GTR 50 Years 1969 – 2019

Turning 50 is normally a somewhat glum affair, but in this case it's cause for a full-throttle celebration

- Dylan Campbell

The January 1969 issue of Modern Motor has quite the odour. Its fragile, thin, yellowing pages smell of an old library. Yet there on page 47, buried in the stench, is something small, yet important: the first appearance of GT-R in this hallowed tome.

Just one paragraph, and no image, is all the exciting new ‘Nissan Skyline 2000GT’ got in our two-page 1968 Tokyo Motor Show coverage. Yet that’s often the case when a legend is born – it’s just the same as any other similar car. And in our report we described Nissan’s sporting new four-door as “handsome”, briefly also mentioning its motorsport-derived straight-six engine.

Nissan couldn’t have known its new nameplate would still be in use 50 years later. Supposedly, there wasn’t much to the name itself, either. GT meant Gran Turismo, the thinking being an Italian name would sound more exotic and help sales. R stood, appropriately, for Racer. And so GT-R was born.