Race history of the "Godzilla" - R32 GTR

June 1990

The GT-R race car has it's competition debut at Mallala on 8 June 1990. Mark Skaife is the driver. The decision to use Mark Skaife was due to Jim Richards' points position in the Australian touring car championship – it was thought that having Jim debut the new car would jeopardise him winning the championship if anything went wrong.

The GT-R used Japanese wheels that cost the Gibson team AU$2,000 each, and only last one race – this is just one example of how important it was to develop local content for the GT-R programme.

During unofficial practice on the Friday, Skaife was under the lap record by 2.4 seconds, and was 1 second quicker than the fastest Sierra (Brock). The reported power output was 585hp or 436kw.

Saturday qualifying saw the car was sidelined briefly when a left front hub failed, damaging an oil cooler, the brakes, and causing the wheel to depart. The car was quickly repaired, and Skaife was able to qualify third on the grid.

Skaife started out of the third grid position, and was able to get into the lead on the 10th lap. The car retired about lap 20 with another broken left front hub.

Jim Richards takes over the car at the next ATC round at Wanneroo (24 June 1990) – he had to finish in front of Dick Johnson to keep his title aspirations alive. Both he and Mark Skaife were cross entered in the GT-R and the GTS-R. The team were still fiddling with the 4WD splits, and an engine management problem that saw the motor to over-fuel and misfire during qualifying. Jim managed to qualify 4th on the grid. The GT-R had a new engine transplanted and all the electronics replaced after qualifying on the Saturday night.

At the start of the race, Jim launched into second place. The decision to put Jim in the GT-R was justified when Skaife broke a half shaft in the GTS-R on the startline. Jim was overtaken and pushed back to 4th on the road for most of the race, eventually finishing in 4th 50 minutes later. Dick Johnson meanwhile had crashed out with a broken brake calliper taking out the right front wheel.

July 1990

Sansui come on board as a major sponsor for Gibson Motorsport, the money rumoured to be around AU$1,000,000.

George Fury (long time Gibson Motorsport driver) departs the team.

The final ATC round at Oran park (July 15 1990) saw Jim attempt to secure his ATC championship. The GT-R again proving troublesome during the qualifying sessions, needing a turbo downpipe replaced and a diff change that took 6 hours. Jim qualified first, a tenth of a second in front of Dick Johnson. At the start of the race, Jim lead with a couple of car lengths and soon drew it out to a 3 second margin back to second place by lap 2. By about lap 20, the gap was out to 20 seconds and building. Jim took the flag, still leading by a fair margin.
August 1990

The Bathurst entry list is released. Nissan enter only one car – the pairing of Jim Richards and Mark Skaife, the second car couldn't be completed due to parts supply problems. As a side note, the name "Godzilla" is yet to surface – Gibson Motorsport and the press refer to the GT-R as "The Weapon"

September 1990

Gibson Motorsport miss the Sandown 500 race. The rest of the entries to the race was slim, with most of the major teams entering only one car.

The Bathurst previews predict that the GT-R will be hampered by it's weight, stressing components like brakes and suspension. Only in Japan had GT-R's had any endurance testing, locally the GT-R was still an unknown as to how it would do over 1,000 km.

October 1990

The GT-R debut at Bathurst.

The Gibson Motorsport team arrives at Bathurst with two GT-R's, with four spare engines, four differentials (two front, two rear), spare gearboxes, 30 wheels, 150 tyres, and 20 team members. 10 members remained at the Melbourne base in case of emergency.

The GT-R destined for the race was brand new, it was still a bodyshell when the existing GT-R won at Oran park. The other GT-R was the championship winning car – it was to be used for testing to keep wear and tear on the new car to a minimum.

Early qualifying saw the GT-R hampered with bad brake problems. The team experimented with different wheel cylinder and master cylinder sizes, front to rear. Skaife had many spins off the track as the ideal balance was worked out. Jim Richards eventually qualified the car with a disappointing 2m 15.66 seconds for 11th on the grid – in two wheel drive mode! The electronics had packed a sad leaving the car with only the rears driving.

