Bi-Weekly Recommendation #6: The “Casual” Skyline

[95GTIVR6]

1984 Nissan Skyline Hard Top 2000 RS-X Turbo C

What I Look For
When I go about testing various cars in Gran Turismo 4 I usually look for a few things. I first look at how the car handles. Does it lean, have body roll? Does the car loose traction or have under/oversteer? Among other things as well, for example, the amount of power/torque and how much the car weighs. Also, tire wear is also a factor I look at while comparing the vehicles. Again, as I stated in my first recommendations, this is just one persons (mine) interpretation of various vehicles in GT4. Any comments are welcome and appreciated, even if they are negative or merely just helpful

First Looks
Usually, I try not to talk bad about the cars that I recommend to others with these write up’s. However, this 1984 Skyline wasn’t to appealing to me, but because of the way I play the game, it only had 6.2 miles so I bought it. It has very mundane features which make it completely evident that it is an 80’s car before even knowing the name. Grille-less front (except for two small slits), rectangle headlights, square taillights, and matchbox-like frame all provide its buyers with not-so-stunning features. Well, maybe I should give this cars styling a break and see what its performance brings us.

Test Drive: Nurburgring: 8’51.292
Under the hood of this boxy beast is a moderately powered, turbocharged L4 DOHC engine cranking out 204hp and 180ft/lbs of torque. Where most new Skylines are 4WD, the Turbo C pushes all of its power to the rear wheels and weighing at only 1250kg, this makes the car quite easy to push around without having to worry about the car biting back. Yet the car seems somewhat underpowered. As much as you try, the rear wheels will not kick out unless you really, REALLY force them (i.e. swerving on the straights and then drifting into the corner). Along with being underpowered the gears are set much too long and most tracks will never even see 5th gear when driving them.
While the Turbo C is lacking in the power department, the handling of this car is not too shabby, given it was made in the mid 80’s. Any inexperienced driver can get into this car and drive it with no problem except for a slight amount of wheel spin when starting in first gear. Corners are taken well but body roll is evident under heavy cornering. Along with that, the body’s momentum moving forward may contribute to its fine braking characteristics. In most cases, when driving grip rather than drift, the car allows you to push out of the corners with only the slightest bit of understeer. However, that is something that is easily controlled by throttle position.

Final Thoughts
Like I said before, this Skyline is very dull compared to other models. The styling is nothing to drool over but performance is moderate and easy to learn. And while this car may sound mean with its throaty exhaust note and small boost turbo, don’t mistake it for new Skylines with nearly 100 more horses. However, like all the cars I have mentioned before, with the proper tuning this car can be made into a well balanced race machine. Stock it can compete in the moderately difficult FR Challenge but for the Turbo Cup it will need more power. Also, once you have the proper license, the Skyline Cup is also available.
Should this car be in GT4? As much as I don’t want to say it, yes. The reasoning behind this is that it is a good car for beginner drivers to learn the basics of a front engine, RWD coupe. There is enough stock power to get up to a descent speed and good handling to make driving this car seem like a breeze. Also, where as the final tuned horsepower isn’t massive like many other cars in its class, the Turbo C is easy to play around with and simple to tune. It makes for a very relaxing drive and can be rewarding with proper adjustments.



*Note* Oh yeah, I tried to get the most out of this cars bland features with special "action" photos, please enjoy.

 

[95GTIVR6]

well at least people are reading these, thats all i care about.

 

[somebody]

well at least people are reading these, thats all i care about.

Another good write-up 👍
I use this car as one of my 'Sunday drivers'. Great fun to zip 'round the 'ring.

 

[Revheadnz]

Another cool write up :tup. I like how you are purposefully bringing peoples attention to the "other" cars of GT4 which aren't a R34 GTR or RX7.
It's not that much of an overlooked car but any chance of a Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 sometime? Most people ignore it because it is a Galant and an Evo can be got for near the same cash but I like my VR-4, I've set up the suspension really well and it corners flat and fast without a trace of understeer.

 

[SRV2LOW4ME]

Nice write up. I actually purchased one of these 2 days ago with only 6.2 miles, and created a pretty good drift machine out of it. Its been my goal lately to create drift machines from the ordinary RX7's and Silvia's everyone else is using. Keep up the good work, i'll be lookin forward to seein what car ya write next, who knows, it could be my next smoke machine.

 

[95GTIVR6]

Another cool write up :tup. I like how you are purposefully bringing peoples attention to the "other" cars of GT4 which aren't a R34 GTR or RX7.
It's not that much of an overlooked car but any chance of a Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 sometime? Most people ignore it because it is a Galant and an Evo can be got for near the same cash but I like my VR-4, I've set up the suspension really well and it corners flat and fast without a trace of understeer.

The Galant is amazing, however, the process in which I do these write-ups is based on my aquire date and sadly, I have not gotten around (or seen) a 6.2M VR-4 to purchase.

I do know the awesome performance of that car though. I had it in another one of my games.

Recently I have been thinking about making these Tri-Weekly reports so I can get more done in a shorter amount of time. I do all of these in the first hour I am at work so its not a big deal. However, I will be moving into an apartment and starting college again in the fall so I am not sure how that will work out.

Anyways, thanks for all that respond and read my reports. I know they are nothing too spectacular but as long as I can get people to read them then I have accomplished something.

 

[Spottedlaurel]

I'm very happy to keep reading them, you manage to choose some interesting cars that many would overlook. IRL as well as my fondness for old Japanese metal (usually rusty...) I'm Archivist for the Datsun Owners Club here in the UK, so anything on Datsun and older Nissan models is great for me.

I haven't really done much yet with either of the GT4 R30 Skylines, but in GT2 it was my first car and proved very capable. I prefer the looks of the 1983 RS model myself, and I think its PWR is actually a little better. IRL I know a guy who owns an immaculate 1982/83 RS, very nice and probably unique here in the UK.

Hopefully not going too far OT, I rescued a South African spec R31 saloon out of a scrapyard a while back, which now lives with a friend in Holland. That had the big RB30E engine which I think GT2's Tommy Kaira M30 (?) used (shame that didn't make it to GT4, but at least we got the GTS-R).

Biggest letdown for me about the R30 RS and RSX models is that they run a 4-cyl screamer rather than a six-pot which pretty much all other sporting Skylines have used. Nissan did do turbo versions of the L-series six in the early 80's, but it was pretty old by then.

I've got the L24E engine in my 1979 Skyline (I own two IRL) and it's a nice slogger but doesn't rev anything like a modern engine.

Finally getting back OT, do any of the R30/R31 GT4 Skylines give decent points in the Japanese 1980's races? I used the 300ZX first time round, but looking for more of a challenge this time.