NISSAN HAS A NISMO SKYLINE IN JAPAN, SA HAS AN ALMERA. OUCH.
On the aftermarket side of things, Nissan has a huge following here in SA. If you hit up a track day, you’ll see a bunch of well-sorted 350Z and 370Z cars having track fun with a bunch of Nissan GT-Rs. If you head to a drag race event, you’ll find 1 000 hp GT-Rs ripping it up, and park-offs will have anything from RB25-powered 200SX cars through to Nissan Champs with ridiculous engine swaps. The Nissan fanatics are strong in SA, but they sadly have no way to buy new cars and modify them because the products on offer from Nissan are sparse, to say the least. You can choose from two Magnites, two X-Trails, two Navaras, one Patrol, one Qashqai, one NP 200 (not for much longer) and then the only sedan - an Almera. You can see why Nissan fanatics have no use for new cars, which means when it comes time for a new car, these guys who live and breathe the brand have no choice but to jump ship to another brand. If you head into a dealership, they have no options for you. Unless you’re in the US or Japan, then you can have a brand-new Nissan Skyline. That’s right, the Skyline is still around and can be bought new. In the US it’s sold under the Infinity brand as an Intinity Q50, and that brand tanked in SA so that option is gone. In Japan, the car sells well, and with that in mind, the powers that be at Nissan have just released a NISMO-spec Skyline for the JDM market, and it’s pretty damn awesome. The sad thing is that if it was on sale in SA, it would be priced right along with the popular German sedans, the Yen price directly translated to Rands is at R1 038 845.98. With import taxes and all that added on, it could be around R1 200 000, which is the going rate for something cool.
To make the Skyline NISMO worthy of the badge, there has been a host of changes. The twin-turbocharged V6 had a power bump taking it to 309 kW with 550 Nm of torque, and it has new drive modes - sport and sport+ that have the NISMO-dedicated AT shift schedule which allows the engine to operate at higher RPM and deliver a sharper response. The Skyline rolls on NISMO-exclusive Enkei 19-inch wheels, it has specially tuned suspension, a revised ABS system, a specially-tuned dynamic control system, specially developed NISMO bumpers and side sills with red accents, NISMO-exclusive fog lamps and of course, the NISMO logos. The cabin features the same high-quality fit and finish of the popular 400R with a leather-wrapped steering wheel, a 280 km/h speedometer and a red-ringed tachometer sporting a NISMO logo, NISMO-tuned black Recaro sports seats accented with red centrepieces. The NISMO edition Skyline can be had in a choice of five body colours, with the best being the exclusive NISMO Stealth Gray that you see in these pics. We know many Nissan fans that would have one of these over a new BMW or Mercedes sedan, but alas, the SA market is a hard-fought place with little option. Having such a weak Rand doesn’t help things either. On the automotive front, SA sucks just a wee bit.
Take a look at the YouTube video from the launch of the new NISMO edition Nissan Skyline that's been created for the Japanese market, proving that all things JDM are just awesome. It's a great-looking sedan and about fifty-twelve times better than the only Nissan sedan we have in the SA market, the Uber-friendly Almera: 2024 Nissan Skyline Nismo Sport Sedan Revealed | DPCcars
Be sure to check out our YouTube channel here for more exciting and exclusive SXdrv content! And don't forget to smash that subscribe button!