ABOUT THE BLRA-3 PRINCE SKYLINE

In the early 60′s, the Skyline was to take another path. Autumn of 1960 the Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti was asked by Prince, to design for them a Coupe for the Skyline range. The result was the BLRA-3 Prince Skyline Sport. This car became commercially available to the public in April of 1962. It was available in both Hardtop (R21A) and Convertible (R21B) forms.

The Sport ran the same GB4 engine and using the chassis of the BLSI-3, the wheelbase was identical to all previous models of Skyline but the shell was wider, longer, though obviously a sight shorter than it’s predecessors.
It used the same GB4 1900cc engine but compression was bumped up from 8.0 to 8.5, giving the Sport a scratch more ps and torque, to match it’s sleeker & faster appearance. It also made use of 15″ rims instead of the standard Skyline 14″ fare.

MODELS (VERY BASICS)
BLRA-3 Hardtop - 1.9 L GB30 I4, ??? hp
BLRA-3 Convertable - 1.9 L GB30 I4, ??? hp

The Skyline Sport became more well known in recent times through it’s inclusion in the PlayStation “Gran Turismo” series. GT4 can see you taking the drivers seat in the BLRA-3, throwing on some aftermarket alloys and biffing it sideways around Tsukuba and many other international race-tracks.

This method of driving one is about as close as most people will ever get, as on it’s release the Skyline Sport was only for an exclusive number of wealthy people. Due to the commission of one of the periods most famous Italian Automotive Craftsmen, the hand made bodywork and interior leather also handformed in Italy. Were all contributing factors in the price of the Skyline Sport being far larger than that of other Japanese cars at the time and out of the reach of most.

Main thanks: www.retro-classics.co.nz