The race itself was a different picture – by the end of lap 1 the GT-R was up to 8th and in the second lap was a second faster than any other car in the field. Jim blasted by the leading Niedzwiedz Sierra going up Mountain straight on lap 10, waving as he went past. By lap 20, the GT-R had extended the lead to 20 seconds. By this time Fred Gibson was on the radio telling Jim to back off.

Jim responded by going one second a lap quicker. When the lead was out to 32 seconds, the pace was relaxed to 2m 19s a lap.

The first pitstop for the GT-R was on lap 34 when Jim bought the car in for new brake pads, fuel, tyres and Mark Skaife to take over the driving duties. The stop took 1m 30s, far longer than most of the other leading teams. By lap 40, the GT-R was back up to 6th place on the road. It was back in the lead by lap 58 thanks to some of the leading cars pitting.

Three hours into the race, the GT-R was still running, and still in the lead. Skaife bought the car into the pits on lap 72 for a scheduled stop for brake pads, fuel, Jim, and something that was pumped into the cooling system. The stop took 2m 22 seconds – another long stop. The car rejoined the race in 9th position.

On lap 95, the Nissan came in with a diff problem that sidelined the car for 25 minutes. It rejoined, but 13 laps later returned with a misfire – an electrode had "fallen off" one of the sparkplugs. After the stop, Mark Skaife set a new lap record of 2m 15.46 seconds. The car continued to the end of the race with no further problems, finishing 18th, 15 laps behind the winning Percy / Grice Commodore.

November 1990

The Group A circus moves to Adelaide to support the GP. Skaife rolls one of the GT-R's and suffers bruising. [I'm missing details on this event]

The Eastern Creek raceway opens with the Nissan 500 endurance race for Group A cars. Most of the Bathurst teams enter. Qualifying was interesting as the track surface was "green" and some of the drivers found it difficult to master the new track.

The GT-R qualified on pole with a 1m 35.26 second lap. Skaife is scheduled to share the drive with Richards - but due to Skaife's bruised condition, Neil Crompton is pencilled in as a potential relief driver. The team experimented with spring and sway bar changes to get the best from the hard "S" compound Yokohama tyres.

In the race Richards sprinted away and had a 50 meter lead by turn two. The car lead strongly until lap 21 when it lost the left hand front wheel. Jim bought it into the pits, where another wheel was fitted. The car rejoined in 11th position. Lap 51 saw the GT-R back in the pits for a driver change to Skaife. The GT-R had lost all it's coolant due to a split bore or blown head gasket. Despite the teams attempts the engine wouldn't restart and the car was put away.

The major teams made the trip over to New Zealand for the Nissan Mobil 500 series at Wellington and Pukekohe.

Wellington [Missing details] won by a European BMW M3

Pukekohe got off to a slow start after Wellington – the track was still undergoing work being bought up to international standards, pushing the Friday practice session to Saturday morning.

Overnight rain saw the conditions as wet (we bogged the Fairmont doing donuts in the car park). Skaife did the morning session, with the team mucking around with the suspension. My main memory of his session was the GT-R doing a huge backfire - leaving a smoking patch on the track.

Mark Skaife and Jim Richards qualified third on the grid behind Dick Johnson (who lost two engines on Saturday) and Brock, both in Sierra RS500's. In the race it took Skaife two laps to get past the Sierras. The Nissan game-plan called for the car to pull a 30 second lead, and then settle into a more relaxed pace. By lap 23, the GT-R's lead was out to 20 seconds over Brock. We were entertained with the DJR RS500 blowing intercooler hoses off multiple times, and another Sierra smacking into a kerb.

