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Since we are approaching another milestone of 2,000 likes and followers, we thought it would be a perfect time to cover a topic which we briefly touched on several times; that being the infamous story of the "Skyline Legend" or more famous to Japanese fans that occurred at the 1964 Suzuka Japan Grand Prix!
It is known that for more than half a century, motor racing has drawn crowds in Japan as well as many other countries around the world. In 1964, this is when Japanese motorsport got a huge kickstart thanks to one machine or several you could say.
A team of Skyline GTs lined up for the GT-II Class race, all modified sedans that were about to do the unthinkable and challenge the already established team from abroad, Porsche.
History may have been made that day, as the Skyline's nearly failed to get to the event to qualify, as a total 100 of production units were need to be made. Thankfully, The Prince Motor Company at the time which later had merged with Nissan only just reached the target! The Skyline GT adopted a few major changes with that being a longer nose & a straight six, triple-carbureted engine - the person behind that was the legendary chief engineer, Shinichiro Sakurai.
Another legend being Yoshikazu Sunako (1932-2020) who sadly is no longer with us, fondly remembered that at first, the modified car seemed far from perfect as to be fair it looked very unassuming but oh, it was far from it.
As Sunako said around 3 years ago:
“We had extended the car by 20 centimeters, the body balance was very bad & the tires were out so that’s why we could only drift when we turned. We slipped & drifted because the tires were bad. But these issues actually turned out to be good for us”.
But it only took a few practice runs to make Sunako realize that the car was something special.
He continued by saying:
“We finished a lap in two minutes 47 seconds & at that point, I was proud to say this was the fastest car at Suzuka”.
The sedan model of the Skyline would have to be fast as another late addition to the field which may have surprised some but having a somewhat large reception from foreign manufacturers at the 1963 Japan Grand Prix in the main event, anything was possible. This time the Porsche 904 Carrera GTS made its mark from Germany that had many victories under its belt. The Skyline would not defeat the Porsche that was a true weapon on the straights as you would expect - in qualifying though, it would crash out hence the tape that covers the front which really makes it a memorable image to this day.
The 904 could hit a top speed over 250 kilometers per hour but Sunako’s driver colleague, the young Tetsu Ikuzawa which would be quickly building a fine reputation for himself would make history that day in the No.41 Skyline GT as he would lead the Porsche driven by Sokichi Shikiba for a lap, a truly iconic moment for Japanese motorsport.
Sunako conituned to say:
“Just before the hairpin curve, Ikuzawa overtook the Porsche, so I thought, ‘Wow, he’s the man!’ “.
As the Skyline led the Porsche, fans at Suzuka – and around Japan – went wild with excitement. The title may have ultimately gone to the German car, but for the Prince team: their job was done as their Skylines held the positions from second place to sixth with Sunako taking second, just under ten seconds behind Shikba & the fantastic drive that Ikuzawa showed, captured the nation's attention as he would finish in the well-deserved podium spot.
For Toshiyuki Shiga, who once served as Nissan’s Chief Operating Officer says that day decided his path in life :
“I was just nine years old at that time, but I still remember the big news. 1964 was the moment Japanese motorization began. Nissan always led the initiative with motorsports. I was so happy. It was my dream, and I wanted to enter Nissan.”
Veteran race driver, Kazuyoshi Hoshino – who himself would become a national hero at Daytona nearly 30 years later – said the Skyline also fired his imagination.
“This is the car that became a trigger for Japan motorsports, and I was obsessed by it. The reason I got into motorsports was because of this. I chose this path in life because of this and if it didn’t exist, I would have chosen another path in life“.
Even though the Prince did catch a victory in 1964, it would spur them on to keep improving their craft and after it inspired the development of the beautiful Prince R380 that would finally end the reign of the victorious Porsche team at the 1966 Grand Prix just two years later with Sunako himself behind the wheel of the aforementioned R380; another story that will be coming up at some point.
Sunako finished by saying:
“It was because we lost against the Porsche at that time that the R380 series was born, so it was actually a good thing that we competed against the Porsche Carrera”.
You could say this was a stepping stone for Prince, a large step they had achieved to see what they had to work on to gain the victory they so deserved, the Skyline GT with its respective drivers was truly an incredible machine regardless if it even got the victory or not - this was just the start.
Car Graphic, AUTOSPORT, Japanese Nostalgic Car, Nissan Global Archives & Twitter
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