The Nissan Skyline GT-R Is One of the Most Exciting Cars of Its Era

From the postwar period to present, perhaps no nation of carmakers has made bolder strides or wielded greater influence on manufacturers and consumers alike than Japan. By the late 1960s, models like the let the rest of the world know that Japanese marques were serious players in the sports-car segment. (Datsun in America) has long been a player, from the storied 510 sedan—a Trans-Am racing-series champ that battled and Alfa’s GTV—to the popular and its successors.

Meanwhile, from the 1980s, U.S. consumers were frequently denied the “good stuff” from Japan that simply never came stateside due to complicated DOT and EPA regulations, which made it unprofitable to bring that era’s most exciting cars—especially the Nissan Skyline GT-R—to the United States.

The Skyline GT-R (Grand Turismo-Rac