- Nissan Skyline Coupé 350GT
The 11th-generation (V35) Nissan Skyline, introduced in June 2001, was based onNissan's FM platform, shared with the Nissan 350Z. The Nissan Skyline used a front-midship engine (VQ35DE), rear-wheel-drive layout (four-wheel drive was available for the sedan) to achieve a 52%/48% weight distribution. The V35 was the first Skyline made for export to the United States. There it was sold under the company's luxury brand, Infiniti as the Infiniti G35.
The V35 broke with Skyline tradition. There was no straight-6, no turbo, and no GT-R, a decision which extended to all later Skylines. The intention had been for the model to use a different name, a decision reversed by Renault/Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. who choose to gear the V35 towards the luxury-sport market. Billing the 350Z as a pure sports car, Nissan put a slightly more powerful VQ35DE in the 350Z, and while the Skyline and the 350Z shared the same platform, the 350Z had additional bracing, under-body aero parts, and weighed 100 kg less. Some fans refer to V35 as the "New Generation Skyline" due to drastic changes between the V35 series and its R34 predecessor.
Japanese tuners mostly ignored the V35 Skyline, the 2006 Tsukuba Super Lap Battle had not a single V35 entrant. Tuners such as Mines, Amuse, Hosaka, Garage Defend, M Speed, Nagisa, MCR, HKS, & Top Secret continued developing R32-R34 GT-Rs as time attack cars. Top Secret did tune a V35, but replaced the VQ35DE with a VK45DE V8 Twin Turbo.[43] Signal USA entered a V35 in Formula D, replacing theVQ35DE with an SR20DET.
The V35 broke with Skyline tradition. There was no straight-6, no turbo, and no GT-R, a decision which extended to all later Skylines. The intention had been for the model to use a different name, a decision reversed by Renault/Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. who choose to gear the V35 towards the luxury-sport market. Billing the 350Z as a pure sports car, Nissan put a slightly more powerful VQ35DE in the 350Z, and while the Skyline and the 350Z shared the same platform, the 350Z had additional bracing, under-body aero parts, and weighed 100 kg less. Some fans refer to V35 as the "New Generation Skyline" due to drastic changes between the V35 series and its R34 predecessor.
Japanese tuners mostly ignored the V35 Skyline, the 2006 Tsukuba Super Lap Battle had not a single V35 entrant. Tuners such as Mines, Amuse, Hosaka, Garage Defend, M Speed, Nagisa, MCR, HKS, & Top Secret continued developing R32-R34 GT-Rs as time attack cars. Top Secret did tune a V35, but replaced the VQ35DE with a VK45DE V8 Twin Turbo.[43] Signal USA entered a V35 in Formula D, replacing theVQ35DE with an SR20DET.