The GT-R kept leading until lap 32 when Skaife reported a loss of power – one of the turbos had blown. The car was retired. The European BMW M3's also expired within a couple of laps, one with a blown engine, and the other with accident damage. The Brock Sierra cruised to the finish and took the flag.

There was a good interview with Fred Gibson published in Auto Action which gives some interesting insights: In Japan, the top GT-R teams are reported to have reached the 600hp mark in competition, up from 570hp that most of them have been running with. The main problem with the Australian developed GT-R's were brakes, the cylinder bore or block cracking and the turbos. For 1991 the rules were relaxed on brakes, so that problem could be more easily worked through. The blocks had been cracking due to a harmonic in the engine – up until Pukekohe the team had been using a block every race. New engine mounts were used to cure this. The turbo failures were blamed on quality control at Garret – the Gibson team invested in their own balancing machine so they could assemble their own turbos instead of buying complete units from Garret in Japan.

January 1991

A bit of background is needed here as the 1993 rule change was essentially influenced by these events and conditions.

The CAMS motorsport body was in trouble. It was running out of money, and needed restructuring. To compound the issue, there was a general downturn in the economy. CAMS responded by charging large registration fees of AU$6,000 per car for the ATC, and tracks were charged AU$10,000 to host a round. In addition, because the Group A format was administered by FISA in Europe, the regulations were hard to work with. This had caused delays in getting the new VN Group A Commodore homologated for competition.

The rules were revised for the 1991 season aiming to keep the fields even. The Sierra's had 85kg removed from their minimum weight, bringing them down to 1,100kg. They also got a six speed gearbox. The Commodores also lost some weight – 75kg down to 1250kg, and a host of freedoms including the entire inlet system, the valves and ports were free, and the inner wheel guards could be modified to fit wider tyres. The BMW M3 was allowed to run similar freedoms as the Commodores, at a featherweight 960kg. The GT-R had it's minimum weight increased to 1360kg. [the reporting of weights is not consistent – the homologation weight of the GT-R was 1260kg, yet the press report an increase of 35kg from 1325kg. Go figure]

In April, the minimum weights are further revised with an across the board increase of 2.5% in all cars. This was done so the private teams didn't have to resort to expensive exotic materials to reach the same weights as the factory teams.

The season looked like being a difficult one – the entries were well down, with a core group of 12 cars contesting all rounds, and very small fields. Even at this stage there was talk of making a full grid at Bathurst by allowing the standard Group E production cars to join the Group A race.

February 1991

The first round of the ATC at Sandown. Jim Richards qualified on pole, with Mark Skaife 0.04 seconds behind. Skaife was complaining of some problems. Behind them it was wall to wall Sierra's, now a little faster with their new 6 speed gearboxes and lighter minimum weight. The field was small, only 19 cars on the grid.

The race itself was over with a minute of it starting. Jim and Mark blasted off the start line and had a 20 meter lead over the next car on the track. On lap 2, Jim laid down a new lap record – 1m 15.70 seconds – quicker than the fastest of the Sierra's by 1.31 seconds. Ouch.

One interesting moment occurred at the three quarter mark in the race – the new BMW M3 of Tony Longhurst demonstrated it's future potential by out braking Skaife going into a corner while Skaife was attempting to lap the slower M3. The GT-R's crossed the finish line for a 1-2 result, Richards leading Skaife.

March 1991

The second round of the ATC at Symmons Plains. Qualifying made for an interesting race – Jim qualified on pole by a huge margin of more than 2 seconds, helped by damp conditions. Mark had damaged his GT-R in practice and was at the back of the grid in 13th. The economy and stiff registration fees were having their impact on the size of the field – the privateers could no longer afford to compete in the ATC. Win Percy put his Commodore alongside the GT-R on the front row, the first time in 5 years that a Commodore has made the front row of a ATC grid.

