Iconic sports car returns! Nissan Skyline reboot confirmed as Honda Prelude, Toyota Supra alternative with V6 likely

First look at next-gen Skyline reveals an angular, four-door body with iconic circular tail-lights, retro-inspired badging, and a new era for Nissan

It has been nearly 20 years since the ‘V35’ Nissan Skyline debuted in Japan, which itself marked the split of GT-R into a separate model name for the first time in December, 2007.

Now, we’ve seen the first pictures of its successor, reflecting iconic styling queues which have prevailed across six GT-R generations: four, circular tail-lights, angular styling, and calligraphy-style ‘Skyline’ badges.

The new Skyline has been described by Nissan boss Ivan Espinosa as a “heartbeat model for Japan” serving as “a reimagined icon of Japanese engineering… with performance, precision and a driver-focused character”.

It adorns a signature Skyline ‘S’ insignia on its bonnet, as seen on non-GT-R variants of the Skyline R34 (1999-2002). Indeed, the vehicle revealed by Nissan is not a GT-R performance flagship, though a next-gen GT-R has been confirmed by Nissan, and will follow Skyline’s release.

We can look to the Nissan Hyper Force concept, claiming 1000kW and incredible torque vectoring, for an imagination of the performance hero.

“A new GT-R will come” a Nissan executive told media at the Tokyo reveal.

While many details surrounding the new Skyline remain unconfirmed, it’s known the model will debut in Japan, before likely expanding globally – the same product direction taken with the R35 GT-R.

The new model will start as a four-door sedan, with no word yet on a coupe body. Powertrain also remains unconfirmed, though Nissan’s 317kW and 700Nm ‘VR35DDTT’ 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6 from the ‘Y63’ Patrol would be an obvious choice.

There is also the possibility of the 3.0-litre turbo V6 from the Nissan Z making an appearance, which makes up to 309kW in Nismo guise.

It remains unconfirmed if the new Skyline will offer a manual transmission or some level of ‘ePower’ hybridisation. Fellow revived JDM icons like the Honda Prelude and forthcoming Toyota GR GT both lean heavily into hybrid power.

Undeniably, the new generation has big shoes to fill. But so too did its forebears, which gained momentum with the 1957-1968 Skyline Prince, then erupted in popularity with the release of the iconic ‘Hakosuka’ (meaning ‘Box Car’) Skyline GT-R in 1969.