Here you go
May 1989
Magazines preview the R32 model range. Even one month prior to release, the Australian press think the new model will share a v6 powerplant with the Infiniti range.
July 1989
One month after the R32 launch in Japan. The GT-R is covered, and a Group A version is pondered, the Australian press not realising the first 500 GT-R's built are in fact the homologation build run.
October 1989
Gibson Motorsport take delivery of four R32 GT-R road cars from Japan. Gibson Motorsport has been recognised by Nissan Japan for their efforts with the previous HR31 GTS-R Skylines. Gibson Motorsport are the only team outside of Japan to get GT-R's at such an early stage. Initial plans are to disable the HICAS 4 wheel steering system until the rest of the car is sorted. Due to homologation, they can run the cars either with HICAS or without.
The homologated weight is 1260kg, which is still heavier than the Ford RS500 Sierra at 1185kg. Gibson expects the first engines to have an output of 600hp – much more than the HR31 GTS-R's RB20DET-R which pushed out 460hp in 1989, and 370hp in 1988.
Fred Gibson flew to Japan in mid October with Nissan Motorsport Manager Paul Beranger, engineers Trevor Jones and Andrew Bartley to inspect the first GT-R race car built by Nissan Japan.
The Gibson team invest AU$300,000 - AU$400,000 in a sophisticated telemetry system in anticipation for the GT-R development programme.
Anders Olofsson (Swedish) becomes the first western driver to sample the Nissan GT-R prototype race cars. He reports that he has driven two GT-R race cars, the first has been around since May 1989 and has been a homologation development "mule", with the second being the prototype race car. The development car was built to test engines, transmissions, suspension, and cooling systems. It was equipped with sophisticated instruments. Both cars were trailed with Bridgestone and Dunlop tyres. As a side note, the Gibson Motorsport team were contracted with Yokohama.
November 1989
Australian's see a burgundy GT-R used as the official pace car at the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide.
March 1990
The GT-R is officially homologated for Group A racing on 1 March.
April 1990
Gibson Motorsport roll out their first GT-R for a shakedown at Winton raceway on 11 April. Engineers from Japan and England join the team for the shakedown. Mark Skaife does the driving duties, while Jim Richards drives the current HR31 GTS-R as a measuring stick. Gibson had pulled the car's debut back because of parts supply issues. Nissan Japan sent four engineers from their experimental department to help Gibson Motorsport build the first car. All the parts arrived in assemblies eg. front suspension, engine and gearbox.
At the Winton test, the engine used was a unit sent over from Japan. It used a Japanese management system which restricted boost to 1.3 bar and power was about 550hp. The Gibson Motorsport team intended to replace the Japanese management system with their own Electromotive system and run higher boost, around 1.5 bar for 580hp.
Hollinger are commissioned to design and build a 6 speed gearbox for the GT-R. Nissan Japan decided they would also use the Hollinger box and placed their order.
During the shakedown, the team experimented with different EPROMS in the 4WD system. They started out with 45% front bias, and have different EPROMS to deliver 10, 20, 30% splits. [I'm unsure if the system uses EPROMS, perhaps it's a bit of bogus information in the report]
Wheels magazine staffer Peter McKay joins the Gibson team at Mallala for a test session. McKay is lined up to have a drive of the prototype - but the car breaks two half shafts, and the team have to wait for spares to arrive from Japan. A later test session takes place at Calder. McKay reports the Electromotive management system is in place, as is the first of the Australian built engines – the power output is quoted at 520hp with 1.2 bar boost, and 576hp (429kw) / 410nm with 1.8 bar boost. Tyres are 11 inches wide, and run at about 5 degrees of negative camber.
McKay reports the car is easy to drive, with a light clutch and a smooth power delivery (unlike the previous HR31 and DR30 that he has driven). The car has four electric coolers for the front diff, rear diff, transfer case, and the gearbox.
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 **** 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. **** 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 **** 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 **** 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.