WHICH GENERATION OF NISSAN SKYLINE IS THE BEST? - Skyline Shootout

The Nissan Skyline. The poster car of multiple generations, synonymous with performance and burned into our car culture hall of fame. But what makes the Skyline lineage so unique? Well, some would say the groundbreaking styling, some would say the performance, and others might say the handling characteristics are what makes this range so unique. There's only truly one way to find out, and that's to get behind the wheel and get a feel for what each model is really all about. So today, we're taking some of the most iconic generations and variants of the Nissan Skyline to the track to put them through their paces. To really get to grips with these machines, we need a proper facility. Luddenham Raceway. Flowing corners, straights, chicanes, camber and undulation. This'll work. So first cab off the ranks, or should I say, the first Nissan off the ranks today, is Dan's 1971 Nissan Skyline, but it's not really what it's known as. If I just say Nissan Skyline, it's... Yeah, most people would probably go, oh yeah, Skyline. But if you say Hakkasuka, everyone would go, I know what a Hakkasuka is. Now, my Hakkasuka's a 1971. It's a narrow body, and what that means, basically, is that it still retains the surf lines on it. So tell me, what's the difference between this and the GT-R model in this particular chassis? What are the differences? The chassis itself is exactly the same. The GT-R has a number of minor differences, and they include, I suppose, the rear arches. There were also a couple of other minor changes. The chrome trims on the drip rails, they had white glass in them. So that's a telltale sign. So if you're ever looking at a GT-R replica, have a look for the glass, because the glass in all the other cars are blue, whereas the GT-Rs are clear glass. Interesting. Yeah. All right. Body-wise, I get it. What about engine? What's this thing got in it? Off the factory floor, this would have come out with an L20 in it. So a six-cylinder L20 with a single carburettor. When I purchased it, it had an L24 put into it. The GT-R motor, not L-Series? Not an L-Series. It was an S20, and the S20 was a twin-cam, four-valve per cylinder, triple carbis. Yeah, yeah. And if you look at the block itself, if you've ever seen one in the raw, it's very similar, or I suppose it's a precursor to the RB block. You can see the similarities to it. This has got a rear independent, I suppose, independent rear end, struts in the front, and it handles superb. Well, look, that other thing that you were mentioning before, carbosomething, carburettors or something, I don't know much about that, but open it up, show me what they are. You better do this, because even the bonnet goes... Yep, so it's a front-flip bonnet. All right, well, there it is in all of its glory. So this is the L-Series. This is the L-Series, and this is the L6, so it's a six-cylinder motor, and you can see there's triple carburettors on them, triple webbers. I've got the utmost respect for a carburettor system, because with no electronics, to be able to get that amount of air and fuel metering, that works so perfectly when they're tuned right. Look, I know a lot of people talk about when they're tuned wrong, they're very wrong, but when a carburettor works well, a bloody good thing. Well, how about we shut the hood? I've never been in one. We're here at Luddenham, so we might as well go out. Let's go for a run. Let's do a couple laps. I'm probably, to be honest, I'm most interested in hearing the induction noise out of these things. You'll love them. Really nice. All right, well, let's jump in and have a blast around. Let's do it. Hey, listen, you know what? We spoke about the engine. We spoke about all that other stuff. We're about to go out on the track. Has it got brakes? Yeah. Have you done anything to the brakes? Yeah. It's got some brakes on it. So, look, it's got discs on the front with the MK63 calipers, and it's got aluminium-fined rear drums. Oh, I love it. So, cooled-off rear drums. On the rear, yeah, cooled-off drums, and yeah, they work really well. Well, these would have been a Ford Falcon or a Holden Commodore of the day, so they came out with a lot of, I suppose, family in mind for cars, and you would have seen the Watanabes on the car on the outside. Those Watanabes, that's, for me, that is the pinnacle of wheel for this era, like, aren't they beautiful? You know, you put a set of Watanabes on a 1970s car, and everyone just loves it. It's just fantastic. I completely agree. And don't those throttles sound absolutely incredible? We'll open it up a little bit here on the straight. Oh, yeah, we'll go down a bit clean. Oh, there you go. You can hear them buzz it. Oh, I love it. I love it. There's no rhyme or reason of driving a 50-year-old car, the love and the soul that this thing has. And when you come home, you just feel like you're so relaxed, and you've just had a great time. You know, you just can't buy that. And that's the part of it, I think, and the part that I see that of each one of these series, this being the first Skyline, yet the 31 guys, 32, everyone respects each series of it. Even though you might be a particular, for one particular series, these guys all coming together and having that community of like-minded people, I can see it, that that's why you have this. Yeah, and they all respect each