It’s going to be a little while before the balance is restored in the T87 household, as returning from a European jaunt in the age of Covid-19 is not as easy as all that. We had to fill in a dozen extra forms, get a bunch of spy apps on out phones, spend three days in a hotel room (where I’ve been writing most of this from) and get tested three times to be let back to our digs. And now, for the next fortnight, we are all in lockdown. So time to catch up on my CC writing, eh? Let’s kick things off with something we’ll all enjoy: the legendary Hakosuka (“Box Skyline”).
The foxy and boxy Skyline C10, the nameplate’s third generation and its first as a Nissan, was an unmitigated success. Over 300,000 were made from 1968 to 1972 — a considerable run given the era and the car’s size. Of course, the GT-R is the one everyone is after, but those are exceedingly rare. Most C10 Skylines were more modest 4-cyl. family cars. This 2000GT is halfway between a sports model and a fleet sedan: it has the prestige of the bigger engine, but not the scarcity (and astronomical price) of the GT-R.
Some of you eagle-eyed readers might recall that I already caught this one on a cold and rainy day last year. That was quite an apparition, but it was inhabited at the time, so a closer investigation was out of the question. A few weeks ago, I lucked out and found it parked unattended – and in glorious sunshine, to boot.
How fortunate that I should bump into this well-preserved (but far from concours) C10 Skyline. There are some about, but usually they have been modified into GT-R lookalikes. Or they’re the genuine article, but telling one from another is not always easy. Thankfully, this one is not too far from the way it came out of the factory back in 1972, though I do have my doubts about that vinyl top. The aftermarket rims even look period correct.
The only detail that made me raise an eyebrow was that cinderblock in front of the rear right wheel, but I figure this might be a crude anti-theft device. These cars are very sought after, so perhaps that would be a concern.
There is no way to overstate how important this third generation was in the Skyline’s long story. This was one of the new models that Prince bequeathed to Nissan as a wedding present – the old company’s DNA is all over the car, except with the Nissan badges. And it’s the generation that ushered the coupé and the GT-R, which ended up being fixtures in the Skyline range up to the present day.
The Prince Motor Company was officially absorbed by Nissan in August 1966, but Nissan wisely kept the Prince legacy alive through its products (Gloria, Skyline) and even its structure. The Prince dealer network kept its name, just adding Nissan’s on top. The Prince factories in Tokyo, including the famous Murayama site, were kept open. Even Prince’s R&D branch was allowed to remain as was for years, completely separate from Nissan/Datsun’s Yokohama office.
Within the ex-Prince R&D bureau in Tokyo, the Skyline team was headed by Shinichiro Sakurai (the C10’s owner added his signature on the car!), who had directed the nameplate since its 1957 birth and would remain heavily involved in the Skyline programme until the ‘90s. Planning and design work for the C10, starting in 1965, took into consideration that the Skyline was to have both a 4-cyl. and a 6-cyl. version from the get-go, leading to a more homogeneous design than the previous generation‘s long-nose S54, though the 6-cyl. C10s do have a longer wheelbase than their 4-cyl. sisters.
The C10 Skyline was launched in August 1968 as a four-door saloon and wagon (split between a wagon and a more basic “van” version), solely with the Prince’s 88hp G15 OHC 4-cyl. and a live rear axle to begin with, also inherited from the previous generation. Standard grade cars made do with a front bench seat and a 3-speed column shifter, deluxe cars got separate seats and a 4-on-the-floor. A 1.8 litre version was eventually added to the mix, but kept the simpler rear suspension common to all 4-cyl. C10s.
At the October 1968 Tokyo Motor Show, the 2000GT was launched. It coupled a 2-litre six under its slightly elongated hood with a semi-trailing arm IRS – things were going to start heating up. Well, the heat was slow to rise at first: the initial 2000GT had the relatively sedate (and thirsty) L20 that had been pioneered on the Cedric 130 – not Nissan’s finest effort: at only 109hp strong, it was barely more powerful than the Prince G18 used on lower-tier Skylines and Laurels. A year later, the much improved L20A replaced it, adding an extra 10hp and making the 2000GT worthy of the name.
But in the interim, Prince engineers had already put together the S20, a completely different 2-litre six with twin overhead cams and four valves per cylinder fed by three Mikuni-Solex 2-barrel carbs churning out 160hp. Mated to a five-speed gearbox and helped by a lowered suspension and bigger brakes, the infamous GT-R, initially with four doors, sent Nissan on a 50-race winning streak starting in 1969. The Skyline GT-R was an instant icon.
In late 1970, the boxy sporty Skyline got its definitive shape by way of a shorter hardtop coupé version, which became available throughout the range — from lowly 1500cc base model to fire-breathing GT-R, where it replaced the saloon outright. This was the Prince Motor Company’s very last model, in a way. A summation of their efforts, since the early ’50s, to design and manufacture a truly independent Japanese family car, which doubled up as a great sports car as well.
The C10 Skyline continued on for another couple of years. The traditional mid-life facelift of 1970 called for a simplified grille and squared taillamps, as well as a new dash layout and, from 1971, a honeycomb-texture panel between the taillights and on the grille, giving the later C10s a very ’70s feel.
By late 1971, a slightly improved GT-X trim level appeared, with the L20SU twin-carb found in the Fairlady Z, good for 128hp. Only offered on the two-door to start off with, the saloon got this spec in early 1972. It was a Nissan engine rather than the Prince-made one found in GT-Rs, but still the most powerful four-door C10 on offer during the car’s final year.
Our feature car, however, is a late model 2000GT (sans X), so it made do with the regular L20A engine. The 120hp therein is apparently capable enough to make the car quite sprightly, and the all-independent suspension and front disc brakes are able to handle the power just fine. Very late model ’72 cars were even equipped with a 5-speed manual, but this one appears not to be one of these.
A 3-speed automatic was also available, but in this car would seem like something of a sacrilege. The interior of these later higher trim cars, with the generous plastiwood trim, console full of mysterious switches and deep-set circular dials give a slight Alfa Romeo vibe to this cabin. The soundtrack, with the ignition turned on, would probably amplify this impression.
Another reason to love this generation of Skyline saloon: there is actual room in the back. Compare this to the R32 or the R33 made a couple decades later, and it’s clear that the Skylines of the ‘60s were designed with families and export markets in mind, not just sportiness. Just how many C10s were exported is unclear to me, though I’m sure the usual suspects (Australia / New-Zealand, Southeast Asia and certain European destinations) must have bought a few of these back in the day.
The rear fender / door’s character line, known in Skyline circles as the “surf line” for reasons that I’ve not been able to ascertain, was apparently added at Sakurai’s behest for aerodynamic reasons, though it as just as likely to have been added to give the car’s profile some flavour.
It is rumoured that he used a coat hanger to trace the unusual trajectory of this crease on the rear doors. This peculiar kink was carried over to the two Skyline generations that came after the C10, but none of them wore it better than the original, where it is understated and works well in conjunction with the straight beltline and the lower body crease.
But for my money, the front end is this where the design really shines. There are hints of the Peugeot 504 in this face (the two cars are completely contemporary), so maybe that’s why I like it so much. The key aspect, which is only present on the post-facelift C10s, is how they incorporated the headlamps in the grille, which was itself cleaned up and simplified. The early cars look too busy, but this slightly menacing gaze is close to perfect, especially for a saloon with a sporting pedigree.
The quad rear lights also became something of a design fixture for future Skylines. That feature persisted all the way to the end of the R34’s production life in 2001 – another reason why many consider that particular generation (the 10th) as the last true Skyline.
That’s a story for another time, though. As far as this particular Skyline is concerned, though I’d personally get rid of that huge wart of a yellow fog lamp, or whatever that thing stuck on that front bumper is, it’s a perfect C10 out of 10 from me.
Related posts:
In-Motion Outtake: 1970 Nissan Skyline 2000GT (C10) – Heaven Sent, by T87
Curbside Classic Outtake: Late ‘60’s/Early ‘70’s Duo; Nissan Skyline GT (C10) and Mercedes 250 CE (W114) – Parking, Tokyo Style, by Jim Brophy
I really like this. I can remember being displeased with the surf line (an interesting term) but find myself coming around. Maybe I am getting used to random contours in modern cars that make far less sense than this one does.
The front end is indeed just about perfect. The other car it reminds me of is the 1969 Dodge Coronet, which also does the angry eyebrow thing. It was a good look that Dodge let go of far too soon.
The vinyl roof is interesting – I do not have enough of a feel for Japanese cars of the day, but the black vinyl roof trend (it seemed like 95% of vinyl roofs were black then) was massive in the US in 1968-69, so this car looks normal to me.
