We Have This Skyline
27 February 2010This is my third (and fastest) Nissan. It’s mostly stock, and I opted for the single-turbo GTST instead of a twin-turbo GTR. It’s a 5-speed right-hand-drive 1996 R33 with only 45,000 miles imported from Japan with minor modification to meet U.K. requirements. It’s surprisingly large—an inch longer than the ’66 Mustang coupe I once owned, but not as big as the Ford Explorer XLT I had at Bragg—and feels huge in comparison to my VW Mark II Golf hooptie (which I still own). Four-wheel steering helps quite a bit. [Update: It's not the HICAS. I guess the turning radius is just a lot better than I expected.]
Nissan Skyline R33.
Because of all the rain and snow, the autobahn isn’t 100% dry yet, so I’ve only gotten it up to 217 KPH (134.8 MPH) so far [Update: Now up to 144mph so far] (calculated via GPS). I don’t actually know how fast it can go, but it definitely had a lot more left.
The right-hand-drive part is still tripping me up at times–mostly getting used to shifting with my left hand, having the turn signal stalk on the right, and looking to the left for the rear-view mirror. The part that’s trickier than I expected is remembering the left side mirror is an “objects are closer than they appear” convex mirror.
Thank ESSO I’m paying U.S.A. prices for fuel.
Driving on the right in a right-hand-drive car also throws me off because it creates a natural tendency to veer left. I’m not used to sitting so close to far from the center line, and it feels strange having so much car to the left of me. It’s like piloting the Millennium Falcon.
I didn’t drive much in the U.K. aside from getting it to the Chunnel on my way back to Germany. Driving on the left seems okay as long as you’re driving a right-hand-drive vehicle. They make their turning circles entirely too big, though. The German ones are much nicer.
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