A Nissan Skyline for everyday living – no drift skid marks involved

Lets shed the light on the 5th generation #Nissan #Skyline #スカイライン again. But now the well behaved Skyline. The one for everyday living. No #turbo charged madness involved. The #R30 Skyline was introduced in 1981, based on the Nissan #Laurel platform, available as 4 door saloon (featured here), as a 5 door hatchback and station wagon.

The latter two cars actually looked brilliant. And as seen yesterday, also a 2 door hardtop coupé was available. The TI model in the picture resembles a Skyline in its purest form – even it’s called the “High Saloon II” it’s pretty basic. A 1984 car, with the small 1.8 4 cyl. unit, featuring an automatic gearbox. Any drift action has to deal with up to 90 HP – bring it on.

The design was the work of Shinichiro Sakurai, who was already involved in the first Skyline, still made by the Prince Motor Company in the 1950s. So we have some heavy Skyline heritage in front of us. Looking at the back of the car, the TI does not seem to have the double round taillights, which was a common feature on all R30 and DR30 models, except for the 5 door variants. As earlier Skyline models had different taillights on the TI models I guess the same happened here. ⁠

All in all up to 30 R30/DR30 variants had been available, making this Skyline a huge success. In 1983 actor and race car driver Paul Newman was hired for an advertising campaign, resulting in a “Paul Newman” model: the “New-man” Skyline. Nope, I’m not joking.⁠

Verdict: Quite a dull choice far away from any stance or drift action. It’s white and grey with steel wheels and no hubcaps. Deal with it.⁠