Father Of The Skyline Passes Away

[910gts]

Hope this is not a repost

I lifted this from another website.

On January 17, 2011 in the quiet Tokyo suburb of Setagaya, Shinichiro Sakurai, the father of the Nissan Skyline, passed away due to heart failure at the age of 81. Every major newspaper and reporting agency in Japan ran a story about the man’s life. Otherwise gruff auto enthusiasts wept openly. This outpouring of emotion and respect for a simple engineer is proof that Sakurai’s creation not only had an immense impact on the motoring community, but the average Japanese citizen too.

A graduate of Yokohama National University, he went to work for Prince Motor Company in 1952 where he helped develop the Skyline. Sakurai is called “Father of the Skyline” for dropping a straight six into an elongated body, thus transforming a standard sedan into the GT race machine that we associate with the name today, one of the most lasting legacies in auto-dom.

After the tumultuous Prince and Nissan merger in 1966, Sakruai stayed on to develop the Skyline, a name revered enough that he was given carte blanche from the bosses at Nissan. Sakruai worked on the Skyline for 32 years, developing the legendary hakosuka, culture-defining kenmeri, patriotic Japan, all the way to the seventh generation R31.

In 1985 Sakurai became head of Autech Engineering, Nissan’s in-house tuning arm. Sakurai was also the honorary director of the Skyline Museum and was inducted in to the Japan Automobile Hall of Fame in 2005. In addition to the Skyline, Sakurai worked on the C31 Laurel and a number of purpose-built race machines such as the Prince R380 and R381, and later on, the Nissan R382 and R383.

It’s hard to imagine an engineer’s passing eliciting such a powerful response from the public, but that’s just how much the Skyline is part of Japan’s national identity. It came into being during an era when Japan was still finding its footing in the age of modernization. Sakurai’s Skyline became a symbol of a nation’s technological prowess and love for the open road. It’s been in continuous production for over half a century, and its enduring spirit has allowed word of its legend to spread the world over, transcending borders where the car wasn’t even available. Rest in peace, Sakurai-san.

[maclarenf1]

I specially like the connection between the Skyline and Mitsubishi Zero connection and how these engineers were really same people who build up those great series of air craft

So this on GTR.co.uk site

Dr SAKURAI was one of the last living links back to a group of engineers and designers which seeded much of Japan's post-war excellence. One of his greatest influences was Mr Ryoichi NAKAGAWA of 'Nakajima Hikoki' ( Nakajima Aircraft Co. ), who was the chief engineer on the SAKAE-21 radial engine - which powered the famed Mitsubishi 'Reisen' Zero Sentoki and Nakajima's own Hayabusa fighter aircraft during the Pacific War.

NAKAGAWA went on to become President of Prince Motor Co, where young engineers like SAKURAI and his ex-Nakajima Hikoki colleague Yuji SAKAKIBARA were greatly influenced by the philosophy of engineering excellence NAKAGAWA strove to instil in his workforce. Engine designer Yuji SAKAKIBARA provides us with another link between Skyline / GT-R DNA and Nakajima Hikoki, as he was chief designer of the Nissan S20 twin cam engine ( itself derived from the GR8 engine of the Prince R380-series sports racing cars ) which went on to forge the legend of the GT-R in touring car racing, powering the PGC10 and KPGC10 Skyline GT-R models of the 1968~72 period.

Dr SAKURAI had direct involvement with all generations of Skyline model right up to the R31-series, and it was under his reign that the RB-series engine was born in 1984. The RB was designed as a series of engines to last a generation of development and a wide scope of variation. A straight six cylinder configuration was chosen specifically to return to the old days of 'smooth power' which had been so important at Prince during the early to mid 1960s period. There had been great pressure from higher up within Nissan for SAKURAI and his team to use a V6 configuration, but SAKURAI resisted this as a matter of policy. The new RB was to take over the mantle of such illustrious predecessors as Prince's G-series and Nissan's L and FJ-series engines. When their precious 'GT-R' emblem was revived in 1989, the engineers on the project knew that the BNR32 had a lot to live up to with SAKURAI and his team still looking on. By any measure, the BNR32 and the group of engineers which designed it lived up to that expectation, and exceeded it.....

The R35 'GT-R' may have dropped its humble 'Skyline' name link and the straight-six engine layout, but the use of that 'GT-R' emblem still links it back through several generations to the engineering excellence of the Pacific War period and its peacetime aftermath, when a completely different set of challenges were faced. You can track the DNA of the R35 right back to the Sakae-21 engine and the airframe making of Nakajima Hikoki through the likes of Dr SAKURAI. I personally believe that it's worth remembering that when so many people will try to tell you that Nissan and the 'GT-R' emblem have "no history".....

[notavailable]

OMG I'm crying right now I am his love child.

[GTR-N1]

He was responsible for this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-DlmXc5Iwc

...an absolute weapon in my early days at high school before XU-1s and HOs were conceived.

[Tangles]

absolute legend.