Nissan Skyline

The Nissan Skyline (スカイライン in Japanese) is a line of compact cars, sports cars and compact executive cars originally produced by the Prince Motor Company starting in 1955, and then by Nissan after the two companies merged in 1966. After the merger, the Skyline and its larger counterpart, the Nissan Gloria, were sold in Japan at dealership sales channels called Nissan Prince Shop.

It is currently available in either coupé, or sedan body styles, and are most commonly known by their trademark round brake and tail lights (as of 1972); the station wagon bodystyle was dropped in 1989 with the introduction of the R32 platform.

Iterations R30 to R34 of the Skyline are still popular tuner cars for Japanese car enthusiasts from the 1980s to today, especially with available features such as straight-6 engines, turbochargers, and the high-performance GT-R trim. While not distributed in the United States, the Skyline's prominence in video games, movies and magazines resulted in many such cars being imported there from 1999 to late 2005, after Motorex petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to allow 1990–1999 GT-Rs and GTSs to be imported, at the condition that they were modified to meet United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

The 11th-generation Skyline (V35) was another major turning point for the nameplate, as it dropped some of the Skyline's trademark characteristics such as the straight-6 engine and turbocharging, eventually separated the GT-R into its own line, and moved to V6-engined era, this decision which extended to all later Skylines. Nissan decided to retain the Skyline for the luxury-sport market, while its platform-mate, the 350Z, revived the Z line of pure sports cars. The V35 was the first Skyline made for export to North America, being sold under Nissan's luxury marque Infiniti as the G35. The Skyline (V36/J50) is sold in Europe, North America, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Middle East as the Infiniti G37.

April 11, 2010 saw a world record for the biggest ever Nissan Skyline meet and the most ever officially recognized on a track in the Guinness Book of World Records. This took place at Silverstone, United Kingdom at the ISTS event.

Read more about Nissan Skyline:  ALSID-1, S50, C10, C110, C210, R30, R31, R32, R33, R34, V35/CV35, V36/CV36/J50

Famous quotes containing the word skyline:

    The kind of power mothers have is enormous. Take the skyline of Istanbul—enormous breasts, pathetic little willies, a final revenge on Islam. I was so scared I had to crouch in the bottom of the boat when I saw it.
    Angela Carter (1940–1992)