rotary-convert

Yesterday my buddy and I were eating at Quiznos on Main street in ann arbor, MI. I saw something drive by that looked exactly like a 04 g-35 coupe, instinctively i looked at its rear end and where it should of said infinity it said in plain english..skyline.....
i did a double take and my buddy confirmed it, skyline....

we both noticed it had the classic manufacturers plate so it we reasoned it wasn't some punk trying to pull a fast one...

i did a little search but found nothing about this, has anyone heard of the nameplate skyline being used in an infinity? (i know car and driver has its main offices here so we get to see some goodies every now and then)

if anyone knows about this please let us know so we can be enlightned

also saw the new hemi 300c later that day with the good ole manufactureres plate
Living near detriot has its advantages.

Gord96BRG

The Infiniti G35 coupe IS a Skyline in Japan - the Skyline V35, to be exact. Skyline is a regular Nissan model range - FWD sedans, for example. It's only the later GT-R variations that had the big turbo AWD drivetrains that became legendary - even then, they still produced the plain versions of the Skyline. There is no current GT-R equivalent, and as I said - our Infiniti G35C is the Skyline V35 in Japan, essentially the same powertrain too.

It could easily have been someone who bought the G35C and just stuck on the JDM badging on it.

Regards,
Gordon

Outlaws eXtreme

If you come to Irvine California, I know of at least 5 people with imported true Skylines that are students at UCI... wacky I know. One guy had it fully modded Trust, you can't miss him... he said he spent about 120k already bringing it over and fixing it up.... dang lucky kid.

lilbigman

I worked for a company thats is based out of japan,
when the owner's son open up a facility here in san diego
he had his skyline brought over from japan.

Yet the skyline was not "street legal" due to cali emissions laws,
so it was imported as a recreational vehical but he was only able to keep it here for 6 months then it had to go back to japan.

*sigh* that car wa a monster 600hp, carbon fiber all over and loud as sin.

All I can say after seeing his 100k plus skyline I now know why he wa such a tight a$$ when it came to raises

:p

rotary-convert

that was my first impression..however the license place was clearly a manufacturers plate.... which are only for cars that pertain to the manufacturer. manufacturers test cars around the detriot area quite often so i get to see models that havn't been put on the market yet.

i agree with your statement that most likely the badging was changed on a g-35, but why? esp if it was the manufacturer doing it.

conspiracy theory
best
david

mental pimp

Is the skyline really worth 80k? I would rather get an M3 for 50k and a rx8 for 30k.

Outlaws eXtreme

I would rather get 1 RX8, 1 WRX, 1 EVO for 80k

Ike

The Skyline GTR will be brought to the US, it has been confirmed by Nissan. So maybe they brought over a V35 to begin some initial tests <shrugs>

Ike

Gord96BRG

True, but the GTR isn't due until 2007 - right now, there is no GTR body/chassis nor drivetrain to test! As it is, a V35 is pretty near identical to the G35C, so why bother importing one? <also shrugs>

Regards,
Gordon

mikeb

THE GTR looks funny
I see skylines at cali car shows often
but rarely on the road

Ike

Your mama looks funny! Don't insult the GTR :p

jonnyb

there was a post similiar to this on a toyota forum i visit and someone knew why the car was like this. unfortunately the site is down so whenever its up ill post what he said.

zoomzooomp5

GTR, that is a bad *** car. I love my RX8, but if I could affort the SKYLINE GTR, I would buy it in a heart beat. It make me shake just thinking about it. My choice would be a blue R34 V-Spec.

Overport

The new Skyline (R35) is being in debate right now whether it will be badged an Infiniti or a Nissan. They are obviously leaning more towards Nissan because Infiniti does not really match the criteria of a hard-core sports car. (then again, neither but Nissan, but you know what i mean).

AltecLansing

remember the days when i was still living in hong kong, i used to see those japanese sports car like GTR R35, EVO 5~7, Subaru racing on the twisty hill at mid nights (illegal)... in fact, we dont have much RX7 and NSX in hk...Skyline GTR is really something special, at least, its more meaningful than a M3. people always talk about it in the western forums, but never have a chance to drive it. i can still remember there was a Skyline in hong kong which has 1000hp, 0~60 under 3 seconds. (mod by those crazy japanese!)

pelucidor

The '04 G35 Coupe that you saw was just that and nothing more. It is fairly easy to replace the I N F I N I T I and G35 logos with NISSAN and Skyline and many people have done so in the USA.

The old angular body style Skyline GT-R (R34, R35 etc) looks radically different to the current curvaceous Skyline/G35. There will be no 'supercar' GT-R in the current body style - the new one will debut in 2007 or later (according to Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan) and will be a new shape.

Mitch Strickler

While riding my bicycle (worthy of my RX8; a LeMond) on crowded Georgetown (DC neighborhood) streets, I heard great revving sounds up ahead. I was able to catch up with the vaguely familiar coupe, monster chromed exhausts booming, and see it was right hand drive. Closer, and I could read Skyline. Another stop sign, and I chatted with the young man driving. He said he got it in California, where they were converted to street legal at high cost. I mentioned my 8, saying that it wasn't a hot car, and he said he knew of some that were modded.

rx-7~rx-8

hahaha... i thought what if EVERY RX-8 OWNER changed the RX-8 logo in the back... to RX-7... and mazda would be forced to change it RX-7... haha ... lol

rotary-convert

i know i'm beating a dead horse here but,
read the original post...

the license plate said MANUFACTURERS PLATE which means it was done for a reason
some guy working for nissan/infiniti didn't just put the badging on for the hell of it..cars with those plates are soley used for test purposes and sometimes for shows in the area

chinx

all non-GTR skylines have always been RWD, or AWD. they're not FWD

maybe it's a testmule of something, either an updated v35/g35, or maybe the new GTR in disguise. if it's not someone w/ a good 'ol g35 w/ jdm badges then it's nissan's test car. in either case, yeah v35 skyline = our g35. don't get too excited :D

RXE16T

It couldn't possibly be the new GTR since it is still a few years away from a production reality.

Wait until Nissan unveils a pre-production one at the next Tokyo Motor show in a few years time.

Jap manufacturers always have a habit of holding off on unveiling their latest and greatest until the Tokyo show rolls around every few years... a bit like showing bragging rights.

rotary-convert

UPDATE!!!!!!!!

Today while coming back from the Mazda Dealership!

I spotted the same SKYLINE. This time i got a better look.
Blue 4 door, looks just like the g-35, but the badging on the rear right side said GT 350. and it had nissan badging!! The steering wheel was on the right side...so its def. directly from Japan.

Same ole manufactureres plate, but this time I followed the guy and tired to get him to roll down his window so i could talk to him...he just shook his head and sped away

i took a picture with my camera phone if anyone doesn't believe me.

best
david

cueball

Post them up. I believe you, but I just want to see the pics.

Smoker

Sometimes Nissan ship in their JDM version over here for promotions. Last year, they had the Skyline 300GT (called V35 at the time) over at my local Nissan dealer when had their special promotion days.

Also, some of the people seems to be confused about the Skyline models. "Skyline" DOES NOT equal to "Skyline GT-R". Skyline is a separate model line under Nissan which contains many models. (ie, 300GT [G35], 350GT[G35 Coupe]) Similar to the Infiniti Line of Nissan North America.

Seeing a car with the Skyline badge and automatically concluding that it is a new GT-R is as ridicously as seeing a Infiniti badge on an I35 and claiming it must have been a new version of the Q45.

rx-7~rx-8

The next car will only be called GT-R... not skyline GT-R...