Pasta's Livery Warehouse

Japan Grand Prix 1964 - Prince Skyline GT #41

Added 2024-10-16 12:59:57 +0000 UTC

For Lucas Macedo's excellent Prince Skyline GT mod.

I think we all know the story by now, but for those who don't, lets have a quick recap:
Prince lost badly in the 1963 Japanese Grand Prix, a total PR disaster. To salvage their reputation with sporty saloons, the S50 generation Prince Skyline was introduced later that year, but only saw racing action in 1964 at the 2nd Japanese Grand Prix. Prince had no "real" GT car ready for the GT-II race, but did have a "Super-6" engine from the luxury barge Gloria, the first Japanese built production car engine with over 100 horsepower, and a dependable chassis with the S50 Skyline.

So, Mr. Sakurai crammed the big straight-6 engine into the Skyline, did some 'interesting' suspension adjustments and sent a bunch of them off to the Grand Prix, with the 7 Samurai of Prince. They did not anticipate a Porsche 904 to participate in the race, and many suspected the race to have already been decided before it even began. However, Tetsu Ikuzawa in car 41 managed to surprise millions of people by not only keeping up with the 904, but passing it for the lead. That single overtake would give birth to the Skyline legend, one that has lasted for 60 years now and lead to thousands of race wins, in real life and in sim racing.