[INFOGRAPHIC] Take A Look At 30 Years Of Hits For Nissan's High-Performance Division

Some of the greatest leaps forward in automotive history have comes as a result of motorsports.

Usually, these innovations can be attributed to a group of engineering wizards tucked away at a carmaker's high-performance racing division. For Mercedes-Benz, it's AMG. For BMW, it's the M division. And for Nissan, it's NISMO.

For Ferrari...well, for Ferrari the legendary Scuderia Ferrari comes first. There's no tucking anything away.

Since its creation in 1984, NISMO (short for Nissan Motorsports) has prepared the Japanese automaker's numerous high performance marvels. Over the past 30 years, everything from Nissan's iconic Z-cars to the gorgeous Ian Callum-designed R390 GT1 Le Mans racer have gotten the "NISMO" treatment.

However, NISMO's greatest and most enduring achievement may be its work with Skyline GT-R. NISMO unleashed its racing know-how on Nissan's already speedy Skyline GT-R and turned it into a racing icon. In the late 80s and early 90s, the Skyline GT-R dominated Japan's ultra-competitive touring championships so completely that the racing series changed their rules to even the playing field. In the process, the NISMO-tuned monster became known to its adoring fans as simply, "Godzilla."

Take a look a this timeline of NISMO's greatest hits: