Prince Skyline Museum, Part 1 - Exterior, Gift Store, Model Cars and History

Friends, in an earlier post I promised photos from my trip to the Prince Skyline Museum in Nagano Prefecture. Here in Part 1, I'm uploading all the photos I took that aren't of the actual cars themselves - that will come in Part 2.

Enjoy!

The museum itself is located in Toriidaira Yamabiko Park.

The entrance to the Toriidaira Yamabiko Park - right above the parking lot.

Halfway up the stairs, looking back. You can see my blue Lexus in the lot.

As you crest the hill, this is what you see.

Close up.

Here is the main entrance on the side.

A closer shot. Not sure about the wooden deer but...

Immediately inside, after buying the admissions ticket there are two glass cabinet rows of Skyline paraphernalia

So this is right behind the entrance counter.

Of course I focused on this. Contemplated getting it but...

BNR32 and Hakosuka dishes...the "P&S" logo by the way of course, stands for Prince & Skyline

I wasn't impressed with the R33 plate so I passed on buying it...

Yes, chopsticks.

These are cool. 

Some ink drawings. Some better than others.

For the true diehards, start your day with coffee/tea in your Skyline mug cup...

and finish off your day with a cold one in your Skyline beer glass

If you're eating rice then of course with matching rice bowl...

I've met this guy...

This guy I have not, unfortunately. And since he's no longer with us... true Skyline fans know who he is.

Not bad. Gold frame? Maybe...not sure how I would frame it.

Finally about to enter the museum where the cars are but...

First some more non-car stuff. If you are a 33/34 fan, you have this man to thank.

Never seen so many Skyline Tomica in one location before. Probably most aren't available now commercially.

Recognize these engines?

Yep the FJ!

The brochure that came with the UK spec R33 GT-R.

Nissan UK Brochure for the R34 GT-R.

I didn't care for the wheels but was focused on the carbon drive shafts.

Lovely model of the road going LeMans R33

And some racecars

Backed up to focus on the ones in front.

These were interesting - they came attached to canned coffee drinks.

I would love to have a poster like this in my office!

So Prince Motors had its origins after the war, when all of sudden Japan had all of these unemployed military aircraft engineers. The same who designed and built the engines that powered the Hayabusa and the Zero, as well as other military aircraft...ever hear of Nakajima Aircraft or Tachikawa Aircraft?

This is the Type 21 engine these engineers built, that powered the Zero.

Nakajima Ki-84, aka the Hayate

I took a short video of this impressive scale model of the Murayama Factory that was tucked away in the corner, right after  - this is where all Skylines were built until production ended in March 2001. All GT-Rs built after that were built elsewhere but you'd have to ask a 34 fan on where (just kidding I know it was the Tochigi Factory). Note the test track!

Another Update Post...

So as many of you now know, I dropped off my at Nismo Omori Factory back in June... and yes it's now the end of July.  So what's going on?

Patience my friends, some fun news is coming soon. However in the meantime, two more photos of my car at Nismo, courtesy of fellow R33 GT-R owner and fanatic "Tomocchio Cavallini" who visited last weekend.

In this first photo - you can see that the hood (bonnet) is open, and it appears a trickle charger is at work.  No doubt the USED Panasonic battery that Nakamura at WORX AutoAlarm installed in my car (while throwing out my perfectly good Optima Yellow Top - WITHOUT asking me!) either can't hold a charge (I always kept it hooked up to a CTEK) or the boys at Nismo left my car sitting around for too long. Hopefully the latter, as I hear it's displayed front and center, visible to anyone who visits the showroom.

Otherwise they just leave it parked in front of other, lesser cars lol...

Check back soon!

A Very Important R33 GT-R (for R34 GT-R fans)

Wow how time flies - one month since my last post!

As I've told NISMO to take their time with checking over my car, no real updates that I can talk about here. Hopefully soon...

In the meantime, I recently had an opportunity to drive my other car up to the Prince & Skyline Museum up in Nagano.  I will do a full blog post on the history of Prince Motors, the Skyline, and the cars in this museum, but there was one car that I felt deserves special attention. The R34 GT-R development car.

