Southern Skyline Enthusiasts (SSE) member Brendan Austin, of Dunedin, said his love affair with the sports car began when he was a ‘‘little fella’’ watching Skyline GT-Rs beat V8 super cars in Australia’s Bathurst 1000.
The attraction was so great he had the Nissan logo tattooed on his chest.
‘‘It’s a lifestyle for me.’’
His three flatmates also owned Skylines, he said.
He enjoyed the ‘‘ease’’ of being able to work on his 1989 Skyline.
‘‘It’s on its fourth engine and third gearbox — I’ve done everything myself.’’
Many Skyline owners were attracted to the vehicle because of its ability to do ‘‘burnouts, make noise and go fast’’, giving responsible owners like him a bad name.
‘‘In the wrong hands, a Skyline can be deadly — there’s no crash rating, there’s no airbags. If you crash, you’re gone.’’
SSE president Andrew Webster, of Dunedin, said the cruise would meet at the car park near Dunedin Ice Stadium in St Kilda from 10am and set off on a cruise somewhere in the wider Dunedin area at 10.30am.
The cruise was open to any make and model of vehicle but he hoped vehicles from the ‘‘Skyline family’’ would attend the cruise for the first time.
The club was considering putting in a club display at the Taieri Wings and Wheels show next month and needed more cars to make a display.
He assured people considering the cruise, the group was ‘‘not a boy racer club, doing illegal stuff and wearing hoodies with caps underneath’’.
Some past participants in the free, family-friendly cruise were aged in their 50s, he said.