other, and they respect each other's cars. I think, you know, if you're a Skyline owner, then you love all the Skylines, but you might enjoy one particular model itself. Moving on from the Hakko, we've got the Nissan R32 GT-R, owned by Mitch. Doesn't need any introduction. You've probably seen him on our channel a whole lot. Mitch does a bunch of the Haltech videos. Well, because we sit in the same room, we work together. Hey, Scotty. How are you? Mitchell, thanks so much for generously donating your R32 for today. And Mitch is a firm, a solid enthusiast, the enthusiast, I would say. It's probably true. Yeah, I think so. I spent a lot of time with these cars, and yeah, know them pretty well. So Mitch, tell us, your R32 Skyline, where did the adventure come? Why do you have this car? Man, this is the poster car of everyone that was into 90s JDM cars, right? Like, this is it. This is the one. That our parents knew about this particular car. Yep, yep. I agree with you. Then, you know, while we had Corollas, and Datsuns, and Sigmas, and Starlets, and Mirages, and then there was that guy that had the R32 GTR. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, it's the 90s supercar, right? Well, you're him now, Mitchell. Only 30-something years later. Tell me a bit about your particular one. So, outside, very tasteful mods. Tell us what you've done to it. Yeah, so this is like a late model version, so they call it like a late series 2, so it's a 92, 93 model. Okay. Still in, yeah, pretty original condition as it came from Japan. All right, well, tell us a bit about the motor in this. R32, what engines did they come out with? Yeah, so 32s, like the GDSTs, had obviously the RB20 inline-six twin cam turbo, and then the GDRs got the big 2.6 ITV twin turbo. This specific car has actually had an overhaul kit put through it at some stage in its life, so it's actually now 2.8 litre. So, I had a look in the engine. It's got an HKS crank in it and a set of pistons, which is pretty cool. Is this the first car that the RB26 came in? I believe so, yeah. This is it? Yep, this is the one. They got it pretty down pat first go. And to continue the same overall engine design and driveline design for so many years, like well into the 2000s in the 34. It's a really good platform, and for it to stand that test of time, I think it's incredible. Okay, well, tell us a bit about the four-wheel drive system, start with that. So, how does the four-wheel drive system work in the R32 model? So, yeah, the 32s and the 33s and 34s all have a really similar TESA all-wheel drive system. So, it's a traditional, what would look like a standard five or six-speed manual transmission, but on the back of it, it has a transfer case. And inside that transfer case, there's a hydraulic wet clutch, and that basically has the ability to completely lock up and send 50% of the available torque to the front wheels. Well, why don't we open the hood, show us around, show us what's in there or what the shiny bits are. There's nothing special under the bonnet, I'll be honest. Well, when you said it's got a 2.8 stroker, but pretty basic under the hood, I didn't kind of know what to expect, but I hear what you're saying. It's got factory airflow meters, it's got a factory carbon canister. You're a factory airbox. I don't know how many factory airboxes exist in this country, but there's one of them. Yeah, I'm not big on the whole exposed pod filter and all that sort of stuff. Like I said, it's got small turbos. It's not crazily overly powerful, so you don't need any of that stuff. And I think it does justice to how the car was from the factory. All right, so I can see what it is now. What are the future plans? This is not going to stay like this. I'm getting a smell here. There's a mountain of parts sitting at home ready to go onto this. Well, mate, I think that probably from here, I'm pretty keen to hear the thing. Can you tell us roughly what sort of power it makes at the moment? At the moment, it's about 300 kilowatts at the wheel. Still on pump 98, fairly low boost. But yeah, pretty mild now. All right, well, let's go for a bit of a blast around. Have a listen to it and get some of that raw sort of the feel of the steel multi-throttles, just like the Haku. Yeah, yeah. Last turbo charged on top. 100%. Sounds good. Let's go for a blast. Sweet. You can definitely tell that moving 10 years ahead that the sound deadening is different, the seating positions are different, like it's got a proper dash. A bit more of like a touring car sort of feeling. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I like the steering wheel too. It's nice. Like again, I tried to keep everything standard-ish. Standard-ish, like that OEM plus sort of period correct. Because we work at Haltech, we're lucky enough that we get to drive a lot of cars every single week. So for you to choose this one to say this is the one that makes you feel the most connected to it, I wonder if that's got something to do with this greater feel or the community of people that love this car and pour unlimited resources and unlimited time into something like this. Yeah, so there's the Skylines Australia guys, a member of that club. So they put on regular events and things like that, track days. I think you're definitely right that you have to be more of a car enthusiast than the guy that jumps in his Porsche and goes and gets coffee