By this time, there was a fairly unified plea from the other drivers to CAMS to slow the Skylines down – the results so far were crushing to say the least. CAMS sat on their hands for the moment. Some of the teams resorted to using non-homologated add-ons to their cars: huge brake cooling ducts, fins on wheels etc. The touring car entrants association moved to have a cleanup of the cars – the ducts disappeared from some of the Sierra's and the Nissan's had to raise the height of some coolers that protruded below the front spoiler.

The start of the race was cautions with a bit of pushing and barging at the front. Jim was able to establish a 4 second gap back to Johnson by lap 8. Skaife meantime was working his way through the field, and by lap 24 was behind Richards, making another Nissan 1-2 formation finish.

April 1991

The third round of the ATC at Wanneroo April 14. The touring car circus made it's way over to Western Australia. Only 11 cars fronted for the race. Expecting to be humbled by the GT-R's again most teams had spent the time between Symmons Plains and Wanneroo testing and reducing weight in their cars.

Dick Johnson managed to qualify his Sierra on pole, with Win Percy's Commodore alongside. Jim Richards was one row back in third, suffering from understeer, which also afflicted Mark Skaife back in 6th position on the grid. 1.48 seconds separated the first and last cars on the grid after qualifying, even though the field was small - it was close. Some of the other teams assumed the Gibson team were sandbagging – to hide the potential of the cars. Jim explained "There are lots of high speed changes in direction here and with a full load of fuel the car has inherent understeer characteristics". During qualifying, both cars had spins off into the sand, and were able to simply drive out thanks to their 4WD.

At the start, Dick launched his Sierra perfectly, Percy was slower and jumped in behind the fast starting Sierra – this blocked Jim in, leaving Skaife with an open track ahead. Skaife basted through and took up second position on the road. Johnson pulled out a 2 second lead back to Skaife, Percy and Richards. Skaife grabbed the lead when Johnson's Sierra lost water and power. On lap 10, Richards slipped past Percy to make another GT-R 1-2. By lap 30 they were 6 seconds clear of the cars behind them. Mark lead Jim across the line.

AMSCAR at Ameroo, April 21. The AMSCAR series is made up of short sprint races of 10 laps each, very different to the 50 minute ATC touring car rounds. The Gibson Motorsport team entered one GT-R for Mark Skaife. In qualifying, the GT-R struggled with understeer, but still claimed pole position - and still faster than any other Group A car had ever lapped Ameroo Park.

At the start, Skaife blasted away and set a blistering pace. By lap two he was 2 seconds clear of the second placed car, and claimed a new lap record of 51.16s. Skaife took the flag with a 16.3 second gap back to Tony Longhurst in the M3.

The second race start was a carbon copy of the first. Skaife got away to a good start – but was unable to extend his lead further than 1.7 seconds over Longhurst. Skaife lead until lap 5 when a bad misfire developed – Skaife said "I could have got out and run alongside, it was going so slow". The car made it back to the pits and retired.

Lakeside April 28 Round 4 of the ATC. The Lakeside track in Queensland is home track to several teams so it was anticipated there would be better competition for the Skylines. In qualifying Jim planted his GT-R on pole in front of Tony Longhurst. Skaife was back in row two in 3rd position.

At the start of the race Richards lead , and Skaife was up to second by the end of the first lap (yet another 1-2). Richard had lapped the entire field up to 5th position, behind him Skaife held a 9 second gap back to the third placed BMW M3 of Longhurst. This was the way they finished.

The name Godzilla is used in race reports – starting the widespread acceptance and use of the term.

May 1991

Round 5 at Winton in rural Victoria. Qualifying was a repeat of earlier rounds with Jim putting the GT-R on pole. He revealed his secret "It's simple. You just go as fast as you can without slipping off the track". Skaife listened and ran off the track into the dirt many times in an effort to go faster. He ended up in 5th position on the grid.

At the start of the race Jim assumed the lead off the start line. Skaife decided to use the grass beside the track as an alternate route and pushed his way to 3rd giving Percy's Commodore a hit on the way. Some of the field were smothered in dust from Skaife's launch which caused them to hesitate and bunch up. Skaife made his way into second position on lap 12. The Nissan 1-2 continued to the flag, Richards leading Skaife over the line.


