Godzilla lives!

Like the movie character from which it took its nickname, ‘Godzilla’ – the R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R – destroyed all before it.

But where the fictional gargantuan gorilla decimated cities, the incredibly advanced all-wheel drive, twin-turbocharged six-cylinder touring car crumbled its Group A opposition so completely that the category itself was killed off.

In the time BG (Before Godzilla), Group A touring car racing had been the premier Australian racing category since 1985.

The earliest winners, such as the BMW 635CSi, Volvo 240T (don’t laugh; it won the 1986 ATCC) and DR30 Nissan Skylines were quickly usurped by more specialised opposition including the Ford Sierra Cosworth RS 500 that won Bathurst in 1988 and 1989, along with the season titles.

Come 1990 and Fred Gibson, the 1967 Bathurst winner who was now at the helm of Nissan Motorsport, had a surprise up his sleeve.

Meanwhile, the team’s ageing yet well-developed rear-wheel drive, turbo-six HR31 Skylines continued, and though they couldn’t match the qualifying pace of the hottest Sierras, both Jim Richards and a young Mark Skaife proved formidable race opponents. Richards won two of the first four rounds.

Mallala, a non-descript circuit in South Australia, hosted round six of the eight-round championship. With Richards a championship contender it was decided he would stick with the proven Skyline, but the team was satisfied enough with the GT-R’s testing longevity (a thorough development program had intensified since the March 1990 homologation date) to debut it in race form for Skaife.

With its turbocharged 2.6-litre engine giving a nominal capacity of 4.42 litres (turbocharged engines were given a 1.7 ‘equivalence’ factor to determine category), the GT-R carried a homologated weight of 1260kg for 1990, at a time when the Sierras could run at 1185kg.

Without later boost and rev restrictions the initial Australian-built Group A GT-R motor generated around 390kW, though the team claimed some 436kW by Mallala. Interestingly, the HICAS four-wheel steering system found on the road version was (legally) disabled.

Skaife scorched practice, but hub failure delayed proceedings on the Saturday. He eventually qualified third, rushed through to the lead but then retired with another hub failure.

Despite this Richards took over for Waneroo’s seventh round, finishing fourth.

But it was the last round that truly announced the GT-R’s arrival. Starting from pole position at Oran Park, Richards was able to take the win… and the title.

Despite several woes during Bathurst practice in October, the sole Richards/Skaife GT-R rushed through from a disappointing 11th grid slot (said to have been achieved in rear-wheel drive mode, the system giving massive trouble throughout practice) to lead convincingly by the three hour mark. From then on, however, more issues surfaced.

The GT-R was classified as a finisher, but way down in 18th place, completing only 146 of the 161 laps.

An unprecedented development schedule was undertaken in the 1990-91 off-season, the result being two completed GT-Rs on the grid for the opening round of the 1991 ATCC… including chassis number two, the machine you see in these images.

History shows the Gibson GT-Rs won seven of the nine rounds that year, despite an increased minimum weight requirement of 1360kg; a change magnified by the Sierras losing weight (down to 1100kg) and the 2.5-litre M3s being allowed a fly-weight 960kg.

For 1991, Skaife, sharing again with Richards, recorded 2:12.63 to put the GT-R on pole, hitting 293km/h down Conrod Straight in the process.

On race day Jim Richards would start the pole car; victory – by over a lap – was six hours, 19 minutes, and 14.8 seconds away.

Naturally, it was a race time record, and Skaife’s 2:14.50 lap time on the 130th tour (ironically in the team’s second car, which he stinted to pull it up the order; it retired five laps later) established a new Mount Panorama race lap record.

For 1992, the GT-Rs were further hobbled. A 1400kg minimum weight was imposed along with turbo boost restrictions (1.3-bar) which ostensibly reduced power from over 450kW back down to 350kW.

Despite this, Skaife and Richards still finished one-two in the 1992 ATCC, in that order, before infamously taking a wet Bathurst once more (yep, the ‘pack of arseholes’ podium comment), running at 1500kg for the enduros.

Then, suddenly, the GT-R was put out to pasture, made illegal by a regulation change that came into effect for 1993.

CAMS catered to those wanting a return to traditional Ford versus Holden V8 action, and the seeds of what was to become V8 Supercars were sown. The GT-R? It acquired immediate status as the world’s greatest-ever touring car.

It is also the most famous of all, being the 1991 Bathurst-winning machine.

Originally built up in 1990, this chassis ran in both 1991 and 1992 ATCC rounds, before being sold to Thailand to continue its racing career in South East Asia, with Gibson Motorsport supplying parts and on-going support, including on-event staff for the Mount Fuji round of the 1992 Japanese Touring Car Championship.

After its front-line racing career was over, #2 was stored in Bangkok before being tracked down and purchased by Australian Group A collector Robert Ingram in 2007.

After another period of inactivity, the GT-R was sent down to the resurrected Gibson Motorsport for a full restoration to 1991 specification, overseen by Fred and then-GMS team manager and accomplished engineer, Alan Heaphy.

“I had been working for Nissan Motorsport Europe for the previous few years,” explains Heaphy, “when Howard [Marsden] asked me to come back to Australia and work with Gibson Motorsport in 1991.”

A veteran of Nissan’s sportscar and European touring car activities, Heaphy quickly discovered how the locally-built GT-Rs were so quick.

“The team was so professional, and their ingenuity was exceptional. The Japanese engineers couldn’t work out how we extracted so much power from them,” he explains.

Chassis 2, still wearing the red livery of its Thailand tour, has been completely refurbished by many of the hands that touched it in-period, including gun engineer Pete West, who was key to the engine development program; a program even the Japanese factory was envious of.

Meanwhile Graeme Cochrane of Auto Innovations was charged with repainting the shell in 1991 warpaint.

While this was being completed the mechanicals -- including the highly-advanced all-wheel drive system, engine and gearbox, as well as brakes and suspension -- were rebuilt to period-correct status; all the better to return the car to racing in the historic Group A category with new owner Carey McMahon.

As Heaphy points out undercarriage and interior details with an almost-photographic recollection, the depth of preparation that went into this GT-R in its heyday – and the work that went in to resurrect it from the neglected condition it arrived in – grows ever-more evident.

"Here’s where the lead weights were added for 1992… we used the four-wheel steer shafts [not used in competition] to allow alignment adjustments," he says. "There’s the adjustment for the all-wheel drive system, with up to five pre-programmed modes.”

And now Godzilla's more powerful than ever.

“The limitation back then was always fuel. We now run the car on Avgas, and it makes 702hp (523kW) on the engine dyno,” smiles Heaphy.

After recent encouraging shakedowns at Victoria’s Winton circuit, McMahon will wheel Godzilla into racing action once more, commencing with the Muscle Car Masters at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend.