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NissanPrince G7 racing engine on dyno

Nissan Prince GT circuit racer

A glimpse of motorsport history from the Prince Car manufacturer. This 1963 era 2ltr six cylinder factory engine reputedly made 150HP in its heyday.

The first GT-R Skyline appeared in February 1969. Called the PGC-10 (KPGC-10 for later coupé version) internally. It used the 2.0L (1998cc) S20I6. This new DOHC engine (which was designed by the former Prince engineers) produced 160hp (118kW, 180Nm), and was similar to the GR8 engine used in the Prince R380 racing car.

The GT-R began as a sedan, but a 2-door coupé version was debuted in October 1970 and introduced in March 1971. The cars were stripped of unnecessary equipment to be as light as possible for racing, and performed well at the track. The sedan racked up 33 victories in less than two years, and the coupé stretched this to 50 through 1972.

Datsun LZ20 restored to glory

LZ20B ready to goLZ18 Nissan engines first came to Australia for the 1975 Southern Cross International Rally powering two works Datsun Violet 710s - in some countries known as the Datsun 160J.

The LZ is an interesting concoction from Nissan in that it was a custom-built twin cam, 4-valve head with a narrow valve angle, atop a modified L18B bottom end. Camshafts are driven by a chain of 7 gears and 3 sprockets with a short chain at the top, and all this hardware produced a characteristic rattle at low revs in the rally version, due to high lift valves but conservative timing. At first experience this rattle was rather disconcerting but became endearing to the many fans who followed the golden era of Australian rallying in which this engine played a staring role.

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