When a Nissan Skyline rolls into a car meet, the crowd parts like the Red Sea. Whether it’s an R32, R33, or R34, gearheads stop and stare. Ready to crown it ‘Best in Show‘ at any JDM show, especially if it’s painted Bayside Blue like in their Fast & Furious fantasies.
In Japan, the Nissan Skyline GT-R was a monster. A high-tech car with all-wheel-drive, HICAS four-wheel steering, and powered by the RB26DETT twin-turbo straight-six. It bullied the competition in racing until it was banned from competition. The motoring press nicknaming it “Godzilla”.
The Skyline was sold in North America for a variety of reasons including crash-testing, emissions standards, and the engineering costs of converting the Skyline to left-hand-drive since the turbos and exhaust manifold are where the steering column would need to be. These machines remained a mythical ‘halo car‘ from the Far East, obtainable only in video games or through grey-market imports.
Fast forward to 2003 when Nissan created the ‘Diet Skyline’ for sale in North America too. It was simply a rebadging the new V35 Skyline as the Infiniti G35. This rear-wheel-drive sports car had a powerful 3.5L naturally aspirated V6 engine; non-turbocharged ‘VQ’ engines were bulletproof and could be thrashed on all day without failure. The VQ35 and later VQ37 engines produced 280 HP and 330 HP in stock form. These were respectable sports cars—for a while, at least.
So why are the VQ powered G37 and G37 considered the stereotypical ‘hooning’ car? The Skyline’s prestigious “halo” has been replaced by a cloud of tire smoke—the poster-boy for street takeovers. Simply put, VQ-powered cars are popular because they’re readily-available, high-powered, and cheap to buy. As these budget sports cars reached the used car market, even a teenager with a part time job could afford a rear-wheel-drive car they could power-slide through suburban intersections .
The reputational damage is severe. There’s a stereotype about Ford Mustangs and Cars and Coffee meets, which revolves around incapable drivers mashing the gas pedal leaving and taking pole-position. As in, hitting telephone poles. Seems that VQ-powered, rebadged Skylines have met the same fate. A Nebraska event called Supercar Saturday made headlines recently by banning all VQ-powered Nissans from future events in the interests of safety, and maintaining an enjoyable environment for others.
Seems that folks in Omaha do not appreciate the raspy, metallic, drone of a straight-piped VQ as much as they enjoy the deep rumble of a V8. Its not so much the Infiniti cars they hate so much, it’s the engine powering those cars. Supercar Saturday went a step further to ban all VQ-powered vehicles from their events including the Nissan 350Z and 370Z, plus the Infiniti G25, G35, G37, Q40, Q50, and Q60. Wow!
The irony is palpable. On the very same day Omaha was blacklisting the VQ hooligans, Nissan Motor Corporation of Japan announced a 14th-generation Skyline.
Calling the Skyline the “heartbeat” of the company, Nissan promised a retro-styled love letter to real gearheads, likely to be sold here as a new Infiniti. However, the betting lines suggest the venerable VQ engine won’t be coming along for the ride. After two decades of being the soundtrack to every mall parking lot burnout, the VQ is finally being put out to pasture—and Nebraska can finally sleep in peace.