The Group 5 Skyline Turbo is one of the most legendary race cars in Japanese motorsport history. By now you know that its extreme Super Silhouette aero inspired a whole genre of tuning, but why was it so epic?
In this rare footage, you can finally see how utterly extreme this road wing looked on the track, as its 562-horsepower, twin-cam LZ20B spit dragon flames from its side-dump exhaust at every downshift.
In the 1983 race at Tsukuba Circuit, the Skyline goes up against the similarly-powered Autobacs Bluebird, a host of Mazdas based on the RX-7, and the Racing Mate BMW M1. And as is the custom with Skylines, what is (nominally) a family sedan destroys a field of purpose built sports and super-cars.
Towards the end of Group 5 racing the Skyline morphed into what was essentially a prototype racer, losing some of that boxy coolness that endeared itself to Japanese car nuts, but it was still the most formidable looking car out there. Now tell us you don’t want to put a deppa spoiler on your boxy 80s sled after watching that.
Awesome videos, R30’s are the best. I have and a four door, Metalmask and an 83′. (In 1/24). At least one will be painted red and black. Thanks for posting this Ben !
In person this thing is absolutely bonkers. And also terrifying. Waaaaaay more engine than chassis or rollcage. But it is stunningly cool.
That R30 is a monster. No wonder it kickstarted zokusha/kaido racers.
I wish every car sounded like that. Jesus