Nissan GT-R R32 Godzilla – today’s tempter

By: Guy Allen, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 24.01.2017

Big performance and a big history

Loads of performance and very collectiable - that's Nissan GT-Rs for you.

Nissan’s third generation revival of the GT-R nameplate was a stunner when launched in 1989. All-wheel-drive performance cars could still be regarded as a bit of a novelty and this effort raised the Skyline game to new levels.

It was powered by a 2.6 litre six with twin turbos, good for 276hp (206kW) in stock trim, with 361 Nm of torque. That was for a 1340kg car and was ample to provide high performance levels, allied to a chassis that clung like a limpet to any halfway decent road surface.

Despite the fact it was sold with a hefty price tag, over 43,000 of them went to market.

‘Godzilla’, as it became known, underwent a massive race development program locally in the hands of the talented Fred Gibson crew., Even today they’re justifiably proud of what they achieved and one of the team’s most famous machines has recently been restored by Gibson’s workshop.

Fame, or infamy, arrived at Bathurst 1991 during the annual touring car endurance race, when the GT-R wiped the floor with the local V8 opposition. It repeated the effort in 1992.

That was icing on a cake which included a one-two victory in the 1991 touring car championship (Jim Richards and Mark Skaife), a feat repeated in 1992. Inevitably the series regs changed and effectively outlawed the Nissan.

Even today, a well set-up GT-R will be an exhilarating drive, even if the horsepower goal posts for production cars have shifted markedly in the intervening quarter century.

This example you see here is located in Tasmania and boasts some substantial performance upgrades, but retains a stock appearance with the bonnet shut. The owner is asking $50,000.

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