on the weekends. I think there's something about that, that maintaining a car of this age and knowing that yeah, it's going to have a few bumps and have a few squeaks, but it almost makes people love it more the older that they get. 100%. I think there's more of a connection as well. Yeah, it's all well and good to jump in it and drive it, but maintenance, working on it, fixing little things like you said. The bumps and scratches, yeah, but it's the replacing things that are worn out and rusted because again, these cars are old. And yeah, just to have more than just driving, yeah, I think to me that's pretty important. Because there's been so much development done on this platform over so many years, you can start with something basic and learn as you go. You can do clutch upgrades and engine upgrades and if you're happy with 200 kilowatts, then you can do small modifications and go to 300. It's sort of, you can express yourself and you can make it yours. I wonder what an R33 is going to feel like. Maybe take me in and we'll go and have a look and see what, we'll move five years into the future. So hopefully feel five years newer, I think. With the R32 GTR being such a massive hit for Nissan, they went on to build the R33 GTR, the successor to the R32. And they hit the nail right on the head, I think. They've still used the same driveline, the same engine combination, but a massive overhaul to the look of the car to fit in with the later model. Does this car, what year did these go on to, Michael? They went up to 1998. For sure, so compared to something like the R32 that probably came out of that boxy sort of 80s era into the R33 that was competing with cars that were a lot more rounder, starting to get a lot more streamlined as they're moving into sort of the late 90s and the early 2000s. Michael, your R33 GTR is a hell of a car. A really nice, clean, really, really nice example of what these cars were when they came out. Can you tell us a little bit about your model? What is this thing, first of all, what year model is it? This is a 1996 S2 or Series 2 R33 GTR. I guess this particular car, the silver, I love the colour. And the modifications that have been done to the car as well, it is a little bit more modified than my old one was, not too much, but some of the things that I wanted to do to my car were already done. This actually has the motor out of a 2002 R34 GTR in it, so it's a lot lower kilometre than the original motor. It's got a Tomei cam, springs, a fuel system, a custom Fab air intake system as well, and N1 turbochargers. Currently tuned to a little over 300 kilowatts. Perfect. Yeah, so it's kind of going for something that's still usable and fun on the street. It hits boost nice and early and yeah, a lot of fun. Well, I'm pretty keen to go for a run in this and get a bit of a feel for the rawness of the R32 and how not as much insulation in that car as you would sort of expect from a later 90s model thing. So I'm really hoping that this has got, it's a bit quieter, it's got a little bit more insulation, a little bit more comfortable, but it's still got the grunt. So why don't we jump in and have a crack? Sounds great. The exhaust straight away sounds amazing, where it's still got that real nice RB, like that bark, but no drone or anything, feels good. Yeah, I bought this car from the ACT and drove it back. So it was a nice long drive coming back and I was really, really happy. I didn't end up with a headache or anything like that. It is clearly a later model car than the R32, obviously, but the way that the dash is moulded, the door trim, even the seating position, how the doors are up much higher, you can start to feel that, well, the evolution of motorcars in general from the 80s to the 90s and then into the 2000s with the R34 GTR, obviously. Yeah. But I can really feel how this could be a reasonable everyday driver. Tell me when you're taking this out on the weekends, have you got a bunch of mates that have also got, that are car enthusiasts? Yeah, yeah, I do. So there's a bunch of us, it's funny, from all walks of life actually. The way that we came together as friends is really through cars and car culture and car meets and that sort of thing, which pre-COVID was one of my favourite things to do. What are you looking to do next? So I want this car to be good on the street. It's not going to be a track day build. My plans will be to put a stroker kit in it. So 2.8 litre. I'd like to put a V-cam in it and go for a different turbo setup. And my goal is about 500 kilowatts. Single turbo, twin turbo? Ooh, is that... Ooh, controversial. The car's not built to be a museum piece and I do plan on driving it. So I think the modern singles, it's just not going past the sound and the response that you get. Now while the R33 GTR, beautiful car, there is one skyline to me that's pretty special and it's an R34 GTR in Bayside Blue. You know why. Someone who doesn't need any introduction on our channel, Adam Niesch from Just Engine Management. He's turned up today with his Bayside Blue R34 GTR for us to have a bit of a look over and get a bit of a feel for what this car is. Mate, tell me a bit about it, Adam. First of all, why this car? Well, it was my childhood dream. So even before Fast and Furious came out, I always dreamt of having an R34. Well, I actually dreamt of having any GTR. Managed to get an R32 GTR and always the