Considering the first Nissan Z had a bigger and more powerful engine than the first Skyline GT-R, I wondered; when did the fastest Skyline become faster than the fastest Z?

24 Mar 2019

C10 vs. S30Z

The original battle; HakoSuka versus the S30 Z. The biggest engine the Hako got was an S20, a 2.0-litre twin-cam straight 6. The biggest the Z got was an L28, a 2.8-litre single-cam straight 6. In terms of engineering Skyline’s engine is more advanced, but is that enough to replace 0.8-litres worth of engine?

Well, it’s not much… but the Z has got 10 extra horses out of those 0.8-litres. The Hako only got 160hp vs. the 170 out of the S30’s L28.

C110 vs. S130Z

The biggest engine the C110 got wasn’t the S20 this time, but an L24 in stead, although only Aussies got that trim level, which was called the Datsun 240K. The S20 was still the most powerful however. The L24 only had 148 buff horses, while the S20 was the same engine as the one that was fitted to the Hako GT-R.
The L28 got an update this time, as it now has electronic injection and a turbo. So… the L28”ET” produced only 180hp. Though it isn’t that much, it’s an improvement, as the difference is now 20hp instead of 10.

R31 vs. Z31

To quickly glance over the time when Nissan didn’t explicitly make GT-Rs anymore, I chose the fastest of that time. The R31 had an RB20DET-R, producing 210hp, while the fastest Z31 was the European Turbo model which had a VG30ET producing 240hp. The reason this was the most powerful version of the Z31 is because the European models had a different cam-profile. Elsewhere the “300ZR” was the most powerful, which had a VG30DE producing only 190hp.

So, the difference has once more increased by 10, this time being 30hp. 210hp vs. 240hp (if you’re lucky).

R32, R33 & R34 vs. Z32

Right… here’s where it gets tricky. You see, the Z32 was produced up until 2000, which means the R34 was already for sale when production of the Z32 stopped. So: The most powerful Z32 was of course the twin-turbocharged version S, which was a VG30DETT producing 300hp at most. Of course, the most powerful engines the “R”s got was the legendary RB26DETT. Ignoring Nismo, the R32 had 276hp, the R33 had 301hp, and the R34 had 327hp. Including Nismos, the R32 had the same as the usual GT-R, the R33 had 395hp, and the R34 had 493hp.

To conclude, this means that the Skyline became faster than the Z when the R33 came out, both with and without Nismo (I also compared the Z32 to non-Nismo Skylines because there’s no Nismo Z32). Of course there’s still the Z33 and Z34. But they don’t stand a chance against the R35 in Top Trumps. In case you’re interested however… the Z33 had a VQ35HR producing 306hp. Still less than the standard R34 GT-R’s 327hp.

But I do wonder, which do you prefer? The Z or the R? To me it depends on the decade. For the ‘70s it would be the Z, for the ‘80s and ‘90s the R, for the ‘00s (counting the end of the R34 and beginning of the R35) and ‘10s it would be the Z again. Also, your favourite Z vs. your favourite R, which would you prefer in that case? In my case the Z.

Comments

S30Z, C110, R31, 90s Skyline GTRs

Nice post however the R32 GT-R has ~320 crank HP, the R33 has ~330 and the R34 ~350

I’ve just now checked how much the 300ZX gets on the crank, it has 325hp. The conclusion is therefore the same, but thank you for pointing it out :)

Yes the Z’s had more power than the GT-Rs, but power isn’t speed.
Up until the Gt-R32, the Z’s were faster, yes.
But the Z’s had become GTs by then. The Z32 was heavy.

The GT-R32 even though less powerfull was faster, accelerated beter and could easily outcorner the Z32.

Yes, after the Z32, the Z’s became more “sportscar-y” again, but by then, as you said, the R’s are just way more powerfull.

Always preferred Zs, just to be difficult

Before the 90’s, no-one would bat an eye at the Skyline.
Then came some games where people could see they had power, and then a certain movie that blasted it to stardom.
As far as I know, everyone like the Fairlady Z more until the 90’s when the Z went wider. Back thten everyone thought it was “big and heavy like an American car”. Little did we know it was the same weight and length as a Skyline coupe, but a little wider.