Nissan has always struck me as something of a peculiar company. There are excellent cars like the 510, the 240Z, and yes, those early Skylines. Then there are the dull cars, the boring cars, the ones that get you from A to B in perhaps reasonable comfort, but seem to have no soul. Then they get it ‘right’ again, and then they retreat.
Last time we dipped into Skyline history, we looked at those heady years from 1963 to 1977. These were the ones that really made the model’s history and gave it something of an iconic following in Japan and elsewhere. The long-nose S54s, the first S20-powered GTR. But now we come to the lean years, the dull years, the years when Skyline was treated as just another model in a range becoming bewilderingly complex. The years when Skyline almost lost its way, in danger of becoming just another mid-sized Nissan.
Like last time, we’ll be considering three distinct model generations. Funny how Skylines seem to group themselves in threes. Now I know there’ll be fans out there who’ll be spluttering with incoherent rage, saying “How could you call these dull? What about the Tekkamen? And the mighty FJ20? And the first of the RBs?” Yes, there were some great cars during this time, but compared to what had gone before, these were the lean years.
You can sort of gauge this by the range of offerings from the kit manufacturers. Compared to the eras before and after, these models aren’t well-served, and much of what is available seems to be forty-year-old tooling rehashed.
C210: 1977-81
After the ‘Kenmeri’, this generation was known as the Skyline ‘Japan’. The C210 was basically a reskin of the C110. Out went the thick Mt. Fuji-shaped pillars, the funky curves, and in came straight lines with something of a wedgy profile, until the bottom of the rear window when it all went downhill. Literally. Nissan’s approach was not to use a high tail like an Alfa Giulietta, or even to run it straight back like a P76, but to let the tail kind of slope down and dwindle away apologetically to an average kind of trunk lid height. Did they hope you weren’t going to study the car in profile? It could have been worse; its platform-mate C230 Laurel was. The rear quarter ‘surf line’ became just a curiously-angled plane which gave rather a strange highlight. All rather peculiar. But in case you were wondering, it was still Shinichiro Saikurai wielding the crayons, same as he had since the S54 which began this.
This model was sold in Australia as the Skyline, not 240K, ending the alphanumeric model names here. Unusually for Australia, we got both the sedan and the coupe. At the time I was working with a guy who had a Skyline coupe, the only one of this generation I’ve seen here.
There was definitely no GTR, though you could get a 2000GT-EX. Top engine for these in Japan was a 2-litre turbo six good for 143hp; you may recall the good old twin-cam Prince S20 was good for 160hp, but that was a detuned sixties race engine. In Australia, we got the L24E with allegedly 127hp. While it ran beautifully smoothly, in Australian early-emissions tune it had a huge flat spot and consistently stalled off idle. According to the dealer, “They all do that”. Yeah, right, no comfort for hill starts in Ballarat – ask me how I know! Uncle Ted didn’t keep this for long.
A mid-model facelift brought the obligatory aero headlights and plainer grille. Like almost every other early eighties car, really.
R30: 1981-85
With this model, Nissan seemed to have got all the funky styling genes out of its system. The waistline dropped down at the A-pillar and then ran straight through to the tail, making for a much more coherent look. The headlights swept back a bit to the body sides. And the surf line which had been with Skylines since the beginning, went AWOL. A nice, inoffensively-styled sedan or coupe. Or wagon. Or even a 5-door hatch, should you want one.
But there was nothing about it that said ‘Skyline’. Except perhaps the four round taillights, but not all variants had those.
This generation had an incredibly wide variety of engines, from the Z-, CA-or FJ-series fours to four different L-series sixes, plus diesels with either four or six cylinders. They seemed to be trying to build a Skyline for everybody. That FJ-series was developed with competition in mind. A sixteen-valve twin cam injected four, good for 190hp with a turbo – way more than was available from any six on offer. The hottest Skyline – with a four? That didn’t seem right.
But it worked!
The usual mid-cycle facelift was barely detectable, except on the top coupes, which adopted slimmer headlamps and grille for this face, nicknamed Tekkamen (‘Iron Mask’). This is an old Fujimi kit from the eighties, with later paint; better ones are available now. I just haven’t bought one.
R31: 1985-89
Ugh. My least-favourite Skyline. There, I’ve said it; full disclosure. Larger and squarer at a time when global styling was going curvier, it seemed like Nissan was going out on a styling limb again, almost as though they were trying to out-box Volvo. Grandpa’s car. It seemed like they couldn’t win. But hang on a moment, look past that oh-so-passe styling…
Nissan’s L-series six was really getting a bit past it. The VG-series V6 had been proven in countless other model lines since 1983, but Nissan proudly told us the Skyline name was identified with a straight six. So when the R31 series broke cover in 1985, it also brought a new straight six.
And what an engine! In single cam 12 valve and twin cam 24 valve form, it was a thorough overhaul of the old L-series which dated back to 1966. In a mad but inspired bit of component-sharing, Holden offered it in the Commodore in single-cam 3 litre 155hp and 3 litre turbo (205hp) form. The Atmo 3 litre RB30 appeared in Aussie Skylines; the turbo remained a Holden exclusive.
The RB30 never did get the DOHC 24 valve head as a production engine – though of course it’s been done – but Nissan Australia did get 190hp out of it for the Skyline GTS2, nearly as much as Holden’s turbo job.
Only sedans and wagons for Australia, though Japan got their usual coupe and this surprise four door hardtop;
But the best was yet to come.
In Part 3 we’ll meet Godzilla! Next time…
Very well-presented builds Peter. Especially impressive, that you can show off multiple generations of a specific car. Authentic colours as always. Love the soft shadows on the metallic teal example. Adds realism, and a touch of marketing appeal.
Thanks Daniel, I thought you’d like the colour on that one. Funny story about those shadows. That photo was shot on the workbench in my shed, and the shadows are from the mesh under the laserlite roof section. It does add a curious effect, more so when the sun’s directly overhead. A happy accident.
I’m working on Part 3 at the moment, and wrestling with the challenge of too much material.
Nice work Peter. That image has a strong ’90s look and feel. Soft lighting and diffused shadows were extremely popular in that era’s marketing. And car ads were no exception.
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I really enjoy these posts. Thanks again, sir.
Thank you for the encouragement.
Love seeing this on-going gallery of fruit that was forbidden here in the U.S.
Thanks Jeff. It’s fascinating to think what was sold where and what wasn’t. Sometimes Nissan’s marketing decisions just seemed, well, let’s say inscrutable, and leave it there. You’d think the Skyline, or it’s platform-mate Laurel, would have been a natural for Nissan to sell wherever Toyota sold the Cressida; but no, they sent you guys the Maxima instead, which was originally a Bluebird variant. Must have been a reason…..
Next time we look at the ones that were forbidden here too.
The US Maxima had the six so it was viewed as a definite Cressida competitor through at least the later-80s, just as the Sentra competed against the Corolla. When the Maxima went FWD for 1985 that seemed alright too as it was the “future” and it stayed just as boxy as the Cressida through most of the 80s and was offered in sedan as well as wagon form, again just like the Cressida (no “pillared” hardtop version here for either). I’d say that most buyers looking at one car would also have shopped the other.
Then the Maxima really played up it’s “Four Door Sports Car” angle (which worked) and the first jellybean-ish Maxima was a big success (with 4DSC stickers in the rear windows) right as the Cressida was starting to wane and Lexus/Infiniti were in the wings. Maxima did well for one more generation but lost some of its luster and then once the smaller Altima got embiggened and was available with a six as well, that sort of relegated the Maxima to odd one out (but still present for an undefined reason).
The Skyline would have been interesting, but didn’t have an obvious competitor. I don’t know that Nissan had the chops to price it high enough for the top variants to compete against the upper echelon Euro-performers, and the cooking-class versions really didn’t have an audience here. Heck, pre-internet and PlayStation most people had never heard of a Skyline over here.