Bayside Blue 34 GTR. That was my dream car for a very long time. So when I finally levelled up in life and got to the stage where I could just afford one, I bought the cheapest Bayside Blue one that I could find on car sales and got my foot in the door and here it is. R34 GTR still shares the same RB26 engine, same driveline, so this is just another evolution of the GTR series. Can you tell me any differences between this car compared to the R32 or R33? Mechanically, are they fairly similar? So the 34 driveline-wise, probably the main difference would be the gearbox. So they came with the 6-speed getrag. So close ratio 6-speed getrag and then they went from a 4.11 diff ratio to a 3.45 or 3.5 diff ratio, somewhere there. And that gave it closer ratios but a bit more legs in the top end as well. There were some advances in the all-wheel drive system, so the Atessa, a bit more control. Then I think they ran quicker around the Nürburgring. So this thing, when I bought it, the gearbox was good from memory. I had another spare gearbox with the 4th gear synchro crunching. I thought, you know what, I'm not going to wreck my good gearbox when I did my 1,000 horsepower setup, which we did an interview nearly 10 years ago now, you and I at the shop. So that still had the getrag in it. So I said, you know what, I'm going to put the crunching box in and I'll destroy that with the 1,000 horsepower. I went one whole year solid of every event that I could possibly go to. Drags, Roll Race, Kudamundra, Power Cruise, the off-street drags, one, two of those. Launching it and ripping in. And mate, I'll tell you, by the end of that year with the 1,000 horsepower and abuse, it was still just as bad as the day I started with it. I thought, you know what, let me bring it into the new age. So that's when I put a trigger kit, mechanical fuel pump, R35 coils, Nexus R5, new harness, full wired up, keypad. So basically all the, you know, all the up-to-date stuff. So I did all that. And then, yeah, long story short, now this combo's making $1,650 now. What happens when you drive this down the street? What do people do? What you would expect, I guess. Yeah, nah, it's a showstopper. It's a showstopper. No one ever said, oh, get lost. You know, that's ugly. Well, it's the poster child. This is it. Yeah, this is it. This is what I'm pretty keen. If you don't mind, Eric, can we jump in, go for a few laps, show us how that gearbox works, and I'm pretty keen to hear more about it. Key's in the ignition, Scotty. Go for it. I'm going on the passenger side. I'm going over here. Right, you jump in the R34 GT-R and straight away you can see, like, the progression of the dashes. It's got the MFD. It's got, like, it's a beautiful car inside. The door trims and the material on the door trims is really nice. I can see why people love it, because, like, it had culture. Like, imagine owning this in 1999 compared to anything else that was available. This is like a spaceship. Like, what is this thing? This is, you know, I love driving this thing around. Like, take the kids to tutoring, take it to the shops. This is something that you'd go to Woolies one day and see this thing parked in the car park. You live and breathe it. And there is a different breathe, where, like you said, this is not a show car. It's got a few scrapes. It's got a few little bumps here and there. And I kind of see them as badges of honour of the way that you're using this car. It's not in a garage. A few cable tires. It's doing it. Yeah. Yeah, I use it. That's why I never made it pretty. Like, I could have spent, you know, 20, 30 grand restoring the body, painting it, making it schmick, but there's no point for me, you know. For me, a resto is re-spraying the stone chips off the front bar. And this is part of the culture of these cars. Everyone using them the way they want to use them. Yeah. Doesn't make a thousand, does it? Sorry about that. Maybe the lag. I have to say, like, obviously it's a HalTech video, but with all honesty, I thank HalTech for developing awesome products. ECUs, keypads, dashes, the sensor, the data, engine protection, data logging. The amount of engines that have been saved as a result of HalTech's engine protection, it's priceless. And I always tell everyone, like, yeah, okay, it might cost you 10 grand, 15 grand, whatever it is, but if it saves your engine once, it's paid itself off. And this is, we sort of see this, that I appreciate that, and I know that these parts, these cars, these builds are getting more and more expensive, so anything that we can do to make them survive, that's the name of the game now. That's what we do. That's it, hey. What a car, what a build. Congratulations, mate. Absolutely amazing. I love it. I'm sure you're all hoping for me to tell you which one of these cars is better than the others. And while each generation has its own reason that people love them, putting them head-to-head would simply not tell the whole story. The truth is, these are so much more than cars, so much more than machines. They represent culture, passion, and the development of technology stamped with permanent ink into the stories of their time periods and the dreams of car enthusiasts across multiple generations. Perhaps it's not about which one's best, but instead, about appreciating that we're lucky enough to experience what might be the greatest lineage in automotive history.