At first glance a BCNR33 with Series 3 headlights and matte black paint...

 With an official name of "Stealth," many Nissan test drivers at the time instead chose to call it the "Karasu" (the Crow). Note, here in Japan the indigenous crows are known for being supremely intelligent birds that not only remember people's faces, but will later attack/purposely drop stuff (their crap... seriously!) on people that have messed with them in the past. And they are large birds, very intimidating... so not sure if the nickname was good or bad...

Anyway, back to this car.

 Here is what it says:

R34 GT-R Development Car

Objective of testing: This car was constructed for the main purpose of evaluating aerodynamics

Specs:                 Base car is R33 GT-R V-Spec

                            Installation of Front Diffuser (Dry carbon construction)

                            Installation of Rear Diffuser (Dry carbon construction)

                            Changed Rear spoiler to R34 equivalent (height, angle, etc.)

                            Changed Tires to 245/40ZR18

                            Strengthened rigidity inside the rear fenders and rear pillars

Testing period: Around 1996-97. Mainly in Tochigi, and extreme test runs at the Hokkaido testing grounds

Behind the Scenes:   While this car was officially nicknamed the "Stealth" most of the test drivers at the time lovingly called it the "Karasu."

Let's take a closer look at some of the items listed:

I guess they decided on the 34's 18 inch wheel design fairly early 

In this photo, I was checking to see if the brakes were special. They don't appear to be. On the other hand, those lug nuts look weird...

Ok so let's check out the front diffuser. The car is wearing a Series 1/2 front lip spoiler, with the one piece dry carbon diffuser attached underneath.

I'm guessing the rivets on the side are for a bracket of some kind to attach the carbon diffuser. The tape appeared to be covering some damage.

Here, you can see some obvious curb damage - but you can also see that the diffuser extends back to the rear of the oil pan.

Here you can see how the front outlet on the diffuser extends to air in the back. Also, they've used what appears to be flexible black tubing used to cover wires to cover up the cuts made to the lip spoiler and the diffuser.

Can anyone make out what it says there?

Obviously, the car was jacked up quite a bit. And someone messed up at least once.

Exhaust looked pretty normal and OEM - makes sense as they weren't trying to improve power.  Also, you can see how far back the front diffuser extends.

 Ok and what about the rear diffuser?

Looks pretty boring...standard muffler too...

But when you take a closer look - the fins are different front to back.
Inside ones get taller towards the back, while outside ones taper off.

Looks like they just cut around the muffler. No need for the clean finished look. 

And here is a close up of the rear spoiler. Looks like they simply raised the OEM BCNR33 one, to be honest.

yeah, that 34 in the back... see below

 For me the most interesting improvement were those made to the C pillar and rear fenders.

In the 34s, the rear C pillars have foam that hardens- in this car, looks like maybe a plate or something was welded in place?

 Here is a better shot, you can see both weld lines clearly.

Any readers with welding expertise? What would these lines suggest to you?

Incidentally, I DID take a look inside the car, and found it to be a very normal car with the Series 2 interior.

And finally, here is one for the 34 fans. This is the car you can blame for not beating the 33's sub 8 minute Nurburgring lap time.

The description talks about how the R33 was fast enough but they wanted to make the R34 easier to drive - which is consistent with articles on the issue as I've covered before (you can also see photos of this same 34).

No excuses given as to why it wasn't faster than the 33. What is interesting is the claim that testing of improvements to be included in the next GT-R began 6 months after the 1995 R33 GT-R was released - my guess is this is where the trunk bracing for the Series 3 came about.  Apparently the objective was to beat the 33 by 10 seconds, but since Nissan didn't release any numbers, the public will never know the truth.  Of course, no doubt some diehard 34 fans will take this to mean that the 34 must have beaten the 33 by up to 10 seconds (but not more so Nissan couldn't announce) but of course they can dream on...

In the meantime, they should thank the Karasu 33 V-Spec for contributing to the improvements made on the 34.  In any case, a very interesting car that belongs to be better recognized for its contributions to the GT-R, both the 33 and the 34.

Check in again soon, I have a few dozen photos of the rest of the cars in the museum I will be uploading very soon!