Nice find! Kind of looks like a Japanese Mopar to me.
I confess to having a bit of a fetish for these cars. I lived in Japan in the late 70’s and 80’s and these cars were indeed King (okay Prince) of the Hakone Skyline Drive for which they were named. Handsome, fast, and strong enough to absorb some serious mods without breaking. I still want one. The GT-R is sort of a Japanese equivalent to a Hemi powered 69 Dodge Charger in status… but it ruled the mountain roads, not the drag strips.
Most people, including younger Japanese don’t appreciate Prince’s contribution to the success of Nissan. They built great high quality performance cars before their absorption into Nissan.
Below is a picture I took at Amelia Island a few years ago of the Prince R380 which campaigned very successfully in 1965. It used the same engine (with race mods) that the Skyline did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_R380
It’s beautiful, for some reason I see some “French car” influences in the design or at least that’s what it reminds me of. And even the vinyl roof works tremendously well here. Not surprisingly I also like the styling of the Triumph Dolomite as well as the bigger Alfas of the time, all of which have a resemblance to each other.
A very nice find.
This is wonderful! As a car-crazy teen in the US, fortunate to have access to a lot of good car magazines as well as a fair number of unusual “imports” on the local streets, it was rare to find any pictures or info on these cars. The magazines were very Euro-centric and this was decades before “JDM” was a thing. Like JPC, the surf line seemed jarring to me but it looks great now. And, thanks for the reminder that these were the first real production cars with four valve engines.
And, thanks for the reminder that these were the first real production cars with four valve engines.
There were many “production” sporting and luxury cars with four valve heads going back to the late 1910s. Bugattis had them; the Bentley 3 Liter did (among others) and of course the Duesenberg Model J.
Of course these weren’t “mass production” engines, but then one can question whether the Skyline 4-valve engine qualifies as “mass production”.
These cars do strange things to me that I can’t explain. I’m a fan of the early dashboards but with the later facelift styling. That latest dashboard looks too busy and reminds me of the fussy, and garish or just plain weird dashes that 1970s Lancias and Alfas tended to have.
No, the C10s were (inexplicably) not sold in Australia or New Zealand, which probably would have been the most logical export markets.
However the Netherlands and perhaps a Scandinavian country or two did get the 6 cylinder sedan model badged as a 2400 with the export only (at least in this body) L24 engine. This provided the template for the next generation Skyline that fortunately was sold in Australia as the 240k (it never went over 2 litres in Japan) and in a few other markets as well. The 240K did very good business in the day here, thus making a strong case that they ought to have sold the previous C10 model here too.
Given the smaller and cheaper 510 came out around the same time with IRS I’m a bit surprised they made do with a leaf spring rear axle on the 4 cylinder versions. But even the next generation 4 cylinder Skylines from around 1973 had a similar set up.
That strip speedo setup on the 4 cylinder models is a turn off. A shame they did not offer a 6 cylinder wagon with IRS…
I’m not sure how the lead sprung rear end was a retrograde step as all the Skylines previous to the C10 all had a live axle leaf setup, even the high powered GTB model.
You’re quite right about the 2nd gen (S50/54/57) — they’re the retrograde ones with the live axles, compared to the 1st gen Skyline’s de Dion rear end. My mistake, will be fixed!
Hey, that’s a sharp car! The single Bosch(…!) add-on driving lamp raises one of my eyebrows, so I’ll let the potentially apparent lack of front shoulder belts raise the other. ’72, fifty model years ago, was the last year for red rear turn signals in Japan, the most recent country to eliminate them. Ahem.
I dig the styling of this car from pretty much every angle. There’s a fair amount of ’66-’67 Dodge Coronet inspiration evident here.
I learned something new today! Don’t have my finger directly on the pulse, but I feel we’ll be seeing red here in the States (and presumably Canada) for some time to come… *arrgh face*
GM have now switched from arguing that amber rear turn signals aren’t better (just ignore that mountain of data over there) to arguing that there’s no point mandating amber turn signals because pretty much just about most all cars are going to have one or another kind of automatic emergency braking system more or less sooner or later. If you can untie this logical knot, let me know; I gave up about the third time I heard them put forth this line of, um, “reasoning”.
I really like the looks of these. Excellent proportions and fine detailing.