June 1991

Round 6 Amaroo Park June 2. By now things were looking a bit glum for the ATC – The GT-R's had dominated the first 5 rounds and finishing in 1-2 formation at each. More work was needed to match the pace of the GT-R's.

Dick Johnson had some trick Japanese Dunlop tyres to try – the head of development from Dunlop Japan had flown in to watch. The tyres worked - Dick Johnson and John Bowe made the first all Sierra front row in a while. Skaife made 3rd on the grid trying harder tyres to counter the GT-R's tendency to understeer in and oversteer out of corners. In contrast, Jim ventilated his GT-R's block when a conrod bolt failed, forcing him to start from last position on the grid. "It will be fun" he commented.

At the start, both Sierra's got away to a good start side by side – preventing Skaife from getting past them. On the first lap, Richards passed 8 cars to move from 22nd to 14th on the road. Meanwhile Bowe was blocking Skaife while team boss Johnson pulled out a handy 2 second lead after 4 laps. After a while, Skaife was able to use his superior traction to get past Bowe's Sierra coming out of a sharp corner. By lap six the lead was cut to a second, two laps later Richards was up to 8th and carving through the field fast. On lap 10 Skaife was able to overtake Johnson and take the lead. Johnson was quickly taken as well by Tony Longhurst in the rapid M3.

Longhurst applied lots of pressure to Skaife from lap 15 to 28 when Tony was able to dive up the inside of the GT-R and take the lead. By lap 36 Richards was up to 4th on the road, loosing a little time with a huge powerslide. Jim was able to make it up to 3rd after overtaking Bowe whose tyres had expired. Skaife repeated the same powerslide mistake a couple of laps later - allowing Jim to slip into 2nd place. Jim set out with 5 laps remaining to catch the BMW. Richards got to within 1.6 seconds of the M3 – but Longhurst took the flag making the first car other than a GT-R to win a round of the ATC. Tony later confessed "The last 10 laps went on forever and when I realised it was Jim and not Mark in my mirrors, I sh1t myself"

Round 7 Mallala June 23 bought some interesting developments. The Gibson Motorsport team was still short of sponsorship, and at that stage they may have had to cut back to one car in 1992. Jim Richards was reportedly in discussion with TWR and Win Percy about a possible move to Holden at the end of the year. In response, Fred Gibson swapped Jim's faster car with Mark's – the official team line was that it was for testing and set-up purposes for the endurance races later in the year. Political darts.

Skaife qualified on pole, with Richards alongside. In the race, they both got clean starts and took off in typical GT-R style. By the fifth lap, the GT-R's were lapping one second quicker than any other car in the field. By lap 20 the gap was the full length of the back straight between Richards and the pursuing Glen Seton Sierra.

The finish wasn't a formation – Skaife crossed the line 20 seconds ahead of Richards, and a further 3 seconds back to Longhurst.

Early June saw a series of options from the CAMS motor racing commission to hobble the GT-R for 1992. Among the recommendations were ideas such as forcing the cars to run in rear wheel drive only, to put restrictors in front of the turbos like the WRC cars, to reduce the tyre width (so the GT-R had the same amount of driven rubber on the road as a rear drive – making 5 ½" tyres all round!). Not surprisingly, Gibson Motorsport and Nissan threatened legal action. CAMS then asked Gibson to produce a counter proposal to bring the GT-R's performance back to the rest of the field.

According to reports at the time, Gibson had been testing the various options – at Wanneroo the air restrictors were in place for the qualifying, but not the race. They also tested the car in rear wheel drive mode with the front drive shafts removed. Lap times at Winton were 2 seconds slower with the 2WD. Fred Gibson points out the cars were built to meet the rules and should not be penalised for doing a good job.

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