engine capacity to 2,568cc, bumping the car into the 4,500cc class where its rivals would be subject to a heavier minimum weight. When the road-going R32 Skyline GT-R went on sale in August 1989, the 2.6-litre engine was officially rated at 276bhp – the maximum permitted by the ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ on power outputs in Japan at the time. In reality, however, it produced well over 300bhp, which, when combined with the car’s phenomenal handling and relatively affordable price, ensured rave reviews. Australian race fans, however, weren’t impressed when the GT-R began trouncing their beloved Fords and Holdens on the track, not least at the Bathurst 1000 in 1991 and ’92. The second of these wins for the Nissan would prove particularly unpopular with the Australian fans who booed Richards and Skaife when they took to the podium. Richards responded by calling them “a pack of arseholes”. Soon after this, the Nissan R32 was banned from competing. This rare and unmolested example is in good unrestored condition offering original paint, factory wheels and the original exhaust system. As one of only 560 ever made (to qualify for Group A racing), this is the same model that Skaife and Richards raced at Bathurst before being banned. It is a genuine Nismo-built example. The suspension has recently been rebuilt to original factory specifications and it offers brand-new tyres. Also, it has just been fully serviced and has a five-year restriction on it for low-volume imports. The R32 is, without doubt, one of the great super cars of the 20th century. Produced only in gun metal, the look and feel of the R32 is formidable. Capturing the imagination of another generation, notably through 21st-century entertainment platforms such as Gran Turismo and The Fast and the Furious, the Nissan R32 is one of those rare cars which are easily identified as modern-day classics.
CLASSIC MOTORCYCLES AND CARS OF THE DAY
ONE OF ONLY 560 EVER BUILT - GODZONE Jeremy Clarkson considers the GT-R Nismo to be one of the best cars in the world and the only true Japanese contribution in the line of super cars. Nicknamed “Godzilla on wheels” by the Australian motoring publication Wheels in July 1989, the R32 GT-R dominated its racing class to such an extent that it forced the Australian Bathurst 1000 race officials to quite literally shift the goalposts so that Ford and Holden could compete in a closed class, thus keeping the Aussie fans feeling safe and happy with the knowledge that any real competition was prohibited. Strictly speaking, the very first Nissan Skyline GT-R actually appeared some 20 years earlier. Indeed, the installation of a 160bhp 2-litre engine in the rather unspectacular-looking 1960s’ Skyline saloon created a car every bit as formidable in its day as its namesakes of the ’90s and beyond. Nismo, Nissan’s motorsport division, was charged with developing the car, not least because the R32 GT-R would replace the soonto-be-retired R31 GTS-R racer on the track. To ensure the R32 had an edge over its rivals, chief engineer Naganori Itoh wanted to go further. Taking inspiration from the Porsche 959, a car he admired greatly, he asked his team to develop a hi-tech four-wheel-drive system. The resulting ATTESA ETS Pro – or Advanced Total Traction Engineering System for All-Electronic Torque Split – would employ a number of sensors to monitor lateral acceleration and individual wheel speeds, enabling an electronically controlled, hydraulically operated multi-plate clutch pack to send up to 50% of the GT-R’s drive to the front wheels when required. Genius. Supported by Super-HICAS – a retuned version of the HICAS (High Capacity Actively Controlled Suspension) four-wheel-steer system found on some lesser Skylines – the GT-R’s chassis would undoubtedly give it a handling and traction advantage, but there was a downside to all this tech: it added weight. Nismo’s solution was to increase the
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