Our Favourite Skylines

We love the Skyline. You love the Skyline. Let’s face it, everybody loves a Skyline. But the model had evolved hugely from its first conception at the end of the fifties to the current supreme example of passionate Japanese engineering and design. The GT-R Spec V is targeted specifically at enthusiast drivers who desire race car-level performance in a street-legal vehicle.

Developed around the multi-dimensional Nissan GT-R sports car, which was introduced just more than one year ago to universal global acclaim, the new SpecV model builds on the original’s “ultimate supercar that anyone can enjoy driving anywhere, at anytime” philosophy – taking it to an entirely new level of “oneness between man and machine.” The SpecV model includes unique body, interior and performance equipment and modifications, raising the GT-R’s unmatched performance to even higher levels.

The GT-R SpecV’s new exterior features include a carbon fibre rear spoiler, a carbon fibre grille, and carbon fibre brake ducts. The SpecV is available exclusively in Ultimate Black Opal (RP) body colour. Inside, the SpecV’s unique two-seat interior (non-SpecV GT-R models also include a two-place rear seat) offers special Recaro carbon fibre bucket seats, while carbon fibre insets embellish the rear centre storage box, instrument panel and other trim areas.

Performance is enhanced with a new high gear boost control device, which momentarily increases boost of the engine’s twin turbochargers for greater torque in the intermediate-to-high speed ranges to provide a more powerful feeling of acceleration, while also allowing the engine to operate at a lower speed for improved fuel economy. Other modifications include a titanium-coated exhaust system and carbon-ceramic brakes that provide powerful stopping performance.

The GT-R SpecV is also equipped with lightweight, racing-style forged aluminium wheels that were developed for this model and have been sold by Nissan Motorsports International (NISMO) since September 2008. The lighter unsprung weight provided by the new wheels, together with the enhanced braking capability, an exclusive suspension and high-grip tyres, combine to deliver the SpecV’s exceptional performance.

Here are ten of our high-points of the evolution to the superlative GT-R V-Spec launched earlier this year.

Adrin Flux have great deals on Skyline insurance, click on the link or call 0800 089 0050.

Somewhere in the deep lying recesses of your mind where there are no boundaries to things and no constraints to your indulgence you drive a Spyker. The cars made by the Dutch company, which was resurrected in the nineties by a visionary of bespoke car culture – was every pubescent boy’s autoerotic fantasy – and the reality of just a handful of billionaires. But the Spyker story just might be becoming an object lesson on natural selection – and a demonstration of the theory of evolution applied to the car industry. There’s symmetry to the fact that this is the year of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th of the publication of his revolutionary book The Origin of Species. We are after all living through a time when nature raw in tooth and claw is expressing its cold impartiality in deciding what thrives and what perishes – in both the natural world and the business world alike. Whatever its destiny Spyker was born of admirable dreams and intentions. Founder Victor Muller’s vision was to fuse aviation design and auto engineering brilliance associated with the Spyker brand with a renewed market possibility of bespoke vehicles for gentlemen of the utmost discernment and taste. For a while, the mission looked bang on course. There were a series of truly spectacular and innovative models, led by the long, torsional C8, the SSUV ‘Peking-Paris’ crosser and the sleek, Zagato-designed C12. There was the move a couple of years ago into Formula 1, (followed by its swift exit.) Now while the rest of us are getting quickly sick of the forecasts of doom, Spyker are bullishly presenting the production version of the audacious C8 Aerilon at Geneva next month, as well as bringing to market a road going version of their Le Mans race car based on the C8 GT, the LM85. The question remains for Spyker watchers is this: are these fascinating breeds doomed to go the way of the dodo – or the way of the platypus (which the Aileron subtly resembles). As Darwin described 150 years ago, highly specialised environments call for highly specialised adaptations. If a genus cannot adapt appropriately to the environment in which it finds itself, it will eventually become extinct. Anyone who cares about hand wrought brilliance in the face of encroaching automotive mediocrity should pray that Spyker finds its course.