I’ll Never Be As Cool As Paul Newman Blocking Traffic Next To A Nissan Skyline While Eating An Apple

While we got plenty of Paul Newmans here in America, we never really got Nissan Skylines, which is, of course, a horrific crime. In Japan, though, they faced no such deprivation: American generosity provided them with all the Paul Newman they could want, and, of course, they had Skylines. Sometimes, even, these things intersected in magical ways, like the New-Man Skylines.

I wasn’t aware of the New-Man Skylines until The Bishop showed me this wonderful ad of the actor, an apple, and an R30 Skyline, the sixth generation of the car, introduced in 1981.

There’s a lot of subtle things going on in this ad, so we should give it a good look here:

We have Paul Newman, dressed casually in pleated chinos and a light jacket, standing smack dab in the middle of a lane of the road, eating what appears to be an apple. It’s a rainy day, and based on the position of the car and the fact that Paul there is just hanging out in the middle of the road, one could be forgiven for assuming that the Skyline had broken down, somehow, which I suspect is very much not the intent of the ad.

The Skyline also features a rear window wiper, something we rarely see on a notchback/sedan/coupé type of car, at least in America, and it’s also wearing a Connecticut license plate, which is a little confusing, since, as I said, we never got these in America, and the setting appears to be a road in Japan.

Here’s what the copy of the ad says, robot-translated:

“Touring Spirit.

The Skyline has a heart that loves driving.

Touring, the joy of riding. Skyline has always pursued this wonderful world. A seat that doesn’t tire you even after long rides, a horizontal circuit meter. Skyline’s unique “human mechanism” was born from a heart that loves touring. The world’s first electronically controlled ignition system, the “Plasma Spark Series,” is the new heart of the car.

GT Catalogue Monitor Information Request Ticket If you would like a catalogue or more detailed information on the SW Skyline GT, please open the enclosed envelope and send it to the following address: Nissan Prince Co., Ltd., Publicity Department, 3-5-26 Mita, Minato-ku, 108, Nissan Prince Co., Ltd., c/o “GT Catalogue Monitor.”

I’m not sure what they mean by “horizontal circuit meter,” but it sure sounds cool. This era of Skyline became known as the New-Man Skyline, with that hyphen getting introduced into the actor’s name I guess just to emphasize how the car would make one feel new, man? I’m not sure.

There was a whole Paul Newman edition Skyline in 1983, which was basically the high-end GT-ES Turbo with Paul Newman autographs stuck on the outside (look just in front of the rear wheel) and embroidered on the seats.

Paul Newman did all sorts of commercials for the Skyline, too, and sort of became the face of the R30, at least in Japan. Like this one, where you get to feel what it’d be like if Paul Newman was your neighbor and watched you through your windows:

I’m curious to know where this one was shot, because it looks like it could be America?

This one puts Paul in a tux, the required formalwear for looking out over a balcony. And there’s a bit where he looks to be in a JDM car, a RHD one, driving in Japan, but there’s an old Checker cab behind him?

So many mysteries!

Skylines are already wildly cool, and associations with Paul Newman can only just add to that. It’s a lot of cool for one car to carry, but I think it can handle it. Still, I’ll check the horizontal circuit meter to be sure.