It was in 1957 that the ‘Skyline’ name was introduced by the Japanese manufacturer Prince, to denote its luxury model.

After the company merged with Nissan in 1967, the moniker jumped ship to the Nissan brand with 1968’s C10 variant.

Its new custodian regarded it as a performance badge, with the first GT-R appearing in 1969.

As the flagship Skyline, it focussed on delivering speed and style.

However, the GT-R only started to become a phenomenon during the late 1980s when the eighth-generation R32 was featured in the Sony Playstation game Gran Turismo.

Intended as Nissan’s main weapon for Group A racing, they became so all-conquering and adept at crushing their opposition that the nickname of ‘Godzilla’ was soon applied to the type.

And justifiably so.

The road cars were a little tamer, and although they were quite large machines for the time, weight was saved by fitting an aluminium bonnet and front panels.

R32 production continued through to 1994 when the new R33 took over the...