It’s still very much the odd man out in the Nissan lineup these days, but at least people know what it is, long on the vine that it may be now. Really it’s maybe vaguely analagous to Chevy’s Corvette, an undisputable high performance machine very different than 99.9% of the rest of the parent marque’s catalog even if there is/was a Z-car and performance Camaros etc, those two cars are pretty much on a separate level and could both be branded/sold without the parent company’s name on them. The parent company’s name is probably holding both of them back a bit for that matter.
It’s weird, Jim.
To western eyes, Nissan (and Toyota for that matter) seemed to have multiple overlapping ranges which I guess had their own distinct sales channels in Japan and perhaps nuances of market positioning totally lost to the rest of the world. Take Nissan ca. 1980: Bluebird four and long nose six (aka Maxima), Laurel ditto, Skyline ditto, Leopard (or was that six only?) – all on the same or ultra-closely related rear-drive chassis. The Bluebird and related Maxima went front-drive, but in the late eighties the Cefiro came out of nowhere and joined the other three. A Japanese friend showed me a photo of his car, and I had to ask him what it was – I saw the Nissan badge but the shape was totally unfamiliar. Turned out it was a Y33 Nissan Leopard from about ’98.
After the R31 Nissan shunted us over to the Maxima: nice try, but not really popular. Then when the Maxima didn’t really take off in Australia after two generations, the Maxima name was plonked on the (prettier) Teana – same platform, different body. But now all they sell here are utes or SUVs unless you want a Leaf or a Z.
The ’70’s and ’80’s Skylines were fairly impressive machines compared to GM/Ford-type medium cars, with the locally-made Oz R31 a particular standout (superb local seats, suspension tune), but the truth is Jim, that Nissan was right not to have the chops to price them against Euro stuff – good as they could be, they weren’t a patch on the solidity or on-road excellence of, say, a BMW 5.
Back in the day, a friend’s wife managed to get a 1985 (first year of gen 2) Maxima as a company car. She sold software!…so having a cool Asian car seemed to come with the territory. That was definitely still in the “4-door sports car” time for Nissan (“by Datsun”). I recall that it was quite a nice car even if it was more show than go. I was disappointed that it didn’t have the in-line 6, but then again it did have the helpful recorded voice that was constantly telling her that the door was a jar and that she had left the lights on.
That’s what we got instead of that new straight 6 in 1985.
I agree that this era of the Skyline was the nameplate’s trough, though my personal (dis)taste goes more towards the C210, which is a sumo-ified Renault 12 to my eyes – ugly *and* bloated, what a combo. Another victim of whatever the Nissan designers put in their coffee back in the ’70s, I guess.
It got a wee bit boring with the R30/R31, but that was a bit of a blessing, considering what came before. Still, there were stinkers. The R30 hatchback was an egregious faux pas – one that Nissan managed to recognize as such, fortunately, so it died without issue. The R31 hardtop is the highlight of the period IMO, and those are among the most popular classic Skylines in Japan nowadays, along with the R30/R31 coupés. They made wagons of all these too, but I think I’ve only ever seen one IRL (an R30, if memory serves).
Awesome post. That teal-colouored Iron Mask is particularly beautiful. The R32 is next, though. Can’t wait. More, more, more, Pete-san!
Ah Tatra-san, you will love the next installment then. I have more R32s than these three generations put together! They’re going to have to be their own post.
I’m glad I’m not the only one to have found these generations disappointing. Back in the day a friend replaced his Volvo 164 with an R31; to this day I’m not sure whether that says more about the Skyline or the Volvo. Uncle Ted’s C210 experience kind of put me off Nissan as a whole, and Allan’s R31, though nice enough I guess, wasn’t the kind of car that registered on my “Gotta-have” meter.
