Skyline turbo: a legend at 30

[Wimbledon]

Found this very informative post on VW Vortex and thought I'd share.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.ph...gend-at-30

Quote:



While turbo cars had been built by Oldsmobile and BMW, it was only with the Saab 99 Turbo in 1978 that turbocharging became a viable, mainstream performance option. But boy oh boy, did the Japanese take to turbos in a big way. Because over the next five years, almost all Japanese manufacturers (with the exception of Honda) would make turbo a mainstream performance option.

Then the story of the Nissan Skyline. When Prince Motors introduced the Skyline in 1957 and the Gloria in 1959, it would be a big step forward for the fledgling Japanese car industry. These cars may have looked like Chevrolet-clones, but they were contemporary cars with some avantgarde engineering like De Dion rear suspension. The next generation Skyline and Gloria confirmed the progress of Prince Motors as one of Japan's most accomplished of the time, before merging with Nissan in 1966. The progress made by the Japanese car industry during the first half of the 1960s was truly remarkable.

Nissan introduced a turbo option with the 430 series Cedric in 1979, Japan's first. But the following year, the smaller and lighter C210 series Skyline got the L20ET motor. Typical of Japanese manufacturers of the time, they were generous with regards to availability- so it came in 4-door sedan and 2-door hardtop with a number of trim levels, topped off by the flagship GT-EX. The power rating was 145hp- and keep in mind that this is 5hp less than the original VW 1.8T. Of course, there's the weight difference between a C210 Skyline and, say, a B5 Passat...

The other, less glamorous but still worthy addition to the C210 Skyline lineup that year was a diesel motor, the six-cylinder LD28. Its modest 91hp wasn't bad considering this was a bit more than a Mercedes-Benz 300D, and a Skyline diesel was consequently one of the few non-turbo diesels that could do 100mph or so. A pity they never turbocharged the Nissan diesel six for passenger cars. (The turbo diesel revolution was also beginning, and it too would reach Japan before long.)



The 910 series Bluebird, last of the RWD Bluebirds and in fact the most successful Bluebird in Japan since the legendary 510 (the 910 was a segment leader throughout its life), also received the turbo treatment in 1980. This isn't a pic of a turbo Bluebird, but the Bluebird SSS turbo had the Z18ET with 135hp. So you were treated in the early 80s to a choice of RWD turbo sedans in the form of Bluebird, Skyline and Laurel, with independent rear suspension and lots of luxury goodies coming with them too. Guess the Europeans and Japanese had things rather better than Americans in those testing times for the car industry!

How far the Skyline has come!