The Nissan Skyline; one of the most coveted imports of all time. It’s fast, beautiful, and illegal – or at least it was illegal. We’ll come back to that.

Why was the Nissan Skyline illegal?

Back in 1988, the US Government passed the Motor Vehicle Safety Compliance Act, which commissioned a set of safety and environmental regulations that all vehicles in the United States must-have. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, it wasn’t exactly. The law was actually put in place to reduce the sale of grey market import vehicles.

Grey market vehicles

During and after the Second World War, American soldiers stationed overseas began growing fond of European cars. At the time there were no restrictions on imports, so the servicemen were often able to purchase and import a car for cheaper than they could buy one at home. Thus, the grey market was born.

This practice continued for more than 20 years. In 1967 and 1968, the regulations on imports did increase, but it wasn’t until the Motor Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988 that the grey market really took a hit.

It’s estimated that between 1985 and 1995, the number of vehicles on the grey market went from 70,000 to just 300.

Why did the act pass?

In short, because of money. After lots of lobbying (mainly by Mercedes-Benz, who was losing a considerable sum to the grey market), Congress passed the law that kept vehicles like the Nissan Skyline on their own shores.

But, the joke is on them

In 1998, the NHTSA granted immunity for import vehicles over 25 years of age. That means you can now import any Nissan Skyline that was built in or before 1995, despite it failing to meet regulations. The only place you may run into trouble is in California.

Why is the Nissan Skyline so popular? A brief history.

The original “Skyline” was a Japanese market, high-performance, 4-door sedan that debuted at the 1969 Toky Motor Show. By the time the car’s second-generation was introduced in 1973, the Nissan Skyline was only available as a 2-door coupe. Unfortunately, due to the worldwide oil crises at the time and much stricter emissions standards, less than 200 Skyline GT-Rs were produced.

Sixteen years later, Nissan re-introduced the Skyline GT-R to a performance-starved public and used the car as a showcase for the brand’s latest technology and engineering. The third-generation car, code-named [R32] also introduced an all-wheel-drive system that was propelled by a 2.6-liter turbocharged inline-6-cylinder pushing out 276 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque. Drivers could hit Zero to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds and reach the quarter-mile in 13.9 seconds. This 1989 – 1994 generation car is the one that earned the nickname “Godzilla”, after the giant, mythical fire-breathing movie lizard.  The car’s ability to completely dominate everything from American muscle cars to super exotics from Europe on the racetrack helped it achieve legendary status.

This blazing orange 2017 Nissan GT-R features a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 producing 565 horsepower and 467 lb.ft. of torque.

If you’re interested in getting your hands on one of these exotic imports, you may want to keep your eye on The Raleigh Classic Car Auctions who, from time to time, acquire vintage Nissan Skylines to put on the block at their Summer and Fall auctions.  Or, if you’d like something a little newer like the modern-day Nissan GT-R, you can always browse the latest inventory of Leith Nissan in Cary, N.C.

Updated by Leith Media on February 11, 2020.

Tags: GT R, Nissan, SKYLINE, SKYLINE GTR
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