Sneak preview R32…
“sumo-ified Renault 12…” this would have to be the most appropriate description I’ve ever heard for these, thank you T87! Having said that, I find the R12’s quirky looks to be quite fun, and with the right wheels and in the right color, a C210 can also look good, like the red coupe you’ve made Peter. Well, not the wagon, I mean, it’s delightfully quirky, but rear 3/4 visibility must be beyond poos and ‘good’ would never be followed by ‘looking’.
I quite like the R30 too; yes they’re a tad bland, but the styling was certainly crisp and clean, and the enormous lettering on the rear doors was a great model identifier! A guy at my old church had an R30 diesel wagon right through the 90s, an improvement on the C210’s styling, but still an acquired taste.
The R31 is my least favourite – my late Uncle bought an Australian-built 3.0Ti sedan new, with the bordello interior option (well, it seemed like it). It went well and the RB30 was delightfully smooth and sonorous, but it was so chintzy, dated and cramped inside. The R31 4-door hardtop is the best of the shape, but its C32 Laurel sibling carried the square-rigged styling off better I though.
Anyway, fab selectin as always Peter, thank you, and looking foward to the R32/3/4 trilogy!
Less bordello in the R31 Ti than low-taste retirement lounge, and later, funeral parlour. These Skylines had an ownership entry requirement of proof of impending retirement, unsurprising when the styling had an expiry date similar to that of the buyers. If my memory is wrong here, the following can firmly be stated: young people have better eyesight, and they did not buy any.
Dam nice to drive, though, as you describe, and perhaps that is all that matters: after all, given that one is looking out at the road and not the oxymoronically frilly brutalism of that dash, one also cannot see breezeblock horror without.
Thanks for a tour of the Skylines of the ‘80s. This helped to fill many holes in my knowledge of this iconic brand…guess I just wasn’t paying much attention during this decade in which I enjoyed lots of beer. I agree that these cars were much less distinctive than the Skylines that came before and after.
That teal Tekkamen is eye-catching, though, and may look better here as a model than it would on the street. Was this color offered on the actual car? It seems that teal was everywhere a few years later, more in the early to mid-90s.
Thanks William. For a while there my attention wandered due to marriage, return to college and the advent of children. But although I had other interests beside modelling, and other demands on my time, I still kept up with what was going on automotively, though perhaps not to the degree I had before.
The Tekkamen probably does look better here, as that old Fujimi body is approximate at best. The body looks like an old-style customizer has sectioned it and taken about three inches out; the real thing isn’t as low and sleek! Oh, and mine is a nineties Ford colour.
I admire your focus in the face of so many distractions. In contrast, there was a five year or so period in the early to mid-eighties when I, ah, pursued other interests, also including university and the ladies.
I thought I recognized that Ford teal…a neighbor had Mercury Tracer 4-door (one of the Mazda-based ones) in that color in about 1993.
I like the R31 skyline, but when it was released in 1986, it was certainly still early 80s looking with ultra sharp edges. If you see the second gen Toyota Soarer in 1986 and the Carina ED, toyota made all the edges a big curved radius. Toyota was moving towards the 90s in the 80’s itself while nissan only brought out a more rounded edged styling with the 1988 Cefiro and Silvia. It took them 2 years to realize their folly.
Yes, the R31 was so square it almost looked like an alternative design study for the R30 rather than being a discernible step forward. As you say, Toyota was developing curves, and a look at designs from Mazda, Honda or Mitsubishi underlined how old these Nissans looked. But they certainly caught up brilliantly with their late eighties and nineties cars.
Your poor old Uncle Ted was the victim of a shitty dealer, not Nissan. I’ve driven one of those injected c10s, and it wasn’t as you describe. I also vaguely recall the only criticism from the magazines was that the injection left the top-end feeling oddly stifled, which fits with my experience of an R30 – it would rev very hard, but sounded gassy and hissy when doing it.
I’ve always thought the R31 coupe was a good-looking device, but then, dare I say it, I don’t see the problem with the C10’s. That’s probably because I always found the earlier 240K’s et al rather over-cooked.