo) that was the attractive part, nor was its aesthetics.
It certainly wasn’t the handling characteristics either, having caught many off-guard (even the folks at Nissan) and it was even thumbed down by Yoshikazu Sunako (race car driver for the #39 Skyline GT in 1964) for being a horrible handling race car, which required it to be lengthened by 20cm and could only drift when they turned. However, after a few practice laps, they found themselves to be the fastest car at Suzuka with a timed lap of 2mins 47s.
However, all eyes turned to a late addition to the field with a German-made Porsche 904 Carrera GTS joining the fray, bringing along with it its fearsome reputation that obviously preceded itself; having the ability to reach a top speed of 250kmh – something that the Skyline GT couldn’t do.
Though the GT was not to emerge victorious against the Porsche, the GT however did manage to slip past it as the two approached a hairpin turn with Tetsu Ikuzawa at the helm, and managed to lead for a lap with the Porsche hard-pressed to return to the front – something that both thrilled and shocked the fans at Suzuka, and soon after – Japan!
The Porsche may have taken the race win, but it was a clean sweep of Skyline GTs from 2nd all the way down to 6th place. Sunako was in the No.2 spot, and it was because of this particular event that current Nissan Chief Operating Officer, Toshiyuki Shiga, said that he had decided his path in life at a merry young age of 9, where he planned to find his way into Nissan when he came of age.
The year 1964 wasn’t just about the day a Nissan Skyline GT overtook and subsequently led a Porsche at Suzuka, but rather it became a trigger for many and an achievement for the Japanese nation to pursue, sparking a feud that has progressed on from just being between Nissan (GT-R) and Porsche (911) to an unspoken rivalry between the Japanese and ‘zee’ Germans.