I’m a bit perplexed about one element: the picture you showed of the 2000GT at the 1968 Tokyo Auto Show clearly has an enlarged rear wheel opening that bisects the “surf” line. But your featured 2000GT doesn’t. And I’m finding others on the web that both do and don’t have that larger rear wheel opening.
Unless this is a clone, I assume that at some point Nissan reverted the rear wheel opening to the smaller version; perhaps to reserve that for the GT-R, so it was more readily identifiable?
My understanding is that the GTR sedans all have the larger wheel arch rising above the surf line due to the requirement for larger/wider rubber. The photos you would have seen of a single cam GT with the larger arch would have been a GTR with an incorrect caption.
The 1968 Tokyo Motor Show car in the post is badged as a 2000GT but would be a prototype GT-R then?
It’s all too clearly marked as a 2000GT. The GT-R had very clear badging, and came with bigger wheels and tires without any wheel covers.
The only logical explanation is that this 2000GT shown at the show was not the production version, which reverted to the smaller rear wheel openings.
My guess is that at the time the 2000GT was shown, it was to be the top version, but when it was decided to build a GT-R, the larger rear wheel arch was reserved for it, to make it more distinctive.
As a Skyline fan and former owner, I too was curious about the wheelarch on the 2000GT at the ’68 show, so have done a bit of research over the last few days. The definitive answer, according to Evo magazine, Japan Top News, and a few other sources is that the 2000GT-badged car with the rounded wheelarch was indeed the GT-R prototype. It gained the ‘R’ when the production version was launched in Feb 1969. From Top News:
October 26, 1968. The 15th Tokyo Motor Show was held for 17 days at the International Trade Center in Harumi, Tokyo.
In the Nissan booth, there were two Skylines, each mounted on a higher exhibition stand. Both had a 4-door body painted in silver, and one was the Skyline 2000 GT that was released just before the motor show. [And the other] 4-door skyline. Although the appearance is not flashy, it was a surprising specification for visitors who like cars.
The sign on the side says “Vehicle with R380 engine”. This car, which was unveiled as a reference exhibit of the Skyline 2000GT, was the prototype of the vehicle that will debut later as the PGC10 Skyline 2000GT-R. In other words, the GT-R legend, its introductory chapter began here.
Looking again at the Tokyo Auto Show car photo above, the ‘R380’ sign is visible on the floor beside the Skyline. So yes, at 2000GT-badged car, but fitted with what was to become the GT-R’s rear wheelarch and engine.
Love these cars!
As AntiSuv said, we didn’t get these in Australia. Which, now that I think about it, is a bit strange, as we did get the previous S54 generation, but perhaps that was back when Prince was still an independent company. And we got the succeeding C110 generation (240K), which was a roaring success for Nissan. Maybe Nissan wasn’t quite sure where to send all these new models it had acquired? And I always felt Nissan was a bit bipolar in its product mix back in the seventies; I guess the good stuff had its origins in Prince.
The vinyl roof is likely original – can you imagine anyone adding one? And the contemporary Cedric 230 was available with one, as was the Bluebird 610.
CC-in-scale has two hakosuka or boxska sedans; this one’s closest to the feature car. 🙂
I read a car magazine article (probably Australia’s Wheels magazine) about the origin and evolution of the surf line; google is failing to find it for me. Although extremely subtle, it did reappear on the R33 coupe and R34 sedan, and was quite prominent on the R34 coupe.
Feature car is interesting; the styling is better balanced on the long-nose 6-cylinder body, but is still a little stunted to my eyes. The C110 is a much better proportioned design, which is odd considering how similar the dimensions are, and that the C110 6-cylinder actually has a shorter wheelbase than the C10.
I’d wager it’s been repainted as it has the distinctive pearlescent sheen of the pearl white paint Nissan used in the 1990s, which was on my C35 Laurel. Vinyl roof might be original, looks like a bit of splitting/shrinkage/warping in it here and there; hopefully it isn’t letting any water sit underneath it!
Older Prince cars were sold in NZ the oldest survivor is a 57 Skyway wagon and B200 Glorias were assembled in Christchurch but after the stacked light Nissan Gloria they stopped and just sent Datsuns later models arrived but I dont think these did and of course 80s and 90s Skylines were everywhere riced crashed dead broken and tidy we have the whole range.
Nissan offered a vinyl roof as a factory option in the brochures: