The first Skyline's 1.5 L engine started life in the prototype Subaru 1500, a rare shared root between two rival badges.
Median 105 hp across 69 similar cars
Lead trim: 1.5 L GA-30 (60 hp, 1957–59) · up to 91 hp
Nissan Skyline ALSI/BLSI/S21 first generationALSI/BLSI/S21 · 1957–1963
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FactThe first Skyline's 1.5 L engine started life in the prototype Subaru 1500, a rare shared root between two rival badges.
The first Skyline, introduced on 24 April 1957 at the Takarazuka Theater in Hibiya for Fuji Precision Industries (Prince) as a luxury car, built at Mitaka to November 1963 (33,759 sold). Its 1.5 L GA-30 engine had earlier been used in the prototype Subaru 1500, with a de Dion tube rear suspension, and the car weighed about 1,300 kg. Bodies were the four-door sedan (ALSIS-1 standard and ALSID-1 Deluxe), five-door delivery van and station wagon, and the ALPE double-cab pickup, with 1950s American-influenced tail fins that drew accusations of copying the Simca Ariane at European shows. It was sold in the United States from 1959 but very few were bought. The ALSI-2 series (October 1959) gained a higher-compression engine, quad headlights came to the Deluxe in February 1960, the BLSI-3 (May 1961) took the 1.9 L GB-4 from the Gloria, and the S21 (September 1962) had a redesigned front end. The BLRA-3 Skyline Sport, a Michelotti-styled coupé and convertible built by hand in a few hundred, foreshadowed the GT-R sub-range.
Collectors Spotted in the Nissan Skyline Lineage
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Trims & Figures
3 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5 L GA-30 (60 hp, 1957–59) | 1957–1959 | 1.5 L Inline-4 | 60 hp | 78 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| 1.5 L GA-4 (70 hp, 1959–61) | 1959–1961 | 1.5 L Inline-4 | 70 hp | 83 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| 1.9 L GB-4 OHV (91 hp, 1961–63) | 1961–1963 | 1.9 L Inline-4 | 91 hp | 113 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
Owning one
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Owners’ builds
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In the Community
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Photographs
Only 100 Skyline Nismo Limiteds exist, and each one's engine was hand-built by the same Takumi craftsmen who build the R35 GT-R's VR38 — their names are stamped right on it.
The V37 Skyline Nismo Limited's engines were handbuilt by Nissan's legendary "Takumi" craftsmen — the same hands that built the R35 GT-R's VR38 — and each one carries their nameplate.
Nissan marked the Skyline's 55th birthday with exactly 555 of them: the V36's 55th Limited Edition sedan, built in that precise number to match the anniversary.
Nissan named the V35 platform after the mythical land of Fuga, a name it later reused for a sedan sold as the Infiniti M35/M45.
Buried under the R34's reputation for turbo GT-Rs is a quieter record: the naturally-aspirated HR34 GT became the most fuel-efficient straight-six Skyline Nissan had ever built, in any generation.
The R33 grew enough that Japan's own tax code no longer counted it as a compact — the first Skyline generation to outgrow the exterior-size tax break.
The R32 GT-R earned the nickname 'Godzilla' within months of launch — Australia's Wheels magazine coined it in July 1989, and it stuck through every GT-R generation since.
Only 823 R31 GTS-R coupes were ever built — a homologation special that existed purely to legalize a bigger turbo and intercooler for Group A touring car racing, even while still giving up horsepower to its Ford and Holden rivals.
The R31 holds a Skyline first — the only generation in the car's entire history to come as a four-door hardtop, badged "Passage GT."
The R30's FJ20 was the first Japanese four-cylinder with more than two valves per cylinder, and some grades let the driver adjust dampers on the move.
The RS-X's slot-eyed face wasn't styling for its own sake — fans nicknamed it "Tekkamen," the Iron Mask, for a nose so radical it ditched the grille entirely for two narrow slits.
The C210's 2000GT-EX turbo, sold with no blow-off valve or intercooler, is credited as Japan's first turbocharged production car engine.
Kenmeri's name is a pun: Ken and Mary from the ads, plus old Japanese slang for American, Meriken.
The C10 Skyline was the last one designed at Prince's own Ogikubo studio before wearing a Nissan badge to market.
Only 100 S54A-1 Skyline GTs were built, just enough to homologate a straight-six squeezed into a sedan stretched 200 mm at the cowl.
The first Skyline's 1.5 L engine started life in the prototype Subaru 1500, a rare shared root between two rival badges.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
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