For some reason, the R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R always fits the category of JDM cars. I get it. Her arguably the best car that will never be sold in the United States, but it deserves even more rethink as it falls into the same category as the BMW M3, the Subaru WRX, the Mitsubishi Evo, as the legend of Group A.
Every year the most elected members of Jalopnik – well, just me this year – have brought you the very best of the 80s and 90s Group C and GT1 races. We even did a group B rally theme once. But for some reason, we’ve never discussed the most successful racing formula of all. It’s the awkward title Group A smas, worthy of a celebration.
Even I have never really seen the R32 GT-R as a Group A success story. It never ran in the same series as other homologation specials more related to formula. The legendary Group A rally cars were made legends by their rivalry. The Lancia Delta Integrale countered the Toyota Celica GT-Four, the Subaru Impreza WRX against the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. The R32 GT-R doesn’t matter.
The story is the same for the legendary Group A touring cars. The BMW M3 was only made to come back to the Mercedes 190E Cosworth, and who knows if we would even have V8 Audis if the company didn’t want to win its own championship. And in all DTM films on YouTube, and in all press releases from BMW and Benz, no R32 can be found.
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Nissan mainly drove the R32 GT-R on its own territory and competed in the Japanese Touring Car Championship below group A. regulations. Once the R32 was charged, it took over. In 1990 it won the championship. In 1991, it won the championship. In 1992 and 1993, yes, the same story. It competed with cars we know from Europe, M3s and Sierra RS500s, but while any American can go out and Buy an M3 and experience a part of its story, the 25 Y refused us R32sear rule. It has been kept in Gran Turismo, in Video Option DVDs, as part of a JDM story and not a Group A story.
(I will also say the R32 GT-R had some Group N history also. It won under the lower homologated rules sometimes, also at the Nürburgring.)
Nowhere is the Gcall A clout clearer than in, perhaps, the defining moment of the GT-R story. It’s the car that left Japan and drove to Australia and beat up the rest of Group A’s field down there, to the point where it was booed in 1992:
That is it! That’s the whole story! We should include the R32 GT-R as part of the history of homologation specials, just as we include it in our thoughts on JDM wonders and Bubble Era majesties. It’s not just a drift car, tow truck or tuner car waiting. It transformed a relatively simple Skyline into a performance machine; Iit is a coach, and one of the best it’s ever done.