Prince Skyline Museum, Part 2 - The Cars!

In Part 1, I showed the gifts and historical tidbits on display at the Prince Skyline Museum. In this post, I am going to focus on the cars.  It's a small museum, so not that many cars but still an interesting selection with a good historical focus.

Anyway - once you go from the gift shop area downstairs into where all the cars are and follow the arrows, the first car you see is this one:

Wow so 90s! Check out that aero...

In a way, simple...

I don't know much about Tommy Kaira cars, but this is likely to be interesting for 32 fans.

For a full review of this car, see my EARLIER POST.

My eye was drawn to another one of my favorite Nissans, the R31 GTS-R

Those classic tail lamps! Huge spoiler! Gigantic rear deck speakers and BBS mesh wheels! If only I had the garage space...

And that SUPER SQUARE dashboard. Love it!

After salivating over this prime example for a few minutes, I decided to head to the opposite corner and start at the chronological beginning.

At the opposite corner, hidden in a literal garage built into the side of the museum, I first found these trucks:

The Prince Homer.  Who knows where they got the name from...(actually they got it from the Homy... yeah yeah awful...)

Prince Homer - 1974, 1.6L engine. 

1965 Prince Light Miler

Imagine if Prince had taken over Nissan, would all the cars have this emblem?

The Prince Light Miler. Ignore the Japlish...4 cylinder OHV 1.5L engine

Obviously not the original bed but I wonder if it was actually wood back then too...

Then coming back into the museum, I think this is where it all begins in chronological order:

Prince Truck - check out that rear view mirror!

Here we go with the cars...

Not a Skyline but a Prince Gloria

Prince Gloria 6 Estate - Station Wagon FTW!!

Prince Gloria Taxi Spec!

1964 Prince Gloria Open

Here are the obligatory 3 brothers, lined up. Nothing special about the 32 and 33, but the 34...

Turns out to be 1 of the last 7 to be made at the Murayama factory.

yawn... bayside blue... see it everywhere...yes I'm jaded...

Right in front of this display were some race cars. Let's take a closer look.

First, one of the Skyline Silhouette race cars!

Finally - now we're talking. R33 Power!

Amazing how small the wheels are and the tire sidewall so tall!

Looks pretty modern actually - sequential shifter and the digital MOTEC dash

I was interested in these carbon parts - wonder what the rear ones do - cool? Downforce?

Another poster I want for my garage.

I actually think this wing would be street legal in Japan (it doesn't extend past the fenders)

I was really curious about the aero set up on on the front bumper (yep always looking for ideas)

What's going on here?

Ok so let's focus on the old Skylines they had there:

The very first Prince Skyline - ALSI-1 (1957-1964)

2nd Gen Skyline - S50, S54 S5,7 (1963-1968) - this is the one called "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" due to its track performance

1966 Skyline 2000GT-AII (S54-AII)

Close up of the specs of this car.

1966 Skyline 2000GT-BIII (S54B-III)

Close up of the specs.

3rd Generation Skylines (C10 series) 

Here it is. Hakosuka GT-R. Not sure why the placard lists it as an "HT2000" GTR? Pretty sure it's a typo...Hard top 2000?

4th Generation - C110 - check out where the gas filler cap is! And ignore that sign, it's pointing at the C210

Background silver car is C110 car above with 4 round headlights.
Foreground white car is the C210 with the two square headlights, as below

C210 Series (and R30 in the back I forgot to take a photo of!)

Now yes I know I've missed a few - for some reason I guess I forgot to take photos of the R30, but not to worry, I've got a blog post on that coming up soon!

If I ever win the lotto, this COULD be what my garage looks like...

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!